Opinion : Letter to the Editor: Transition - WOKEness - Normal

By Vinton Today · March 22, 2023, 12:30 am

Dear Editor:

So we are to think that the transition of males to females and females to males is normal??

Chemical castration of males before puberty is not Child Abuse??

Amputation of Female breasts and surgical removal of healthy ovaries before female maturity is normal?

Drag queen shows for oung children and pornographic materials in open sections of our public libraries are O.K.? Is this where the WOKE culture is taking us?

Parents need to stand up and protect their children from the unscrupulous.

Regards,

John Stiegelmeyer

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DE March 22, 2023, 2:46 am Define "woke".

Oh, I know you can Google it. And you know that you had to.

SL March 22, 2023, 12:50 pm Well said John.

JW March 22, 2023, 1:57 pm I'm disappointed by the standards Vinton Today, as a publication, exercises by way of editorial quality. The nature of Op-Ed is to put forth thoughtful or creative narratives, allowing informed points of view to be spotlit for a community to consider.

The 3/22/23 "letter to the editor," in my opinion, lobs claims and aggressively asserts moral and legal wrongdoings without basing them in actual fact and full context. I believe it fails to demonstrate a well-informed intellectual process. Instead, it claims a philosophical high ground that's actually evidence of a lack of effort to understand the lived experiences of other people. It's failure to look at the societal constructs we have normalized yet are really inequities or aggressions against people who may look or behave differently.

To the author's article, I ask: Why do you care about what a person chooses to do with their own body? Why do you care about how they see themselves and their sexuality? Why do you concern yourself with what someone else, hopefully in collaboration with a supportive family and friend base, decide to do with their own physiology and biology? What value do you think the article provided to readers?

I request that you provide evidence of the alleged pornographic materials you purport are in open sections of our public libraries. I've not found these on our shelves. On the issue of drag queens, allow me to ask: Are you familiar with the Victoria Secret fashion show? The Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar? The wall calendars featuring half-dressed women draped over muscle cars or motorcycles? This is all normalized sexual exploitation that some people think is appropriate, acceptable, and suitable for plying to the public for economic gain. Children of all ages are directly, repeatedly exposed to this content each week in overt and subtle ways. I hazard far fewer people under age 18 ever witness a drag show.

I encourage the author please reconsider "acceptable" culture to better understand the hypocrisy and double standard I believe to be presented in the article.

I appreciate this opportunity to put forward this dissenting point of view, thank you.

DL March 22, 2023, 2:03 pm Which of the 498 definitions for "Wokeness" are you using here?

Which definition of "normal" are you going for?

Based on different laws passed, in the last 3 years, by the maga crowd, a parent isn't capable of "child abuse". At least not with their own children. During the pandemic, the popular opinion, on the maga side, was that "Parents know what is right for their children". Better than a doctor or scientist know about healthcare, better than any education official knows about what children need to learn (I bet the majority of maga parents don't even think K-12 is even necessary, other than for babysitting).

I bet you didn't bother to look any further into the drag show issue, down in Florida. The first headlines came out saying that the posters for the event were advertising that " children" were allowed. After the dust settled, it was revealed that the posters said that 18 and up were allowed. If a parent wanted to bring their 17 year old child, it was welcome. But both had to stay present together or leave together. It also said that other children were welcome, with parents, if the parents see fit. That sounds like maga rules.

(I seem to recall that your son participated in the "Powder Puff Cheerleader Day" when he was a senior in high school.

I doubt, very much, that any Public Library had pornographic material in their building. But, I guess maga probably has different meanings for pornography too.

Cheers

MP March 22, 2023, 3:54 pm The state of our society right now..
"Everyone did what was right in their own eyes."
Stated seven times in the Book of Judges.
We have lost our moral compass.

JS March 22, 2023, 6:53 pm So it is O.K. to chemically castrate a male before puberty? It's O.K. to amputate a female breast and surgically remove her ovaries. Because he or she thinks they are the opposite before their minds reach any level of maturity? Its O.K. to have pornographic materials in our public libraries? I say now and have always said these young people should wait - do not do anything that can not be reversed. You may change your mind and then find it is too late. Changing birth sexes is against Nature's Law and God's law. Don't do it! That too will pass. Those that encourage surgical sex changes on our children are evil.

Thinking that you are a cucumber; doesn't make you a cucumber. -- “Capiche”?

Regards,
John Stiegelmeyer

PK March 23, 2023, 8:10 pm JW...Might I remind you that this is Vinton, Iowa. In some ways we're like Mayberry..You know Andy and Barney and Aunt Bea. I don't believe any of us wrote for the New York Times or any large newspaper. I was just a better-than-average English teacher in a small school district in Kansas. Back home here since 2007. We're fairly ordinary people with opinions...kicking stuff around. Gets a bit heated now and then, but we don't mean to write "editorials," just what we believe in.

GB March 23, 2023, 9:43 pm Well put John! No, it is not normal. There are a few studies (the few that have been done) which indicate higher than "normal" depression and deep regret years later. Juveniles might claim to know what they want in life but often change their mind several times. These "woke" groups and medical staff who are performing anything related to a sex change should be tried and convicted for sexual abuse of a child/ minor regardless of what state they are in. There is a reason why minors can't vote or buy alcohol before a more mature age. They make really poor decisions in life and usually regret those decisions later in life. These teachers who push a "woke" agenda on students should be investigated for custodial interference and charged accordingly. It's time to get the clown show out of our schools. It's not that many years back that the mentally and ethically challenged individuals (I'm confident at least one will respond to this) would have been institutionalized in a mental facility for their disturbing and perverted views. The same people who call these sick and immoral "normal" are the same idiots trying to convince everyone else that men should give birth to babies and the child's father should be a woman. It does not require a great deal of mental stability to know that is not right or normal. Even a chicken can figure that out and they have a brain the size of a pea. That should quickly tell us a lot about the mental giants who somehow will argue with these facts.

NG March 24, 2023, 12:35 am John, how many of the children who have had these surgeries you are talking about do you actually know? I am guessing none and that is because it is none of your business. If it concerns your children or grandchildren then you can be involved. You do not live with these children and have no idea what their lives are like. I am pretty sure they are being bullied in school and now their care is being taken away. Good job republicans, NOT It should be something they discuss with their parents and the government should stay out of it, the same way they should stay out of women's healthcare.

Reynolds is just as bad as DeSantis having the government interfere in children's lives. What happened to the republicans always wanting smaller government? That is not the case anymore. I think Reynolds is working to become the VP for whichever republican wins the primary. She is trying to be too much like DeSantis.

Remember all the BS that Reynolds gets passed and the destruction she does to this state and its children is what you republicans voted for. I sure as he$$ did not vote for her. Someone has to pay for all the harm she is doing, guess it will be the children. Republicans are responsible and all the parents need to remember that when they can no longer get the children the help they need, and no I do not mean surgery. There is a lot more involved than surgery.

Norma Gould

PK March 24, 2023, 9:38 am NG...Happy you're back, but like before, you are...I'm not sure what the correct word is for you. Maybe in your vast vocabulary, you can select it. As of yesterday, JOE BIDEN'S RATING IS 38%, and that's inflated!! Like his head when he's patting himself on the back for the grand job he's doing. LAUGH...LAUGH!!!

And get off your DeSantis jag!! You'll be seeing him for TWO TERMS. Biden will be watching TikTok from his rocking chair and paying off the loan on his beach house.

Ta...Ta!!!

PK March 24, 2023, 11:25 am Actually, you could find pornography in the library here or anywhere else. In fact, the Victorian Era was one of the biggest pornographic times in history. Despite the passing of the Obscene Publication Act or because of it. To say
"arms" or "legs" of a chair"...Horrors!! So...Go to the library, and pick up a copy of Middlemarch, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, or The Picture of Dorian Gray. You are indeed picking up pornography, but from a different era.

NG March 24, 2023, 2:30 pm As far as regrets after having trans surgery here is some info: In a review of 27 studies involving almost 8,000 teens and adults who had transgender surgeries, mostly in Europe, the U.S and Canada, 1% on average expressed regret. For some, regret was temporary, but a small number went on to have detransitioning or reversal surgeries, the 2021 review said. Mar 5, 2023

Research suggests that very few transgender people who undergo gender-affirmation surgery regret their decision.

Gender-affirmation surgery is one approach to help individuals with gender dysphoria transition from their sex assigned at birth to the gender they identify with.

I have an idea for you Peggy, stop with the name calling. Then you don't have to come up with a "correct word" for me.

Norma Gould

The majority of people in this country do not like what DeSantis is doing to Florida and will never vote for him to be president. He has already made comments about Ukraine that he has now walked back. He is just proving how inept he is. Florida is getting ready to pass a new gun regulation--anyone can carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Going back to the wild wild west in Florida, which tells a lot of people to not go there. Disney is planning on holding the "Out and Equal Workplace Summit" at Disney in Sept. That should piss off DeSantis a bit.

PK March 27, 2023, 8:37 am NG...Wherever you get your facts about DeSantis and Americans not liking him, you better dig deeper. But what can I expect from a confused Biden supporter?