Letters & Interactions

LV encourages community members, including candidates for office, to submit letters to Editor@LittleVillageMag.com. To be considered for print publication, letters should be under 500 words. Preference is given to letters that have not been published elsewhere.

A response to the article “Hacklebarney Brown” from the February issue:

DEar GrEG BrOWN, Friends in Iowa have sent news of your retirement. It saddens me to know your “slant six mind and a super-charged heart” won’t be bringing us new songs. But it is a blessing to have your music play on in my life.

Your music gave me succor through a divorce and in turn, was the soundtrack to better times. Like “Letters from Europe” when I moved to Poland in 2006. I still get a kick out of how you imagine being born in Central Europe in “Eugene.”

Those smallmouth are great on a fly rod / They’re not all finicky like trout / Trout are English and bass are Polish / And if I wasn’t born in Central Europe / I should have been

The lyrics that reecho in my mind are too numerous to voice here. Hence, I will simply thank you for enriching my life by playing “the poet game.” Overall, your songs remind me that “this life is a thump-ripe melon, so sweet and such a mess.”

May your retirement be as full of the wisdom, humor, verve, and love that graced your songs.

Liebe Grüße, Matt Kollasch, Berlin, Germany

Hundreds rally for LGBTQ Day on the Hill, protesting bills ‘meant to scare us back into the closet’ (Feb. 2)

My partner was at Day on the Hill, and after coming home and sobbing about how awful our rep was, we’re seriously considering leaving for MN. A whole family of trans people who love our community and our town and our little house forced to leave because fascism is running wild. It’s been an incredibly hard few days. —M.C.

Gov. Reynolds boasts about her anti-LGBTQ school policies, calls for new law restricting students’ access to books conservatives don’t like (Feb. 3)

I don’t understand how this is legal. This is obviously discriminatory. Isn’t this against federal law?? Speaking of which, how are we justifying school vouchers? How can we justify using public money to send kids to schools with discriminatory policies?? —Kristy

Even if we take his vile comments at face value, it would seem he’s suggesting that people with mental disabilities don’t have rights and don’t deserve protections under the law. —Ben C.

Bringing in national hate groups to further a discriminatory, bigoted agenda…no surprise. Bet they show up on the campaign contribution list. Reynolds & her minions are literally in their own basket of deplorable. —Jessica R.

Pole to pole: Visiting every Des Moines strip club in one night (Feb. 6)

We don’t deserve this level of journalism. Finally, a culture aficionado writing in the city of Des Moines. —Nate M.

Please, pay Max to work a night shift and write part 2. —Ciara J.

I’m glad you did this, so I won’t have to.

Peter S.

Revival’s vibrators are a bestseller — and spreading good vibes about sexual wellness (Feb. 13)

Life is more fun with a vibrator. —Revival Iowa City

The Dame products are soooooo good.

Jessica D.

Groups will rally in Cedar Rapids to support transgender kids, while Mike Pence campaigns at CR Pizza Ranch (Feb. 14)

It was a great turnout! —Susan M.

In full support of those protesting Pence’s callous and cruel intolerance. Shame on Pizza Ranch! —Michael M.

And remember, the [co-]founder of Pizza Ranch pleaded guilty to sexually abusing teen employees. If Pence and the PAC sponsoring this actually cared about protecting children, they sure are picking an odd venue for it. Great for bullying people in a completely different school district who can’t get there in time though. —Geoffrey J.

Let it be clear that this manufactured cul-

Momboy Lauren Haldeman

ture war is bullshit - transgender people have for long existed and have not been some major problem until, conveniently, now they are seen as such by a political party struggling to maintain its hold on power. Ignore every attempt by these conservative “activists” to convince you they’re “only in it for the children” - they would knowingly condemn trans kids to unnecessarily hopeless lives, alienating them from the care they need, meanwhile peddling rhetoric that fetishistically obsesses over the genitals of transgender youth and adults. This attempt to dehumanize transgender people, whose only crime is to affirm their humanity and expand their conception of the self to more appropriately fit all that a person is, must be repudiated so strongly as though it were fascism unmasked. —B.Y.

Your Village: Why there’s a statue of a nude woman facing the Iowa State Capitol (Feb. 15)

Don’t tell Moms For Liberty. —Kristine T.D.

Personals

You know how Rose in Titanic runs through the corridors yelling, “Jack! Jack! Jack!” Rosie the dog mayyy do something similar when you leave the house. But let her in, and she will never let go of your heart. A vocal 1.5-year-old cattle dog mix, Rosie can’t wait to get on-leash for a long walk on the beach (or anywhere, really). Could this spunky jet-black beauty be your lifelong love? Inquire with the Iowa City Animal Center: 319-356-5295, icanimalcenter.org

Send

Why couldn’t it be a fountain. —Celine R.

Greg Brown, Iowa’s contribution to folk music mythology, reflects before retirement (Feb. 16)

Kembrew, you’ve outdone yourself.

Todd K.

I saw his interview [in the Gazette] where he said he no longer sings the “Iowa Waltz” because it’s not true anymore (“we take care of our old, we take care of our young”). —J.L.W.

A speech that inspired us...

Hi, I’m 11. I’m still growing and figuring out who I am, who I could be. I believe all kids deserve to feel safe in school. That is why I founded the gender and sexuality alliance at my elementary school. I wanted there to be a place for kids who, like me, were interested in learning more about who they are and the world they live in. It’s easier for me in my house who accepts and appreciates me for who I am and who I have become. All kids should be able to grow and learn about who they are. It’s important to let kids decide when and how they come out. Don’t erase me or my experience from any language or books. Don’t erase my queer friends or our queer heroes. We deserve the right to be who we are when we are ready, at home, at school, and everywhere in between. —Noa, an Iowa student, speaking during a hearing for Senate Study Bill 1145, which would require school districts to out students questioning their gender or sexuality to their parents, and forbid certain books and lessons addressing gender identity