Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Last Sunday's Star Tribune contained an article saying the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) will loudly protest the speech of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett at the University of Minnesota and obtain as many tickets as possible to prevent her comments from being heard ("Justice Amy Coney Barrett coming to U," Oct. 8). The seeming leader of this protest, Mira Altobell-Resendez, is quoted as disagreeing with Barrett's decisions on a number of issues. So we are to believe that hundreds of students are to be denied the opportunity to hear Barrett's comments because a small group of students finds Barrett's positions on issues distasteful. By what right does the SDS speak for others who wish to hear Barrett? The point of a university education is to broaden one's exposure to ideas and positions and thus learn from them. You still may not agree, but you better understand the reasoning of those you disagree with.

I would propose the SDS change their name to Students for a Totalitarian Society.

John Jackson, Bloomington

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Once again the ever-tolerant left is shutting out a voice it opposes rather than hearing any other opinion. How can you oppose something you have not heard — but you merely think you know that person's views? Such is the case with Amy Coney Barrett.

Connie Sambor, Plymouth

Peter M. Leschak's wonderfully informed commentary regarding the fundamental impossibility of a visit from extraterrestrial life and the idiocy of attempting to find it in the vastness of interstellar space misses one intriguing transport possibility: spores ("Where have all the ETs gone?" Opinion Exchange, Oct. 8). Under doable conditions, spores can survive interstellar travel and even potentially seed life. A fun theory, propounded by some far-out ethnopharmacologists, is that the spores in some mushrooms and other psychoactive plants may hold the fundamental insights of advanced species, and when broadcast into space to find hospitable environments such as earth, the information fruits as mushrooms that, if ingested, enter directly into consciousness. This is a wild theory behind the insightful effects of psychoactive mushrooms such as psilocybin when consumed in controlled conditions.

So yes, no billionaire or government should waste time or resources on the fruitless pursuit of extraterrestrial life or seek energy-expensive experiences outside Earth, our stunningly fecund home. But it is fun to imagine that perhaps some mushroom born here or from far, far away can help us understand and protect the glorious gifts of our home planet.

James P. Lenfestey, Minneapolis

The writer is a former Star Tribune editorial writer.

A recent opinion piece asked "Where have all the ETs gone?" A better question is "Where are all the other hominids?" The fossil record of hominids shows our evolutionary tree with many branches. Along with genetic analysis, we also know that we coexisted with some of our hominid cousins. So why are we one of the species on the planet where we are the sole living representative of our genus? Where did our ancestral cousins all go? My speculation, supported by the long historical record of humans and war, is that we exterminated many of them. With no one else to take out our violent tendencies on, we have turned on ourselves. Peace starts with recognizing and confronting our base human instincts, which, uncomfortably, must be realized lie in all of us.

Spencer J. Kubo, Minneapolis

I am a semiretired single woman and have lived in Uptown, the Wedge and the Whittier neighborhood for much of my adult life. I travel the same streets I did when I first moved to Minneapolis and see a far different Minneapolis than the one I first came to appreciate. As a longtime renter and former resident of Washington, D.C., I returned two decades ago to what I regarded as the safer streets of Minneapolis. And they were, compared to living on Capitol Hill. Not so much anymore. As a longtime community activist, I do not recognize Uptown through the Wedge-eccentricity of an Oct. 7 letter writer ("A thriving community"). Instead, I puzzle at the loss of critical anchor businesses and restaurants that I frequented and now the pending closing of the Uptown YWCA. The loss of the Uptown YWCA along with the botched reconstruction of Bryant Avenue and the nexus of shootings in the Lagoon/Lake Street area stagger the imagination. I challenge the city of Minneapolis to consider purchasing the Uptown YWCA and leasing it to the YMCA to manage a critical health and social facility of service to all segments of the community. Change comes to all communities and the threats to public safety in Minneapolis have made me feel less sure of my own security. I am sure, however, that I will remain active, continue to engage in public dialogue and vote in the next Minneapolis election on Nov. 7 with my eyes wide open.

Paulette Will, Minneapolis

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The sadness comes from this apparently being the last Open Streets festival. The city of Minneapolis has decided to no longer help fund this joyous and worthwhile event. Why? Many European cities have streets with no cars allowed, and I've seen lots of people enjoy them.

One more thought: Wouldn't the Nicollet Mall be a perfect place to have a frequent (or permanent) Open Streets concept? It would draw people to a downtown crying out for them.

Bob Epstein, Minneapolis

According to a letter to the editor in the Oct. 8 edition of the Star Tribune about mental health ("Facing our own callousness"), the "abandonment of the helpless began in the Reagan era, when it was decided to close federal and state hospitals, citing the ridiculous excuse that the newer pharmaceuticals would render mental illness as 'manageable.'"

According to an article in the the Atlantic from May 25, 2021, "President John F. Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Health Centers Construction Act." Under the 1963 law, he said, "custodial mental institutions" would be replaced by community mental-health centers, thus allowing patients to live — and get psychiatric care — in their communities.

The closing of mental institutions was well underway by that time.