Readers Write: Child protection, Presidential Fitness Test, drugs, battery recycling, the Twins

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 “Child protection: When tragedy is used to justify more harm” (Strib Voices, Aug. 7), Amelia Franck Meyer states that children placed in foster care suffer more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) than other children, with long-term consequences. What she fails to acknowledge is that the very study she cited for this claim noted that it would be inaccurate to attribute these outcomes to foster care alone. These are children who experienced significant abuse and trauma before being removed from their homes — events that also cause emotional harm with long-term effects. Children should be with family when it is safe, but when they are severely endangered, they need to be removed, at least temporarily, to limit further abuse, further ACEs and more lifelong consequences. Child safety is the priority.

Meyer also notes her concern about children being removed from homes merely for neglect. Neglect is defined by statute as parents failing to meet their child’s needs “when reasonably able to do so,” which precludes a child being removed from a family only because of poverty. In the most recent Minnesota Child Welfare Report, 71% of child deaths were attributed to neglect, so it is clear it can be a life-threatening danger.

Lisa Hollensteiner, Edina

The writer is board chair of Safe Passage for Children.

Kudos to Kayan Karimnejad for his commentary on the Presidential Fitness Test (“A student-athlete’s perspective on the Presidential Fitness Test,” Strib Voices, Aug. 11). Publicly humiliating students in gym class as they attempt to take a fitness test is highly unlikely to improve the health of our young people. It would be equally silly to have our kids take an IQ test in order to improve their mental abilities. There are no simple solutions to complex problems.

As researchers have found, to be fit, a healthy diet is just as important as exercise. That’s another huge challenge for us to wrestle with!

Daniel Johnson, Crystal

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I well remember the Presidential Fitness Tests of the 1960s because I failed every single one — failed miserably. Coming from a non-sports-minded family and a Catholic grade school where there was very little in the way of “gym class,” I didn’t know anything about doing exercises or handling a ball.

It was particularly humiliating to have my embarrassment witnessed by the other 49 girls in physical education class, and it left me with a strong feeling of contempt for my own apparently worthless body, which was excruciatingly painful for an adolescent girl. It also exacerbated my depression and anxiety. High school athlete Karimnejad is absolutely right in saying that if these fitness tests are revived they need to be done very differently.

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Restoring the Presidential Fitness Test by the physically unfit president is a laughable matter. If he’s implementing this to see that America’s children stay within a healthy weight range, he’s already doing that by ensuring groceries prices continue to soar. Have you checked the price of Keebler cookies lately? How did those egg prices treat you? He’s a “do what I say, not what I do” kind of guy. Thoughts and prayers to American consumers in the checkout line.

Jane A. Kennedy, St. Paul

So now kids are getting into your THC gummies (“Cannabis poisonings are rising, mostly among children,” Aug. 11). Not long ago, simple possession was a felony offense. And, if you endangered your kids with it, a good long sentence. The smokable kind is probably socially acceptable. The candy form should be outlawed or made unpalatable to children. We will soon see what we have wrought.

Harald Eriksen, Brooklyn Park

President Donald Trump wants to burnish his tough-guy, big-man image by sending our military troops to foreign nations to play “Whac-A-Mole” on drug cartels (“Sheinbaum says U.S. forces are unwelcome in her country,” Aug. 9). He is ignoring supply-demand principles: Where there is a market, supply will fill in to meet it.

Such a shame our nation continues to have such a demand for illegal drugs. It is a very complex issue, but it would be better to work on improving our economy as well as access to supports to reduce demand in our nation. Better to find a way to help those at risk for drug use than to put our military personnel at risk and cause harm to them and their families through high-risk raids.

Bruce Hermansen, Apple Valley

Before everyone gets too hasty and demands the Eagan battery recycler is put out of business maybe think ahead (“Lead in soil leaves neighbors worried,” Aug. 7). There are 4,750,000 vehicles registered in Minnesota in 2025 and each one has a battery containing lead and sulfuric acid. Not to mention the agricultural, golf-course and lawn-mowing equipment in the state, each with a battery and all needing replacement during their life expectancies.

Point being, recycling of these materials is absolutely necessary, so the city and state need to work with this recycler to ensure proper, pollution-free recycling least we see junk batteries sitting alongside of the road or in landfills.

I applaud that the Minnesota Twins waved the white flag and made the trades. They rid themselves of underperforming ballplayers in exchange for prospects who may lead them to greater glory in the future. For various reasons this year the Twins were going nowhere. A division title or a wild card spot just wasn’t in the cards.

The moves the Twins made give them an opportunity to reload for the near future. Management should be applauded.

Terry Olson, Winona, Minn.

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About a week ago, Minnesota Twins ownership unloaded 11 players at the trade deadline, an unprecedented number, even prompting some people to say it was malpractice. Hard to argue.

Baseball is the game that is truly American, and one that entices young boys who become young men to chase their dreams only to get used and underpaid while doing so. So let’s hope that this current conglomeration called the Minnesota Twins can succeed and bring some unexpected success that all of us yearn for.

And let’s hope the current ownership of the Minnesota Twins finds a buyer, hopefully somebody who cares about winning and treating both the fans and the players with some dignity.