Letter to the Editor: Magg is young and passionate about serving

I was raised like many other Iowans, in a small town, and in the church. All these years later, the main takeaways were that people should come together to try to be better people, care for the people around them and live out the messages of Jesus. I was fortunate also to have both sets of my grandparents just a short bicycle ride away on gravel roads. One set were hardworking Republican farmers, the other hardworking Democrats. The value of education was understood. The future felt bright.

I also grew up among the whispers about young girls being impregnated by relatives, young women subject to sexual assault and coercion, and the heartbreak of avoidable pre-Roe v. Wade women’s deaths from pregnancy complications. Sadly, those issues are still with us now. The days of controlling women, hating people for who they love, gutting collective bargaining for workers, giving away our hard-earned tax dollars to wealthy and private interests need to stop. That’s common sense. That’s freedom. The only way we’re going to get to a place where we all matter and our systems and policies reflect that is to vote for Democrats up and down the ticket. Locally, that means supporting Brad Magg and his platform of common sense and compassion for all people, plus he has bonafide public service experience, has a whole lot of business cred, and he’s young and passionate about serving.

Iowa’s cancer rates are second worst in the nation, and our water is massively polluted. The gutting of Iowa’s AEA system, the massive give-away of taxpayer money to for-profit interests, and the ever-decreasing support for our public schools needs to stop. And don’t get me started about how much the Republicans in Iowa love eminent domain for private gain.

We all want freedom of religion, but now we need freedom from it as well. There are many Christian denominations out there. Why should we all be kept to a narrow standard of particular ones that seek social control according to their narrow terms, including Jon Dunwell’s? He told me in person that he “likes the Heritage Foundation” the organization behind plans to dismantle public education, voting rights, hard-fought rights for workers/women/non-whites, consumer protections, and much more.

Let’s use the ballot box to offer freedom and opportunity to all our citizens. That means we vote blue to preserve democracy.

Elaine Mattingly

Newton