Trump-Biden: Debate skill has nothing to do with being president

Internal options might be best for Des Moines police chief

If my memory is correct, I think the past several chiefs for the Des Moines Police Department were from the ranks of the department and all were very successful. So why spend thousands of dollars to hire an outside search firm to search for one. The mayor and council members should be the search firm and look at their own officers in the department. I'm sure there are several who would qualify for the position.

These officers put their lives on the line every single day to "protect and serve" the people of Des Moines so why not reward one of them with a promotion? You would get someone who knows the city, knows the residents, and knows the rest of the officers in the department.

A search firm would probably find someone who had never heard of Des Moines until the firm contacted them.

You hire the best qualified and don't need to inject politics or wokeism into the process. It doesn't make any difference whether you are black, brown, white, yellow, male, or female.

You hire the best qualified, period.

Mark Nord, Polk City

Debate skill has nothing to do with being president

With all due respect to tradition, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and everyone who has debated opponents during election campaigns, the battle of sound bites is no way to test a candidate’s ability to serve as president.

Presidents are essentially CEOs. They bring together teams of people who advise them, manage agencies, and collectively solve big problems facing the country. Sure, presidents have to make big decisions, but they do so in context and in collaboration. They may use sound bites to rationalize their actions to an only marginally attentive public, but their decisions bubble up from a collaborative process dominated by team-based analysis.

Big life-and-death decisions are risky in direct proportion to whether executives act on impulse or on discipline. The debate stage bears no relationship to a candidate’s eventual behavior in office. Most questions they are asked beg for “it all depends” as the most disciplined and thoughtful response.

But the showbiz circus the media (and much of the public) demand won’t accept a thoughtful candidate’s balancing and weighing a legitimately complex answer. There really is no point to a “debate” that bears no resemblance to a test of presidential competence.

We already know as much as we need to about how Joe Biden and Donald Trump perform in office. The “debate” will only encourage both to fling sound bites around and preen for the cameras to no good purpose. I won’t watch.

David Leslie, West Des Moines

Regulate pharmacy benefit managers

Health care is a nonpartisan, "everyday" American issue. I have extra experience due to a career in environmental, health and safety management. We can and do debate costs whether we're in a "health plan" or privately insured. Yes, we understand that research for new or improved "meds" and ensuring quality in the product is paramount, but that does not justify unnecessary costs via "pharmacy benefit managers," or PBMs.

PBMs are not carrying out research efforts; they are simply a middleman of minimal importance. Just three of these hidden cost sources control the market, choose which drugs will be "covered" by insurance and what you and I must pay. That is un-American and counter to the free market!

In 2023, over a thousand meds were denied access to being eligible for coverage. This raises prices and lessens choices. Even worse, especially in rural states like Iowa, small local, independent pharmacies are driven out of business.

There is a partial solution, however. Let Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and your U.S. representative know you want to see passage of the "DRUG Act," which will require transparency and accountability from the PBMs. Remember, even if your employer contributes to your health coverage or you're retired and on Medicare, rising drug prices ultimately affect your income and taxes.

Gerald Edgar, Garner

Donald Trump committed crimes

It is a crime to donate $130,000 to a presidential campaign to keep damaging information from going public right before an election. That’s the main reason Donald Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, went to prison for three years. Why should the guy who had him do that get away with it? Especially since Trump has been proved to have committed criminal fraud to cover it all up.

When Trump says he did nothing wrong, ask why he directed his lawyer to do what sent him to prison.

Bill Blum, West Des Moines

Parental notification requirement can take away a safe space

Teachers and administrators must inform parents if their children wish to be called by another name or pronoun at school. “It is a parent’s right to know,” insists the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds. They want us to believe that it has absolutely nothing to do with their party’s war on the LGBTQ+ community.

I wonder what will be the next thing that the Legislature thinks parents have a right to know. Perhaps the school must report to the parents if their child is holding hands in the hallway with another student. Or maybe if the student is reading a non-school book that was questionable in the government’s estimation. Or possibly they will craft a law that demands that the school notify the parents before the Department of Health and Human Services if their child accuses them of abuse. After all, don’t the parents have a right to know?

The school already alerts parents about academic difficulties, absences, and misbehaviors. If the school has reason to believe that there is bullying or a student is considering self-harm, parents are called. These are reasonable expectations. Unfortunately, this prejudicial law is designed to drive a wedge through the trust that is needed between students and their teachers and counselors. All this law does is take away one more safe place for our LGBTQ+ students.

Barbara Persoon, Pleasantville

Religious displays are already all over classrooms

Aren't Black Lives Matter and gay pride religions? Motifs from both of those are plastered all over schools. Kids in America are in serious need of moral guidance.

A decade ago, I would have opposed the Ten Commandments display in Louisiana, but not now. Let's inject a dose of patriotism into these classrooms, as well!

Scott R. Hammond, Des Moines

Better messages for Louisiana schools

Instead of placing the Ten Commandments in all classrooms in Louisiana, they might consider instead "The Beatitudes" (Matthew 5), as well as the "Character Counts" message, and finally the Prayer of St. Francis.

Janis Oswald, Altoona

Thank a service member this Independence Day

This Fourth of July, I encourage you to show honor and support to a service member, active or retired, with a generous thank you. Send a note, an email, or even a gift card for those who have sacrificed in so many ways so that we can live freely in our country, a republic. As a great grandchild, a daughter, a wife, and a mother of military service members, I know firsthand how much has been given so we can have freedom. Courageous and humbleness are not words I use lightly, but for sure, they reflect the hearts of most service members that I know. They carry burdens that most of us can not imagine. This also includes our Blue Line members and health care providers who daily protect, and put their lives on the line for our communities.

I also highly encourage you to exhibit kindness, thoughtfulness and general respect for each other as we go forward in this volatile time of our republic. My generation was fortunate to have teachers who came home from World War II, and used the GI Bill to restructure and enrich their lives. They could have been spreading their hate, such as we’re seeing on campuses and in the streets today. Thankfully, they chose peace, respect, appreciation, in part because they saw the direct evidence of hate that came from evil, and with great courage, they countered, fought and overcame. They are our heroes. Choose the light of love not darkness.

Pat Beatty, Vinton

Carbon pipeline will strain water resources

From camping and hiking across Iowa’s state parks to volunteering at Windsor Heights’ Earth Day stream cleanup, you’ll hear the same warning: “Stay away from the water, we don’t know what’s in it.” Donnelle Eller’s recent story “Carbon pipeline foes say it would use billions of gallons of Iowa water resources annually” summarizes new research from the Sierra Club estimating the amount of water that carbon pipelines projects are expected to consume annually if approved. The conclusions of their report are dire: Summit’s pipeline alone would deplete our state of 3.36 billion gallons of water annually.

When Iowa’s water utilities are already being driven to the brink of collapse by fertilizer spills, pesticides, and massive amounts of manure run off, the cost of these proposed carbon pipelines is unacceptable. We need our elected officials, like my representative, Jennifer Konfrst, to take immediate action to oppose these reckless “climate solving” pipeline scams. I am calling on Konfrst to sign Food & Water Action’s No Pipeline Money Pledge and assert in no uncertain terms that carbon pipelines have no place in our beautiful state and dirty pipeline money has no place in our democratic elections.

Mohsina Mandil, Windsor Heights

Maid-Rites are awful

I smiled when I read the article in the Register about Maid-Rite sandwiches.  The headline was “Have you ever had a Maid Rite loose meat sandwich?”

I thought, “Yep, once when I first moved to Iowa in 1997. I tried one of those sandwiches once and swore I would never have another.” I remember it well because it was the first time I couldn’t finish even one so-called sandwich. By far, it was the worst excuse for a sandwich I had ever had, and I’ve had a multi-layered NJ deli sandwich called a sloppy Joe, made with tongue.   I wondered how such an abomination could still be selling. And they’re still in business.

Might I be wrong.  I think not, but that is just one person’s view.

Bob Brown, Ankeny

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Trump-Biden: Debate skill has nothing to do with being president