Sometimes, crimes are committed by our own homegrown talent.

http://www.spencerdailyreporter.com/stor...

A commentor on this story going by the handle "chozen1" makes a strong point for not judging the people.

Do we rush to judgment?

People dare to come here who don't look like us, don't speak like us, don't eat the same food we eat or live the same way we live. Who do they think they are. And look -- people with Hispanic surnames are in the paper for selling drugs.

Now they're in jail.

"Go back to Mexico."

Really? Here in Iowa where our public educational system is on par with some of the best private schools in the nation, that's how we view people in our community? Don't we know that 100 years ago our own family members were new to the area? Maybe there are a few daughters and sons of the American revolution here -- maybe your ancestors landed in Jamestown or Plymouth Rock, but that's not very common in the Midwest.

Don't misunderstand. I feel meth and other hard drugs are a negative thing, and incarcerating those who bring them into our community is a positive thing, and we are all much safer without the criminal drug element.

Don't be confused about who is behind much of the methamphetamine trade and other drug element in our state, however.

By far the biggest drug crime in Iowa history was caused by a man and woman from Mason City who killed five people, including two children, to cover up their drug crimes. Through the tireless efforts of law enforcement, local and federal, they were sentenced under federal law to the death penalty. If they're guilty of the crimes for which they were convicted then the legal system has worked, the fact that I oppose the death penalty notwithstanding.

These were two regular, rural kids growing up in North Central Iowa, and had no markers of real trouble in their pasts. Blonde, pale, with Scandinavian-American backgrounds, they did not look like the people who would shoot you for getting in their way.

Anyone can have a hybrid family background. I grew up the only daughter of two school counselors/teachers in Sioux City. We worked hard, played hard, traveled extensively, and the values taught in that home included valuing culture and the arts, doing well unto others, and obtaining a good education.

The only dark spot was that I was adopted. It was a dark spot because I was taller, blonder, more emotional, less intelligent and in other, less visible ways, just did not fit in to the family who raised me.

Then my mother died when I was in eleventh grade.

I wanted to find my biological family.

When I was eighteen, I did.

I found out I was born right here in Iowa -- Crawford County, and that I have a very large, extended family with perhaps the most common Scandinavian-American surname you might think of. One of those --son names.

There have been numerous ups and downs, rejection (her), confusion (me), reaching out and overtures (her), relief and happiness (me), and rejection (her). I have come to understand that single young women who 30-40-50 years ago were often forced to relinquish their children to the adoption system have many lingering issues, not the least of which is, the heart wants what the heart wants.

They don't want to build a relationship with an adult -- they want the years back with a baby and child -- the child they were cheated of. Maybe it's not rational, maybe it's not right, and maybe Oprah has glossed over the real, persistent psychological issues that come with closed adoptions.

I'm thrilled that I was adopted by the parents who raised me, and I'm disappointed that it didn't result in my bio-mom going on to have an amazing, wonderful, fulfilling life in my absence, that after the trauma of the adoption, she didn't move on to immense happiness she couldn't have had as the single, teenaged mother of me.

After the adoption, my bio-mom's life turned to drugs and crime. She ran off to California and was caught up in hard drugs and hard living in the Fresno area.

By the late '80s she was a cocktail waitress in Vegas and (I can't make this stuff up!) she met a jazz singer, married him, and she got clean.

She stayed clean for 20 years, as far as I know, and they raised some foster children together back in Crawford County. She maintained a very good job and seemed to live a cirumspect life.

A few years ago, she divorced.

She got mixed up with some men who were not good for her, men who were violent and committed crimes.

Then this past summer she, her sister, her current significant other, and some others were involved with drugs -- using, selling to their cohorts, etc. out at my bio-mom's acreage and were arrested by the sheriff.

She has two Class B felonies and other charges.

I'm not sure how she could possibly avoid prison. I don't want her in prison at age 55 -- I don't think it's safe for her, and I doubt any good will come of it in her own life.

Yet, if she got off completely from the charges, what would the ramifications be for the community, the state, our society? She actually is not terribly remorseful --it's all someone else's fault and she didn't know they had all that stuff on her property.

Whatever.

I would not support her getting off completely (and yes, she's my own mother -- the woman who gave me life in a very difficult circumstance) but if there was a real, effective treatment program that would help her not only shake her addictions that apparently never let her go but also improve her self-image and attitude so she makes better choices for herself, I'd get heavily involved in that any way I could.

Just because she has a family and people love and care for her (even me, through all of this) -- illegal is illegal. If you don't like the laws, seek to have them changed through the legislature or seek redress through the courts.

It's not immigration that causes major crimes in our area. It really is individuals making wrong choices in a climate that does not always support growth, self-motivation, making a difference or positive change.

Don't misunderstand. I've been to 47 states and many foreign nations, and I choose to live in northwest Iowa. I love it here. I love the people. I love the Lakes.

However, do we need to look at how much the ingrained attitudes, habits and outlook of our community and our precious people contributes to people who don't fit the image making bad choices because they feel no other choice is available at the time?

Maybe you don't agree, but I invite you to open your mind.

Maybe these events are just pieces in the larger mess of society.

Maybe these stories are not just generated by "them" but could happen in our own families.