Letters: A madness in the land

Madness in the land Is there madness in this land Are the micro plastics and PFAS passing through the blood-brain barrier and causing an increased level of lunacy Could this explain the current level of brutality Oh how I wish I knew I find the thought of taking a life so abhorrent that I can t comprehend the mental state of those who do Though I do believe that we must have the right to protect and defend loved ones and ourselves from threat But that threat would have to be extreme to take a life Yet among us are those who set this threat level so low as to be non-existent The successive events of this current madness have overwhelmed me to the extent that all I have are hope and wishes But wishes I have I wish that our courts would protect society from proven predators I wish that we would believe to our very depths that though I may not like what you say I will consistently backing your right to say it Bob Emery Mendota Heights Selected news Let s ask Gov Tim Walz if the grim news of conservative speaker Charlie Kirk s assassination may be along the sort of news that might have been inevitable in the near future When at a fundraising rally near the end of Labor Day weekend he gleefully mused at the rampant left wing s politicians and media wild speculation that because Trump was uncharacteristically out of sight for three days he may be deathly ill or better yet dead The childish yet ghoulish glee with which he fanned and wrung his jazz hands at the prospect was disgusting He seemed genuinely entertained by the possibility He then went on to say that if not there certainly would eventually be a few news while grinning rolling his eyes and wagging his clownish eyebrows Just sayin Peter K Cudworth St Paul Selected things we can change Thursday morning brought various serious tears on three levels Beginning with two tragic reminders losing Charlie Kirk and another anniversary of If that wasn t painful enough Gov Walz is running again Nothing can change the murder of Charlie Kirk or the horror of however we can change the occupant of the governor s office Jon Swenson Eagan Adopt an urban street County roads and major highways are often sponsored by local businesses major area employers and nonprofit organizations as their custodial caretakers Yet why has the same concept not been applied to our neighborhoods beginning in our major cities Why cannot neighbors organize together to form local caretaking trusts to keep their neighborhoods free of garbage and debris The cities of St Paul and Minneapolis can designate and award select areas to participants with street signage in every neighborhood or statistical area recognizing each individual volunteer or organization as local custodial stewards of their streets and urban communities This models an example of social proactivity during times of great polarity For decades people sharing the same streets never truly learn or know anything about their neighbors Should this be considered normal The coming together of urban neighborhoods after the Annunciation mass shooting refocuses the need for shared humanity that is both cooperative and proactive Omar Alansari-Kreger St Paul Nuts and bolts pragmatism The other night my neighbor in the Macalester Groveland neighborhood hosted a get to know the candidate event for State Rep Kaohly Her relative to her candidacy for St Paul mayor Like plenty of St Paul residents I had not even been aware that there will be a mayoral voting this fall until in the last few days I frankly went to this event without knowing much about Rep Her even though she is my state representative The event was attended by approximately people and lasted a couple of hours After mingling for about an hour she spoke to the full group and fielded a broad range of questions for another hour During the mingling portion I was able to speak directly with her for about minutes I was extremely impressed with Rep Her Her life story alone is quite inspirational I had three primary takeaway impressions First she has exceptional people skills and communicates easily with people of different backgrounds she loves to engage Second she combines idealism and empathy with a strong base of pragmatism And third she is just an extremely capable and hardworking individual who I m guessing is triumphant in whatever she sets her mind to She seems to be someone who can communicate and work effectively with people she may not agree with while holding true to her core values I believe she offers a greater degree of nuts and bolts pragmatism than is often uncovered in local DFL candidates Peter Langworthy St Paul Three shells Minnesota has a gun law that could protect school children if it were amended slightly The law limits waterfowl hunters to using guns loaded with only three cartridges Three Why can t we amend this existing state law to apply to all guns everywhere in the state Second Amendment backers have already accepted this restriction for hunters in the field how can they possibly object to its application to hunters on playgrounds Go for it Joe Delmont Mendota Heights Wait and see Now that there will be no Chinese territory for the soybeans raised here will the farmers admit they voted for the wrong man When our waters deteriorate for lack of EPA oversight will Minnesotans who enjoy fishing swimming and all water engagements realize they put the wrong man in charge And after national military are sent to Chicago Maryland New Orleans and perhaps Minneapolis will our law enforcement and military folks eventually speak up Guess we will have to wait and see Jerry Carroll Roseville A surging budget Undeniably St Paul is navigating financial headwinds slow rise the downtown downturn and the post-pandemic malaise negatively affecting other struggling cities nationwide What seems to be overlooked though is that since St Paul s budget has surged from million to the million Mayor Carter is proposing for John Vaughn Stillwater A business owner who believes in second chances Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of spending a morning working alongside Mike Hilborn and particular of his amazing employees Mike is the owner of Roof to Deck Services and a strong mayoral candidate for St Paul As part of his function to the district Mike brings a crew once a month and voluntarily picks up trash and power-washes areas of downtown I met Mike at in the morning in the parking lot of Catholic Charities I hesitated to get out of my car as the parking lot and surrounding grounds were filled with bodies on benches on patches of grass or wrapped in sleeping bags I wasn t sure if they were dead or alive Once I met Mike I was calm knowing his mission He mingled with the homeless and delivered a positive and uplifting greeting to folks coming in to work Mike s platform includes creating a cure to the homeless dilemma as well as addressing the growing crime and the out-of-control taxes As a business owner who believes in second chances Mike s employees are prior convicts he has the experience knowledge and compassion to be the leader of our Capitol City Jodi Laliberte White Bear Lake Happen not at all In the Pioneer Press Sept issue Vance Visit JD Vance was quick to say I have never had a day that will stay with me like this day did He added later I would just say take the concerns of these parents seriously I think all of us Democrat Republican and Independent want these school shootings to happen less frequently Hopefully there s particular actions that we can take to make that happen I m not sure this administration is taking the concerns of these and all parents seriously Let s change less frequently to happen not at all Let s change hopefully to yes we can Jane W Murphy St Paul Related Articles St Paul meet your funniest person Filipino utility engineer Jethro Trogo Belwin opens M accessible outdoor-education facility with first-class experience for all Ahead of upcoming th anniversary show Ananya Dance Theatre is physically and morally powerful as ever Surveillance video messages How the incident of a missing St Paul woman uncovered gruesome murders Here s how the St Paul mayor s proposed budget will impact city libraries Bipartisan bill would have been better The Senate bipartisan immigration and safety bill The Limit Act of would have limited the number of immigrant encounters each day raised the standards for those seeking asylum created a faster declares procedure of days limited parole for foreigners expanded detention threshold provided for the hiring of additional Limit Patrol agents asylum officers and immigration judges plus added money to increase the wall building It also increased the number of immigration visas or green cards protected Afghan evacuees and protected documented dreamers This bipartisan plan may not have been perfect but it would have been an agreement between the two parties positions But only I can fix it President Trump has exacerbated this critical issue We have soldiers on the streets ICE officers appearing in our communities arriving in unmarked cars masked displaying little or no identification Unaccompanied child immigrants are swept up detained and processed for deportation due process has largely been ignored Farm workers day workers and students have been wrestled from the streets and workplaces The promise to deport the worst of the worst MS- gang members has resulted in sparse such apprehensions but instead there s been widespread dark-of-night seizing of law-abiding immigrants We are watching the mess unfold that Donald Trump has created People want dividing line control the deportation of criminals and due process People do not want children or people who have lived here for decades deported despite being productive and acting honorably Trump s deportation program is wrong hateful and not surprisingly unpopular Pete Boelter North Branch