Readers Write: Former House Speaker Melissa Hortman assassinated

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

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Former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were just killed. Assassinated. State Sen. John Hoffman and his spouse are hopefully recovering (“Timeline: How an early morning assault against Minnesota lawmakers unfolded,” StarTribune.com, June 14).

I was director of House research for Melissa. In fact, I was director for seven House speakers, both Republicans and Democrats.

Seven good Minnesotans. In a tense political atmosphere, is it so hard to believe that seven people in a row, Democrats and Republicans, can be good people?

Melissa was tough and smart and analytical. She had compassion for people combined with an extraordinary ability to get things done.

She wanted my nonpartisan best and I was often blunt. She respected staff honesty and then she made her own mind up. This is rarer than you might think.

Once, when the chief clerk and I were advising her on how to constitutionally run the House during COVID-19, she stopped for a second and said, “I can hear you two sighing.” Politics is a tough game and pungent advice sometimes comes through a sigh. She was tough enough and adult enough to hear our thoughts and then make her own decisions.

She ran the House brilliantly. She was a grandmaster of the process. She got things done.

The Minnesota House of Representatives is Minnesota written into governance. It’s a small town. Speakers deal with the ethical issues and daily struggles of members and staff. They confront hundreds of policy choices. They lead and struggle and sometimes fail.

It’s a special place. But the people’s House has been torn and riven by the political divide among Americans. The anger in politics has attracted dangerously disturbed people among the public.

Now, the House and the Senate have been hurt. The people’s representatives are battered. Melissa was one of the very best people I know, one of the best of a run of good speakers.

She didn’t deserve this. The people who are elected to vote on the issues of the day deserve better. She will be missed.

Missed because she was a leader and a good person. People like her come from both parties and they represent Minnesota at great personal price. We Minnesotans are lucky to have so many good people in our Legislature. It sometimes doesn’t feel as if the public knows this. It sometimes feels as though hating politicians is a dirty little vice shared by too many.

I’m thankful I worked for seven good speakers. Melissa Hortman was what a leader should be. It’s a sad day.

Patrick McCormack, Edina

The writer is former director of the Minnesota House Research Department.

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On Saturday, Minnesota lost two good people, including one legislator who worked hard to make this state better. For her dedication, she was killed. I feel tremendous sadness and deep grief.

When I was a child, I learned how important it is to choose leaders wisely. At home, at church and in school, we were taught that people emulate their leaders. That’s why character matters in leadership. Today, I can’t help but think that the person who pulled the trigger had done just that — emulated a leader.

We are living in a time when cruelty is mistaken for strength. We see human beings — many of them Black and brown — herded onto planes, chained to seats, sent to unfamiliar places or locked away. Not because they are dangerous, but because they are inconvenient. This is done in our name, to make those in power look tough.

We hear constant rhetoric that casts political opponents as enemies — people to be crushed or imprisoned. Civil disagreement has given way to dehumanization.

When did we forget that we can disagree and still get along? That the richness of America comes from our differences — of background, belief and experience?

I keep thinking of the words we’ve sung so often and so proudly: “America, America, God shed his grace on thee / and crown thy good with brotherhood / from sea to shining sea.”

I remember that country. How I miss it.

Laurie Gabel, Edina

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It was during a drive that I heard the news of the fatal shooting of Hortman and her husband. I had to pull off the freeway because tears were streaming down my face. I did not know Speaker Hortman personally, but had watched her in the Legislature over the years. She was firm, logical and compassionate in her decisionmaking, always trying to do what was right for the people of Minnesota. Our state is one where political differences are usually settled during a fishing trip — not with a gun in the middle of the night. Her talent and dedication to public service will be sorely missed by a state that values those who choose to serve its citizens.

In a democracy, political discourse is encouraged and even protected under the Constitution. This violent and senseless act must not be considered the new normal. Civility should be the order of the day as we reflect on the loss of such a dedicated public servant.

Jan McCarthy, Eden Prairie

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Minnesota was rocked by the political assassination of one of its most pragmatic leaders and the attempted assassination of another. The Trump administration’s fomentation of fear has ramped up over the last three months and is setting the table for these unspeakable acts to occur. Our state stands out, as it is the most closely divided Legislature in the nation. There will be a special election to replace Hortman. If there is a shred of decency in the Republican Party, they will not put forth a candidate to fill the vacancy. Otherwise, the message is clear: Politically motivated violence may be an effective tool to flip a seat.

Susan Barrett, Mora, Minn.

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I am beyond sad and brokenhearted for the families of state Rep. Hortman, state Sen. Hoffman and for our nation. I cannot make sense of what is happening in our country. This falls on the shoulders of the Republican Party. President Donald Trump has made it acceptable to hate, belittle and call people names to disrespect our democracy and suggest that anyone who may have a different opinion than his should be removed. The U.S. does not need a dictator who has a destructive agenda for our people. I hope he gives himself a big pat on his back and enjoys his $45 million parade that we all are paying for. We need to stand up to this nonsense and get our country back where we respect and love each other. There is no place for hate.

Stephanie Bank, Minnetonka

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Grim news, you must agree.

Do I blame him? Yes, I do, and would want to name him, the president of the United States, as a co-conspirator in the fatal shootings of Hortman and her husband. I am serious.

But I won’t name him, because I am scared and fear I could be next or at least, not too far down the line even though I am really quite a nobody. Aren’t you scared yet?

Mark Thelen, St. Cloud

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Hortman was my state legislator and very dear to me. Now I feel the same way I did when we lost former U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone.

David Rosene, Brooklyn Park