Readers Write: (Aug. 28): War and peace, Southwest LRT, cancer screening, the Koch brothers, police tactics

The Aug. 26 commentary "The problem with peace" was interactive and interesting. Kaywin Eleanor put forward a conservative viewpoint about acting in the face of evil, and that is quite right — it is what democracy is all about. Ironically, though, the same elements of thought apply to all. People of all races, at least literally, are using democracy to their advantage, even on behalf of absurd activities. That includes speech.

Douglas McCain, a U.S. citizen who died fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, is a shocking example. On paper, the idea that non-Muslims would fight for a jihadist group might have taken traditional intelligence strategists by surprise.

Minnesotans remember the Somali-Americans who sympathized with the Al-Qaida branch fighting in East Africa back in 2007. The youth recruitment program then was absolutely seen as terrible and threatening. But it had easily explicable trends.

Nevertheless, a former Christian fighting for an Islamist group seems harder to explain. It leaves most of us wondering what led McCain, and possibly many others, to join terrorist groups. The issue perhaps has more to do with misleading social liberty and personal choice. The meaning of democracy needs a fresh, tougher look.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, our city has one of the most extraordinary and extensive park systems in the world. I decided to move here in 1992 when I stood on the north side of Cedar Lake in a place left intentionally wild. It was dusk. The air was quiet. I looked at a vibrant city skyline as it began to glow. There is no other city like this, I thought. And I was right.

I found out that I was standing in a planned ecosystem that extended from Lake Nokomis to Theodore Wirth Park and beyond. Astonishingly, you could actually swim and fish in spring-fed Cedar Lake. That our City Council is voting this week on a light-rail transit route that would bisect this precious asset makes no sense. The route underserves our people, overserves Eden Prairie, and, in forever changing the character of our wildest lake perhaps changes the character of who we are, and what Minneapolis stands for. We are not spendthrifts; maintaining our infrastructure means jobs. We don't dole out equity at the last minute to try cleaning up a project that should offer first-class service to the those who need it most. Real equity is about having fantastic transportation where the people are. Real community is about keeping our lush trails and lake clean and open to all. Not a shovel of earth has yet been dug on this project. Mayor Betsy Hodges and members of the City Council, you can still make this city's transcendent relationship with nature your legacy.

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In response to the Aug. 27 letter "Cologuard test isn't just a Mayo product": The Mayo Clinic receives no royalties when a Mayo patient is prescribed the Cologuard test. Mayo will receive royalties when other providers prescribe the test outside of the Mayo Clinic. This arrangement is consistent with our robust policies governing conflict of interest at Mayo.

Cologuard is a screening test that will save lives. We at Mayo are proud of our role in developing this test with our collaborator and co-inventor Exact Sciences, and for sharing it with providers across the United States for the benefit of all patients.

The writers are Mayo Clinic physicians.

We can't know what lies in the Koch brothers' hearts. Let's take Fritz Corrigan at his word ("Why I stand with the Koch brothers," Aug. 27) that they pursue their agenda out of earnest belief that less regulation is in the best interests of the country as a whole and not because they are defending business profits. Scorn is invited not by holding these views, but in advocating for them in intellectually dishonest ways. Rather than engaging the science directly, they fund think tanks that employ tactics similar to ones used previously by the tobacco and lead industries. The goal of these tactics is not to arrive at truth, but to sow doubt, confusion and mistrust of the scientific community in the interest of staving off additional regulation. It is this shortsighted motivated reasoning that warrants scorn.

Richard Greelis ("Police armed for the threats they now face," Aug. 27) is right to say that law enforcement these days is a well-equipped profession, but to claim that the police are well-trained is a biased assumption. The military-styled riot-control procedures in Ferguson, Mo., stemmed from an officer resorting to lethal violence at close range. Similarly, the situation involving a knife-wielding man shot dead by police within close range outside St. Louis on Aug. 19 could have been reconciled without death (especially based on the video). Stun guns have a range of 15 to 35 feet and are — according to many reports — standard issue for law enforcement. Likewise, a gun can be used to incapacitate a suspect with shots to nonvital areas that disable their mobility.