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Every month I look forward to reading the columns of contributing columnist Angela Denker. Her Dec. 26 story about the clinical pastoral education graduates in the Stillwater prison and how she experienced the true presence of the Christmas season was my greatest literary gift of the season (“What can’t be confined,” Strib Voices, Dec. 26).
Fifty years ago in Edmonton, Alberta, at a Good Samaritan nursing home, I took a quarter of CPE. Though I was a teacher and not seeking ordained ministry, the supervisor needed a “token” woman in his group, and I agreed to participate. It was the most challenging and intense experience of my life! To read about this rigorous training being offered to inmates at Stillwater prison alongside pastoral candidates, the participants’ experiences and the hope the program provides in a prison setting was truly inspiring! Thank you for publishing this article about the graduation ceremony. It was my best gift this Christmas!
Dorothy Meyer, Park Rapids, Minn.
STATE SPENDING
What would early DFLers think?
Thank you to the Minnesota Star Tribune and Andy Brehm for his Dec. 23 comments on illegal immigrant entitlement in his column criticizing DFL spending (“Actually, the DFL deserves complete credit for the budgetary mess Minnesota finds itself in,” Strib Voices, Dec. 23). I am currently a DFL voter but disapprove (as do my legal immigrant friends) of enabling unauthorized foreigners who break federal law to live in Minnesota. Our hard-earned taxpayer dollars should go to improve lives of citizens and legal residents, especially children and the vulnerable, not to enhancing the self-image of those who see themselves as humanitarians by passing laws “to provide college tuition support and generous health insurance subsidies for some of the 81,000 illegal immigrants living here,” which is, as Brehm says, “an affront to American sovereignty and ... a magnet” for more illegal immigration. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party was founded by human rights champion Hubert H. Humphrey, first a senator and later U.S. vice president, and was joined by figures like Sen. and later U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. I doubt either DFLer would have approved of laws rewarding illegal immigration.
We all possess human rights. There is no such thing as “immigrant rights,” an invention of those who want to control the narrative by merging terms. Human rights do not include illegal entry and demand for benefits. Illegal immigrants and their advocates have succeeded in normalizing and rewarding lawbreaking. Citizens of other nations have buddied up to Minnesota’s elected officials and news media, which I saw years ago as a visitor at our State Capitol. The tail should never wag the dog. Will we become a country, like many around the world, where law is not respected and anything anyone can get away with is OK?
Linda Huhn, Minneapolis