Readers Write: Air quality, education, St. Paul cybersecurity attack

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 smoke from the Canadian wildfires once again blankets the upper Midwest, a stark reminder of our warming world hangs in the air — literally. Against this backdrop, I read with deep concern about the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Lee Zeldin and the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to revoke the 2009 “endangerment finding” — the landmark conclusion that greenhouse gases are warming the planet and threatening both public and environmental health.

Since 2009, a vast and growing body of scientific evidence has only strengthened that verdict. Yet, the administration has found a small group of three scientists willing to cast doubt on the computer models that have long guided our understanding of climate change.

What is their agenda? What gives them the confidence to dismiss decades of rigorous research and consensus?

These are not just academic questions — they are matters of survival. We must demand answers from those in power, and just as importantly we must look inward and assess how our own choices either contribute to the problem or can help to solve it.

The climate crisis is not a distant or abstract threat. It’s here, now, choking our lungs and threatening our future. We ignore it at our peril.

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The latest data from the U.S. drought monitor shows that only the northwest corner of Minnesota is “abnormally dry.” The rest of the state is well-hydrated. That means we can all breathe easier, right? Wrong. There is all this smoke from Canadian wildfires making our air unsafe for anyone to breathe. And, by “anyone,” I mean all humans: infants to the elderly, and the healthy or vulnerable. It also means all birds, animals and anything else that breathes air. So, to promote our own health and food supply, we have to be concerned about conditions in another country.

It’s the same with disease. No matter what I do to protect against viruses, they are going to spread to us from other lands. What happens to the rivers elsewhere will affect our supply of fish. What gases are released in other countries will affect our temperatures. I guess it’s simple: “America first” has to mean, “America and the rest of the world first.”

Gary Brisbin, Fridley

I take issue with Ricky Austin’s commentary advocating for Minnesota to opt in to the federal tax credit available in the Educational Choice for Children Act (“Opting into federal tax credit would keep dollars with Minnesota students,” July 31). Clearly, he has much to gain if Minnesota opts in, but scholarships never fully pay for the tuition for private schooling. This bill benefits the wealthy, like much of what was included in the “Big Baloney Bill” recently passed.

Judy Bird, Byron, Minn.

So much for Minnesota’s reputation for providing great public service. This state couldn’t even provide Real IDs to all of its citizens by the deadline, even though the REAL ID Act passed Congress in 2005!

I had a RealID for 10 years in Colorado and I didn’t even know I had one. It was mandatory: When you got a driver’s license or renewed it, you got a RealID. So, when I moved here in 2024 and switched to a Minnesota license, did the DVS clerk tell me to get a RealID? No. I didn’t even know what they were. Now I have the basic license, along with two million other people in this state. I paid lower taxes in Colorado, yet that state managed to do the job.

“We saw crazy numbers,” said Jody-Kay Peterson, program director for DVS said in a Minnesota Star Tribune article. Because this state couldn’t manage to switch its citizens to Real IDs over the course of more than a decade! Oh, and they are “looking at overtime” to help with the application backlog. Wow, what a concept. Hey Minnesota, maybe if you’d made RealIDs mandatory in 2013 like Colorado did, you wouldn’t need overtime work now. How utterly stupid and preventable.

Julie Holmquist, Chaska, Minn.

The Minnesota safety net for non-citizens is second to none. Meanwhile, Minnesotans are waiting 97 days to get a Real ID so they can fly on an airplane.

Mitch Anderson, Eagan

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As a retired high school teacher and coach, I cannot say I was surprised that people waited until the last minute to submit their application for RealIDs.

Pat Foley, Northfield, Minn.

Wayne Dokken, Robbinsdale

Yes, as Ward Brehm writes (“Addressing immigration—for such a time as this,” July 30), President Donald Trump has closed the southern border. But Brehm makes no mention of the significant fact that Trump is to blame for scuttling bipartisan immigration reform that Congress was poised to pass when former President Joe Biden was in office. Trump didn’t want Biden to get credit for immigration reform, so Trump pressured Republicans in Congress to reject the bill, and, in irresponsibly cowardly fashion, they did. Brehm is right about the need for secure borders, but he does citizens a disservice by not telling the full story about Trump’s role in blocking what would’ve been a significant step forward on one of the nation’s most complicated problems.

Steve Schild, Falcon Heights

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Former Rep. Dean Phillips vacated his congressional seat because he believed that President Joe Biden needed a primary challenger. Ironically, no Democratic primary was held to backfill Phillips’ seat. As a result, the Democratic voters of Minnesota’s Third District got stuck with Rep. Kelly Morrison. Morrison has somehow managed to avoid issuing a single statement about ICE or immigration enforcement since her term began. She rarely mentions the Trump administration’s myriad assaults on the rule of law. One wonders if she lives under a rock. Morrison is exactly the type of Democrat — timid, out of touch, overly conservative — that the Democratic party needs to jettison. I sincerely hope Morrison does not run for reelection, and if she does, I hope someone will challenge her in the primary. The Democrats of Minnesota’s Third District deserve a representative who isn’t afraid to loudly and proudly stand up for all of our shared democratic values, and fights vigorously to defend our democracy and the rule of law.