Readers Write: AmeriCorps cuts, Tesla vandal, tariffs

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

I am currently a member of the Minnesota Public Health Corps, a branch of AmeriCorps — the same AmeriCorps that has been subject to DOGE. I am very fortunate that I will be able to finish my term of service, but by Aug. 23, no one else will, because the slashing of the federal budget has made it so that Public Health Corps will not survive. We serve at local health agencies, adding capacity while gaining valuable experience and connections that allow us to move forward with a public health career.

Beyond the Corps, my career options are now in jeopardy. Because of AmeriCorps, doors were finally opening for me. Now I am watching those doors slam shut, not just for me, but for every early-career professional. My reality is this: Finding a job in my field has become exponentially more difficult because of the Trump administration. My dream has always been to help people to the greatest extent possible, and when I found public health, I knew I had found my home. I am not unique — I have not met a single individual in the field whose dream is anything less than that. We are human beings whose lives are being treated like a yo-yo in the hands of a mercurial toddler. All I am asking for now is recognition of that.

I make $2,000/month and add far, far more than that in value. I, and every other AmeriCorps member, am the opposite of waste, fraud and abuse.

Annika Peterson, Princeton, Minn.

•••

I was saddened and disappointed to hear of the termination of AmeriCorps. America gets double benefits from this community service program. AmeriCorps members work in disaster relief, conservation, education and much more. AmeriCorps has given taxpayers an exceptional return on investment, with studies showing every federal dollar invested yields $17.30 in return to society. AmeriCorps members benefit by gaining valuable work experience, engaging and supporting their communities while earning a small stipend to further their education. It’s truly a win-win. Full disclosure, I spent several years in the 1990s as a local AmeriCorps director. The program was just being organized. Every year we were not sure if the program would survive because of political opposition. Amazingly it did. I saw for myself the value of this program for our community and our members, most of whom have gone on to responsible jobs and positions with continued involvement in their communities. What a shame to kill it.

Ruth Anfinson Bures, Winona, Minn.

I am a Tesla owner. I am not a fan of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. But for the media to call petty vandalism a form of domestic terrorism is ridiculous. Domestic terrorism is by definition a violent act. This vandalism is not. I have had my Tesla long enough where it was keyed because someone was anti-electric car and thought it was too woke. We were routinely iced out of Superchargers by huge gas-guzzling vehicles. It was not terrorism then, and this vandalism is not terrorism now. I wish the media would not play into Elon Musk’s frail ego. This is property damage. As such, the county attorney is choosing to treat it as such. This is not a huge decision. If the office had chosen to treat petty vandalism more seriously because it involved a Tesla it would have been a politically motivated decision. I appreciate a county attorney that is willing to treat property crime as property crime.

Kathy Cima, Minneapolis

The writer is an attorney.

•••

People are mad at Moriarty for granting diversion to the man who vandalized the Teslas. I’m thinking about how to make those people happy. Suppose we put him in jail for a year, and he loses his job. What did we accomplish? No restitution for the victims, and we ruined the life of a productive person. He is 33 years old now, and we can make him suffer for the rest of his life. Is that the “justice” you all want to see?

John Stuart, Minneapolis

•••

The Minnesota Star Tribune’s treatment of the Tesla-keying story verges on surreal. “In diverting Tesla vandalism charges, Mary Moriarty again finds herself at the center of a firestorm,” shrieks an April 23 online headline. I wonder how it got to be a firestorm!

This case wasn’t “declined.” An adult diversion program sounds like a pretty appropriate response to vandalizing six automobiles. (Which is not “political violence.”) Thanks for helpfully noting, at the very end of the article, that “no one had been assaulted or killed,” at least!

I have questions:

How about some perspective: Last week, Nature projected that Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts to global health funding could kill up to 25 million people globally over the next 15 years. DOGE is ravaging, with malicious glee, agencies — SSA, HHS, the VA, NOAA, the Department of Labor — that do life-or-death work for millions of Americans. And scholars across the U.S. and around the world agree the administration is barreling rapidly toward authoritarianism; people are being abducted by agents of the government and “renditioned” to a concentration camp in El Salvador. It would be terrific if the Star Tribune focused on producing journalism that might help Minnesotans navigate these exceedingly chaotic and dangerous times. Few (if any) of us are too worried about the Tesla-keying guy.

Susan Maas, Minneapolis

The last few weeks have illustrated the wisdom of our founders in setting up our constitutional system of checks and balances between three branches of government. At our founding, we were subject to the vagaries of a king. Our founders clearly saw the problems inherent in having one person make all decisions for a country. We are seeing those problems today (“Trump’s flip-flop lifts stock market,” front page, April 24). One of the three branches, Congress, has abandoned its responsibilities. Another, the judiciary, has handed significant power to one man by placing him above the law. Erasure of these checks and balances has allowed one man, the president as executive, to make policy through his personal whims: Impose tariffs and then remove them haphazardly; take a chain saw to budgets and change policies originally enacted via a congressional negotiation process by representatives from all 50 states; and generally wreaking havoc through his personal and ever-changing impulses. As quoted in the article, current problems are “driven basically by one person’s decisions.” It is time to restore the checks and balances through which our founders created our constitutional republic. It is time for congressional Republicans to step up to the responsibilities our founders gave them. We do not benefit from abandoning our founders’ system of checks and balances and allowing one person to control our lives.

Joan Peterson Lussenhop, Grand Rapids, Minn.

The writer is an attorney.