Readers Write: Fragmentation of the metro, Target’s DEI policies, Rep. Melissa Hortman

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

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As John Fraser Hart, a renowned geographer and academic at the University of Minnesota, once said, “The countryside warrants far more attention than most of us have given it. The only proper way to learn about and understand it is to live in it, look at it, think about it, contemplate it, speculate about it, and ask questions about it.” Which brings me to Eric Roper’s June 26 column, “The metro’s most difficult problems require a regional approach” where Roper is so clearly taking Hart’s words to heart. As mentioned in the article, the promotion of regionalism or the defragmentation of cities is one of the more beneficial approaches to greater efficiency and cohesiveness for an integrated metropolitan area such as the Twin Cities.

As a lifelong resident of the Twin Cities for over 70 years, I can’t think a better place to start than in the northwest and northeast first-tier suburbs of Minneapolis. Consolidating the five suburbs of Crystal, New Hope, Brooklyn Center, Robbinsdale and Golden Valley into one municipality as well as the seven suburbs of Fridley, Spring Lake Park, Mounds View, Hilltop, New Brighton, Columbia Heights and St. Anthony Village into another municipality would make each the approximate area of Inver Grove Heights and a good start in the defragmentation process. And in response to the opposing view that these cities would lose their unique identity if consolidated, look no farther than the Camden, Northeast, Longfellow, etc., communities, where each has retained their own unique identity within the larger consolidated confines of the city of Minneapolis.

Robert Joyce, Minneapolis

Often, after a school shooting, there is a story about a teacher who puts herself between the shooter and her students. Such teachers are heroes. They demonstrate a courage, a selflessness and a love that I can only imagine. What do you think about teachers who don’t demonstrate a willingness to die for their students? Are they cowards? Should they be fired and banned from the profession?

The people who are boycotting Target for backing away from diversity, equity and inclusion goals are asking Target to take a bullet for them (“Target still doesn’t get DEI — or why we’re not shopping there,” Strib Voices, July 2, and “Target is backtracking. Good,” Readers Write, July 5). It is an unreasonable request. I believe that Target has been a model corporate citizen for decades and will continue to hire and promote the best person for any job. And that will increase representation regardless of stated corporate policy.

Rolf Bolstad, Minneapolis

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I read the opinions of people on Target in Saturday’s Strib. Yet for all the DEI talk I saw no mention of the $1 million donation to President Donald Trump’s inauguration. While DEI is important, what tipped the scales for me was CEO Brian Cornell’s donation to Trump.

That was political suicide, in my opinion. What, so he could sit in the Oval with Trump and kiss the ring?

That was a stupid move, and it will be quite awhile before I forget. That’s why I don’t shop there anymore.

Terry Houle, Bloomington

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We live near the Midway area in St Paul. My wife shops at Target.

I have the sense that many of the DEI critics of Target haven’t been to the Midway store recently. They would be in for a surprise. There are many locked-up aisles where you need a Target employee to get what you need for you. Very limited self-checkout. Etc.

I attended a meeting with several St. Paul leaders recently and asked them if they have direct contacts with the management of Target, and how they could support that store. They said no but there are action committees for the neighborhood and so on.

Let me be as clear as possible: You lose that store, you lose the soul of Midway and all neighborhoods for five miles around. Where are customers going to go?

So, let’s “hammer away” at DEI for a hometown corporate giant that finds itself in a no-win situation.

Maybe Target should quit its 5% pretax giving program and fund all these special-action groups that continue to say, “Do it our way or we won’t support you.” These people do not have any clue on the massive impact Target corporate has in our community. Don’t shop there, give Target a reason to close a store that is underperforming and celebrate that victory, while watching thousands figure out where to shop.

Maybe critics can ask our neighbors in Brooklyn Center where they went after Walmart closed its big store. Oh, I forgot — Walmart was several blocks from Target Midway and closed several years ago.

I would never pretend to speak for Target, but the past is prologue. Keep telling them how bad it is and it just might take a close look at a marginal store and lock the door.

Congratulations ... you’d win and the rest of us would lose.

Kelly Michel, St. Paul

When two Black men were told to sit in the back of the bus by the Jefferson Lines driver (“Bus probe: Black men told to sit in back,” July 11), and when they verbally questioned this discriminatory, illegal behavior, where were the other passengers? Why didn’t they speak up against this obvious, 20th-century racism? Why were they silent? That saddens me the most.

Laura Fingerson, Minneapolis

I haven’t dared to truly explore my grief over the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. I’ve kept it tucked away beneath old blankets of distraction and busyness. But it found me in Utah, surrounded by the silent strength of the Wasatch Mountains. Maybe it was their quiet witness — centuries of standing still, absorbing human triumph and tragedy — that gave me permission to finally let go. There, the tears came, tracing hot lines across my sunburned cheeks. Because this grief is not just personal. It’s national. It’s moral. It’s spiritual.

Hortman was more than a politician. She was a kind, formidable woman who dedicated her life to lifting others. As the most successful legislator in Minnesota’s history, her laws, her advocacy, her very presence in our halls of power stood as a testament to the belief that government exists to protect and uplift its people — not to enrich the few at the expense of the many. She championed working families, children and the marginalized. She understood that our fates are bound together, whether we care to admit it or not.

But I am not only grieving Hortman, who showed us what true public service looks like — I am grieving a country that has grown numb to cruelty. A nation where the capacity to care is treated as a partisan liability. Where empathy is mocked, where decency is dismissed as weakness and where powerful women are met not with respect but with violence. Hortman’s life was a living rebuke to that cynicism.

In my grief, I cling to hope — hope that her legacy will ignite something stubborn and bright within us. That we’ll remember who we are meant to be. That we’ll honor her by refusing to let compassion be painted as frailty. And that, together, we’ll stand — like those mountains — steadfast against every storm.

Tracy Uttley, Golden Valley