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Readers Write for Sunday, Aug. 16
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HEALTH CARE REFORM
Lawmakers: We'll have what you're having
A note to President Obama, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken and Reps. Tim Walz, John Kline, Erik Paulsen, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison, Michele Bachmann, Collin Peterson and Jim Oberstar: All arguments about health care reform -- both for and against -- can be stopped with one action. That is when Congress and the president have the same health care plan we have. That action will make them be excellent guardians of the health care of all of us.
HARVEY KATH, NEVIS, MINN.
•••
What's fueling the health care protests? The GOP. When the party is "losing" -- and sometimes even when it isn't -- members becomes bullies and use underhanded scare tactics to win at all costs.
BECKY CARPENTER, MINNEAPOLIS
•••
Isn't it ironic that President Obama, at his town hall meeting promoting his health care reform last week, would joke that "UPS and Fed Ex are doing just fine, it's the Post Office that's always having problems." The one having the problem is the only one run by the government. Enough said!
BRIAN O'NEIL, WACONIA
BODIES ON EXHIBIT
Not educational, just exploitative
As educators, citizens or residents of Minnesota, we are disturbed to learn that a copycat version of the exhibition "Body Worlds," brought to the Minnesota Science Museum in 2006, has just opened at the Mall of America.
There is strong evidence that the organizers of the MOA exhibit, "Bodies ... the Exhibition," have not demonstrated that the bodies were all "obtained" with consent. Indeed, organizers admit that all of the bodies are Chinese, "unclaimed" and do not deny that they may be those of prisoners and executees.
Although the value of "Body Worlds" was supposedly educational and artistic, the display of the imitative "Bodies ... the Exhibition" in a mall suggests the true character and purpose of these shows -- to trigger a thrill in jaded consumers. We believe that we should not allow the organizers of these exhibits to use science and art as an alibi for macabre voyeurism.
We ask Minnesotans to think twice before attending or condoning this show. We ask that they reflect on the opportunism of the show's organizers and on the infringement of human rights that it represents.
We ask, finally, that they refuse to be complicit in the exploitation of fellow human beings.
BRUNO CHAOUAT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF FRENCH, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, AND Ellen Kennedy, interim director, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Minneapolis, on behalf of 20 others representing Minnesota high schools, colleges and universities
the 'birthers'
It isn't a matter of race, it's a matter of the law
An Aug. 9 commentary by Tim Walker stated that anybody who questioned the actual birthplace of the president and his right to be in the highest office in the land was racist. I have to take exception to that statement. It is not a matter of Barack Obama's race, but a matter of law. He has not been forthcoming on this matter. He has consistently refused to produce a real birth certificate.
I would suggest that, instead of referring to people who question him as racist, the media should be asking the president some hard questions.
LEN SIEGLER, VERNDALE, MINN.
•••
Tim Walker's commentary on "birthers" being racist is clearly a canard.
Every American has the right to know that the Constitution is being upheld in all things. Those who question Obama are not automatically "racist."
DIANNE JENTILUCCI, INDEPENDENCE
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
Our schools, students suffer because of it
It is simply wrong that half the state's schools should be viewed as "missing the mark."
One key educational reform should be to modify significantly the 2002 No Child Left Behind law. Too many quality, well-run and effective schools are reported as failing or not making "adequate yearly progress." This stigma is unfair to students, staff and communities where there is and should be pride in their community schools.
The NCLB model is inherently flawed by its punitive nature. Most educators understand that to get the most from their students encouragement and nurturing are critical and essential components that should drive reform for improvement.
PETE BOELTER, NORTH BRANCH
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