Readers Write: An assassination in Minnesota

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

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In the wake of the horror of more political violence come more thoughts and prayers. Since the old ones aren’t working so well, maybe it’s time to try something new. For those promoting and commercializing this vicious rhetoric, how about, “I refuse to do this any more”? For those clicking on every fear-filled headline, how about, “Why am I more interested in this than I am in stories about people creating peace?” For those trying to win elections, how about, “This isn’t your country or my country, but our country”? And for those trying to create safe, inclusive communities where everyone can thrive, and where people turn toward one another rather than away from each other, how about, “Who can help me do this?”

And as for the prayers, after we say the ones for the innocent victims and their shattered families, how about, “Lord, let me an agent of your peace on earth.”

Robin Silverman, Eden Prairie

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The assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman is a sickening reality beyond words of sadness and outrage. It’s monstrously wrong, made more so by what a wonderful leader and person she had been.

The idea was to have Republicans and DFLers, when in session, not sit across the aisle from one another but sit right next to each other. They would get to know one another, learn what they really thought, hear about their families and just plain connect as human beings.

I sat in those chairs in the Minnesota House for 12 years as a DFL representative representing southwest Minneapolis from 1979-1990. I am not naive to the working of the legislative process and politics.

I think this move would honor Hortman because it would bring people of differing views together to build personal bonds and better understanding. It would show respect to those with different opinions and reduce polarization. It would enable a deeper and better understanding of the “other side,” all of which Hortman embodied.

Having served in the House for 12 years, I know there is no good argument against this idea. If the two parties need to have internal discussions and debate they can do so robustly when they meet in private partisan caucuses. If there is a social group of DFLers or Republicans who love one another’s company, they can adapt. It would not impede passing legislation.

If the House and Senate were to adopt this practice it would be a wonderful step toward depolarization, an example for both the other 49 legislatures and to the United States Congress.

Todd Otis, Minneapolis

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Saturday from President Donald Trump: “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place!”

Sunday: Trump said he “may” call Gov. Tim Walz about the attacks and referred to Walz as “a terrible governor” and “grossly incompetent.”

One would think that Saturday’s vile, targeted assassinations and shootings in Minnesota deserve, at a minimum, only comments against horrific violence against public servants. Yet by Sunday, Trump had done a 180 from blessing our great state to vilifying our governor with falsehoods.

If the president cannot set a decent example of humanity and generally doing the right thing for more than 24 hours, how are we going to break this cycle of harm and death? We can’t have it both ways.

Laurie Eckblad Anderson, Minneapolis

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I write as a left-of-center voter who agrees with Walz on most policy issues. In the wake of the political violence that has left us shaken and scared, I implore the governor to stop referring to Republicans with Nazi terminology. In fact, I hope the governor apologizes for using that language last week in front of Congress. As the de facto leader of the DFL in Minnesota, Walz should repudiate such language and encourage others in his caucus to do the same.

Tony Jones, Edina

While advocates usually present their positions in black and white, most issues are not that simple; they have pluses and minuses. A cake-based diet is a plus for my taste buds, but a minus for my morning weigh-in. I wish advocates were willing to admit the minuses of their positions and then tell us how the plusses outweigh the minuses.

Take Saturday’s shootings as an example. Sure, a couple of DFLers and their spouses got shot, but that’s just the price we are willing to pay so that gun-owning Americans can feel safe.

Or consider Sandy Hook Elementary. Twenty-six people got shot (20 six- and seven-year-olds and six adults). But people need their guns in case of a home invasion.

Then there’s the Los Angeles music festival shooting (60 dead, over 850 wounded). But we need armed civilians in case they need to overthrow the government.

See? Plusses and minuses: When we articulate them it’s easy to see that the Second Amendment’s plusses outweigh its minuses. We’re not like Europe or Canada or Australia; we don’t let the body count lead us to gun-safety legislation.

Rolf Bolstad, Minneapolis

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The tragic assassination of Hortman and her husband should at least result in the first step toward reducing the abundance of guns in our state. Members of the House in Minnesota are allowed to carry weapons onto the floor. This must end now as the first step. When I served in the Minnesota House years ago, some of my colleagues told me they didn’t “feel dressed” if they weren’t wearing their gun. Lawmakers will never vote for reasonable gun control when they can carry weapons into their own public place of work.

Kathleen Vellenga, St. Paul

The writer served in the Minnesota House from 1981 to 1994.

Years ago, I spotted a woman walking down the street in front of our house. She was easily recognized as the campaigning Melissa Hortman. I joined her and shared that her political views matched mine except on one topic: abortion. As we now know was typical, she listened respectfully. My purpose was to simply express frustration, not to expect changing her mind. Just as she voted this year to defund health insurance for undocumented immigrants in order to have her other priorities met, I repeatedly voted for her. In her usual friendly manner, she had once referred to me during a precinct caucus as “the letter-writer.” She had connected with “the man on the street.” That was Hortman.

As readers can see from my tagline below, we’ve moved to Maple Grove. Coincidently, that house where we lived in Brooklyn Park was photographed on June 14 by Star Tribune photojournalist Alex Kormann. It shows six FBI agents in full military gear on the property, two of them at the front door talking with a person inside — just feet from the site of the above-described street discussion. The photo literally brings home the horrible reality of the assassinations of Hortman and her husband, Mark. Those deaths are not just news. They are personal.