Readers Write: Presidential power, wake boating, Bemidji storms

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

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The opinion piece “‘No Kings’ but for the kingly presidents we’ve already had” (Strib Voices, June 29) provided interesting comments about prior presidents overreaching their power. Not surprisingly, only positive accomplishments of “great” presidents are taught in schools. Why should the protesters who participated in the “No Kings” events be concerned about protesting past presidents? The protesters are criticizing current actions because we are all being affected today. We can’t change the actions of past administrations, but perhaps we can influence the actions of the current one. The writer, unhappy with the criticism, is essentially saying, “We have always done things that way.” That has always been a poor excuse and does not encourage making progress for the betterment of all. The writer has missed the bigger picture that, in this country, we have the right to speak up and should not be afraid of retribution for exercising our right to free speech.

Sandy Caster, Minneapolis

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“Help Pirate Pete find his buried treasure!” I’ve got fond memories of cracking the “maze-code” at about age 8 while waiting for my sister to decide between a cheeseburger and chicken fingers. (It was almost always a cheeseburger.)

One day, while struggling to follow the false, misleading and purposely distracting pathways set before me on the way to Pirate Pete’s treasure, it occurred to me that starting at Pete’s jewel-studded treasure chest and working my way backward might help me avoid falling for the silly trickery offered up by the puzzles creator. And voilà! Treasure chest, meet Pirate Pete!

A few paragraphs into John C. Chalberg’s meandering “‘No Kings’ but for the kingly presidents we’ve already had,” it occurred to me that starting at the end of the article and tracing my way backward might help me avoid the false, misleading and purposely distracting reasoning Chalberg was using in his attempt to get his purple crayon to trace a believable path between Pirate Donald and the treasure chest of “greatness” Chalberg so desperately wants him paired with.

Chalberg aims his purple crayon toward: Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and James Polk, as he furiously attempts to rebrand cartoonish dictatorial tendencies as simply a kind of bravado that we need to Make America Great Again.

President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has regularly drawn a straight black Sharpie line between himself and both Al Capone and Hannibal Lecter (one a criminal mob boss, the other a vicious cannibal).

I think it was Maya Angelou who said, when people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.

David Leussler, Minneapolis

Let me get this straight.

Nate Schmitz is teed off because he and other users of wake-creating crafts can’t erode the shoreline, lower water quality, extend noise pollution and do untold damage to shoreline habitats and aquatic species and vegetation on certain lakes outside the hours between sunset and 9 a.m. and during times of high water? (“A lake wake-up call,” June 30.)

I’m tuning my tiny violin.

Jane Friedmann, Shoreview

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As a lifelong resident and avid lake user, I am happy to see the attention the Star Tribune gave to the wake boating destruction that is happening on our precious lakes.

I would really like to see a more in-depth look at this issue and the widespread destruction that has now become a huge problem for our state waters.

I have had many unpleasant encounters with uneducated and just plain uncaring wake boaters. At our family lake home on Upper Gull Lake on weekends, you cannot anchor and fish without being tossed around to the point of being unable to fish. I have had the wakes from these boats dangerously wash over the front of our pontoon and flood the deck many times. The habitat destruction on any of our smaller state lakes from these boats is extensive.

At a time when our lakes face so many threats from invasive species, overuse, shoreline alterations, etc., this destruction is untenable.

We cannot afford to let this continue. New, stricter distance regulations are needed now!

Gregory Surma, Rice, Minn.

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It’s plenty hard to enjoy a peaceful morning coffee on the dock when a wake boarding boat goes by and swamps our dock. There are restrictions on a lot of water use in our state. We have to follow the laws. If you want to wake board, follow the rules like the rest of us do!

Cindy Scott, Henning, Minn.

I am sitting on my deck at our cabin on Lake Bemidji as I key this and am disturbed by the Star Tribune column on Bemidji’s disastrous storm and Gov. Tim Walz’s visit here (“Why the spite over Walz in Bemidji?” June 29). I so wish the writer would have chosen to not interview those with political opinions about Walz’s visit, rather focusing on the unbelievable cooperation and help this community is showing for each other. The people here are solid, hardworking, generous people who are together coming through this strongest storm to ever hit Bemidji. The outpouring of help is astounding, exhibiting the very best of humanity.

Joan Goehl, Eden Prairie

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Among all the distressing news currently engulfing us these days, I find myself discouraged to a degree I’ve not felt ever.

With the backdrop of the deaths of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and our state’s communal grief over that horror, I read “Why the spite over Walz in Bemidji?” that Walz visiting the Bemidji area after a powerful storm was subjected to a level of vitriolic rhetoric that is unconscionable.

What is wrong with these people?

Are we so far down the rabbit hole that any attempt to sympathize with people’s pain is mocked and condemned?

The litany of Walz’s supposed transgressions, mainly held outstate and most untrue, rings of a portion of citizens who are perennially aggrieved and hateful.

There used to be a standard in Minnesota that we were all one state and that we benefited from the efforts of all citizens to make our home a better place. Seems impossible to dream of that ideal now.

The honors bestowed on the Hortmans and the sorrow most of us feel should foster a reassessment of how we treat each other. Melissa would wish that on all of us.

Rest in peace, faithful servants.

Joe Carr, Eden Prairie

Jill Burcum’s June 22 column about the challenges that Trump’s trade wars pose to farmers focuses on just one of the groups of people whose lives President Donald Trump has disrupted by his administration’s many ill-advised policies (“As Trump trade threats loom, a Minnesota farm family braces for impact”). The list of other groups affected by Trump’s actions could include: immigrants (including law-abiding folks, both documented and undocumented); people of color; scholars with student visas; LGBTQIA+ individuals (especially transgender youth); Medicaid recipients; Social Security recipients and applicants; employers (including farmers) who depend on immigrant labor; investors who cannot rely on stable financial markets; and foreign allies and adversaries who have no idea what Trump will do next. I expect anyone could add many other affected groups to this list. Ultimately, it appears that Trump cares more about creating chaos and disruption than he cares about many of the people who elected him. I wonder if farmers and others who voted for him were voting for poorly crafted tariffs that would jeopardize their markets and disrupt their economic lives or for cruel immigration policies that would deport the workers critical to the farming, food processing and hospitality industries.

I feel for the Johnson farm family featured in Burcum’s column and hope that future articles in the series will show them thriving despite the problems and uncertainty caused by Trump’s tariffs and threats of tariffs. Sadly, I am not optimistic that will be the case.

Tony Keenan, Columbia Heights