Readers Write (April 19): Oklahoma City anniversary, Dan Markingson case, truth and consequences, the state budget

Twenty years ago this morning (April 19), the Oklahoma City bombing took 168 lives, injured hundreds, damaged or destroyed scores of structures, and seared the collective heart of the nation. That a young veteran so despised the government he served that he could wantonly kill and maim so many, including 19 children, perplexes and unsettles us to this day. The bombing, however, had deeper roots.

From the mid-1980s through the 1990s, the racist, anti-Semitic and anti-government "Christian Identity" heresy gave shape to so-called "Christian Patriots" who unleashed militias, survivalist camps, and a culture of violence cutting across the prairies and plains. Leaders of the ill-fated Minnesota Patriots Council, for example, obtained the deadly ricin toxin to use against law enforcement and IRS officials, and were the first to be convicted under the federal Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989.

The response of established church leaders to the "Patriot" phenomenon was uneven — from indifference and silence to condemnation and counteraction. In deeply affected states like Iowa, Kansas and Montana, key churches launched widespread congregation- and community-based initiatives to educate and equip their own followers to counter those using the Christian faith for violent ends.

Lessons from those years are pertinent today. The allure, justification or threat of religion-based extremism and violence is best met and countered head-on by faith community leaders who refuse to permit their religion to be manipulated by those seeking political influence and power by violent means.

This is no small task. There is a quickness in Minnesota and the Midwest today to focus on the recruitment of Muslim youths by violent groups, with little regard for the sordid, recent past of other religion-based violence and effective responses to counter it. Pastors, rabbis, imams, and leaders and adherents of all faith communities face quite enough challenges already, but must work together to assure that the ragged thread of violence does not run unchallenged through the fabric of faith. The horror of Oklahoma City grimly, painfully reminds us of that task, and beckons us to live and act daily that such violence and loss may never again occur from the foundations of any religion.

The Rev. David L. Ostendorf, Ellsworth, Wis.

Kudos to former Gov. Arne Carlson for his dogged pursuit of the truth and accountability in the tragic death of Dan Markingson. His thoughtful commentary "U can't regain trust under its current leadership" (April 12) adds the University of Minnesota to the list of institutions that is tolerant of a "looseness about the truth," as described that same day in a column by Star Tribune Commentary Editor D.J. Tice ("Too seldom is there a price for stretching the truth"). Carlson proudly wears a University of Minnesota sweater in his Capitol portrait. No one that I know has a greater love for the U or a greater commitment to ensuring its integrity.

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Wow! I didn't think it could be done, but Carlson has pulled it off: beating even U medical ethicist Carl Elliott in the use of the Markingson tragedy and the U's mishandling of it as a convenient vehicle for grandstanding and self-aggrandizement.

The writer is a professor in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine program at the University of Minnesota.

I agree wholeheartedly with D.J. Tice's April 12 column "Too seldom is there a price for stretching the truth." Whatever paper you read, or whatever television "news" program you choose to watch, it is becoming increasingly easy to spot the slant/bias of the story. In too many instances, we no longer get "just the facts."

That said, it seems like only yesterday that I saw on the opinion pages a sort of disclaimer that stated that the Star Tribune was willing to print letters to the editor in which the facts were suspect in order to represent the balance of views submitted by readers. The Strib seemed to state that if a person had very closely held beliefs, it would print his or her letter — true or not. I find this decision by the Editorial Board to be very dangerous.

I think what Kahneman was saying is that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will begin to believe it. I would rather be given the facts, then form my own opinions based on those facts. I also want other readers to be given the same opportunity to hear the facts — not false reports.

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To Tice's list of journalistic sins against fact, one might add accepting, apparently without second thought, as true statements made by interested parties. Tice describes Harry Reid's claim that Mitt Romney paid no income tax for a decade as "his notorious 2012 calumny." For the remark to have been a calumny, it would have had to been untrue.

Was Tice the one journalist who was given unique access to the Romney tax forms, or did he simply take the word of Republican operatives? As Reid pointed out, if his claim were a lie, all Romney had to do was release his taxes and prove Reid to be a disgusting liar. Every other campaign released at least five, and usually 10, years of returns.

What we do know is that the Romney campaign decided that stonewalling would do less harm than the truth.

How can this be in a state that long has prided itself on protecting Mother Nature? Where is Sigurd Olson when we need him?

While I believe the state's largest newspaper is behind on this issue, as a longtime subscriber, I know it has the staff to play catch-up if it is willing to mobilize its best journalists into an ongoing "GWCC" team to educate the public on what these twin threats are all about and how each of us can contribute to trying to check them if not defeat them. The fallacious arguments of the deniers of CCGW also must be investigated and, I believe, would be refuted.

Whether the Strib takes me up on my idea or not, I urge its readers to investigate on their own and form their own conclusions. May I recommend the various books by environmentalist Bill McKibben (whose organization has a Minnesota chapter); philosopher Dale Jamieson, and North Dakota-born, Minnesota-educated Robert Jensen, now teaching at the University of Texas-Austin.

If I could craft the state budget, I'd use a healthy helping of the surplus to try to guarantee a future for generations of Minnesotans to come.