Scott Cawelti

About Scott Cawelti -

Scott Cawelti was born and raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He taught writing, film, and literature at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) from 1968-2008, and has written regular opinion columns and reviews for the Waterloo / Cedar Falls Courier since the late 1970s.  He played for years in a folk duo with Robert James Waller and still regularly performs as a singer/guitarist/songwriter. Scott continues to teach as an adjunct instructor at UNI.

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  • HEARST SONG PERFORMANCE INVITATION

    • Posted on Mar 27, 2013 by Scott Cawelti
    Next Wednesday noon, April 3rd, I will be performing several Hearst Songs from my "Landscape Iowa" CD at the BLACK'S SKY ROOM in downtown Waterloo.  

    This event is sponsored by Humanities Iowa, so is free and open to the public.  Come and enjoy a discussion of Jim Hearst as a farmer, poet, teacher, as well as hear some of his poems set to music.  This is part of the Silos and Smokestacks 2013 "Golden Silo" Awards luncheon from noon to 1:30.   

    If you would like to purchase lunch ($15.00) you can enjoy both a catered lunch and music, but you're welcome and encouraged to attend the performance whether you purchase lunch or not.   This will be a great time, I'm sure.

    Go comment!
  • Mad Taxpayer's Anonymous Reply

    • Posted on Mar 25, 2013 by Scott Cawelti

    Monday, March 25, 2013 

    Over the years I’ve received probably a dozen or so letters from the same Courier reader who hates my column, seems to hate me, or at least everything I stand for.  She/He (I do believe it’s a “she,” but you can decide for yourself) calls Democrats “Democraps” and cites God as her authority for her “common sense.”  

    Until this most recent letter received last week, I didn’t even open them after the first couple, since they were angry screeds that repeated her certainties, and attacked me in ways that I dismissed as basically deranged. 

     Her anonymity means that I couldn’t do much about responding.  If she had identified herself, would reply, cordially at first and with questions. But her anonymity made that impossible. 

    Thanks to Facebook and my web site, I now have an opportunity to shine a public light on her letters, and to remind readers that people like this do exist, and woe be to all of us if they decide to act out their anger. 

    The letter did come to my home address via the U.S. postal service, so she knows where I live, and wishes me dead in the letter, in so many words.   Kind of disconcerting, actually.   

     She includes my column on the left side of the page, uses a magic marker to circle and number passages she wants to comment upon, then uses the right side of the page to offer her comments. 


     The letters all basically rail about abortion, “democraps” and why taxpayers are getting a raw deal.  Republicans can do no wrong, and she hates professors for being “over-educated.”   She also despises welfare cheats, and would reinstate capital punishment for—well, see the end of her letter.  

     Her reveals a cruel, mean, incoherent, angry person, full of certainty about her own cause and opinions, and full of fury and venom toward everyone outside her very small zone of approval.  If  she’s like this in reality, I feel nothing but sympathy for those who must live and deal with this level of meanness.  If she’s living a hypocritical life, which is very possible, she might be a nice next-door neighbor.  

    Here is most of her letter, transcribed as it arrived sometime last week.  I attempted to reproduce her underlining and capital letters to give the flavor of her emphasis.

     

    ***********************************************************

    ENVELOPE: 

    God Bless America!

    We need something !

    WORLD PROBLEM? 

    The whole world’s too far from God; but, God has NOT moved.

    We have.  What was wrong, (of God) is now O.K. 

     P. 1Mr. Cawelti,

                Sorry I have no computer; ONLY Christianity & common sense. I’ll T-R-Y to be neat and legible.

                I have NOT taken your ASS to the woodshed in a while.   This one today was the straw that broke the camel’s back,

                IF you need a book to tell you WHY we need Christians and common sense—I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU!!!

                All that is extinct is the morals & values & common sense of the democraps.

    (EVEN THE “RATS” KNOW BETTER THAN TO KILL THEIR UNBORN BABIES.)

                Do you remember your “PRO CHOICE TO KILL lesson?  Too bad your mother was not pro-choice to kill—we’d not have you to try to lead us of satan’s ways.

                Sorry, Scott. . . Christians do NOT kill the unborn babies. 

                They solve the problem. TEACH morals & values, and SEX IS MARRIED LOVE and not a kid’s toy.  [Name of young woman who was kidnapped and murdered]  (& others) on

     

    p. 2:

    computer hunting sexy old men at 10-11-12-13 years old.  WHERE are the parents? Problem is NOT kids.  (It’s parents)

    Young gals get a taste of sex and go wild.  Men have car, money, experience, etc. & adventure.  [parents of murdered girl] divorced and BOTH collected B-I-G $$ for her death.  She was & never would have  been anything, but a WHORE. 

                Thank God, she’s G-O-N-E.  Competition is good.

                Competition is needed, B-U-T APATHY is killing America.  We must pay attention.

                Vote the BAD ones out. 

                harkin, barley, gronstahl, & murphy. and many more.  Danielson is trash, only mouthy trash.

                Republicans act like adults!! Where’s your brain?  Return to mainstream?  Like demos? never.  If we had more Grassleys, Dixes, Thunes, Ryans, etc. we’d NOT have a 16 Trillion $$$ debt.

                Scott, do you realize how much ONE trillion $$$ is? 

                It is one million one dollars on a pile, and ONE million of those piles.

     

    p. 3: 

                One million.  (Got yours made?) $$ is a lots of $$$ & MOST people go all through life, and do not amass one million $$$; or even come close to ½ of ¼ or 1/10.

                But, as I say:

                Can you take it with you?  Have you ever seen a U-haul behind a hearse?  Nope.

    p.s. Not even smart, clever, over-educated professors have that TRICKY one figured out. 

                Leave the LIES to the demos whenever Obama, the muslim out to destroy and bankrupt America opens his mouth—LIES, LIES, LIES & all wind.  The man (insult to men) knows nothing & has led nothing.

                IF we are extremists when Christian & use common sense. . .so be it.  God expects it. 

                For demos; anything goes.

                6 values?  Yes.  Care, justice, liberty, loyalty, authority & sanctity. AND “TRUTH”.  Bengazi LIES.  Guns from Mexico? MORE LIES.

                demos have NONE. Obama is killing the middle class, so all are welfare trash, & want his monthly check, free health insurance, Human Services bill is 1.69 Billion $$ (up 30.8 Mili $$)

     

    p. 4: 

                Yikes.  WHO is left to pay the bill so he (the BIG SHOT because he cares can hand it out?

                Oh, what a line of SHIT! [referring to a paragraph in the column]

                If demos care, hand out own $$$, not MY tax dollars.  tax $$$ are only to run the government!! Sorry.

                JUSTICE?  Do you call that justice when unborns are killed by mother & doctor? Don’t doctors take a Hippocratic oath to save every possible life?  Justice for all?  Constitution guarantees LIFE, liberty & pursuit of happiness to ALL NOT? 

     [the rest are specific comments on each of the last few sentences in the columns, and ends with a separate attached note, which makes a reference to the Evansdale girls who were murdered last summer, saying:]

     The very best memorial to the girls would be reinstate capital punishment for all:

    (1)  killers

    (2)  drug dealers

    (3)  car jackers

    (4)  terrorists

     Demos in senate control [Iowa Senate] sad and sick mess in Des Moines. 

    . . . only ones punished are taxpayers new prison (TAJ MAHAL & all free for life in Fort Madison.)  Man, do we owe them a fancy living free! 

     MAD TAXPAYER

     

     

     

     

     

    Go comment!
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