Readers Write: Elephant hunting in Africa, hunting in general, the numbers on hot-button issues, wind farms, central-city amenities, the Super Bowl and light rail

Recently, the Trump administration had decided to allow elephant trophies taken in Zimbabwe to be transported to the U.S. After a public outcry, it reversed that decision. In 2015, I was in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park. The park has an elephant population of 45,000-plus and environmentally can support about 15,000. Because of international pressure concerning the taking of elephants for game, there is no hunting in the park. Elephants are destroying the habitat. During the wet season, they have plenty to eat. As it gets drier and food is hard to come by, they begin stripping trees. Eventually the lack of food will cause the starvation of some of the elephant population. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to bring the elephant population in Hwange to a level that the habitat could support. Hunting in the park would bring a lot of money to an area that has a high poverty rate.

The writer of a Nov. 20 letter clearly took great umbrage at Dick Schwartz's Nov. 13 commentary "The evolution of a nonhunter's thinking," which explored why people kill animals for sport. It's interesting that the letter writer took Schwartz's commentary as almost a personal attack when in fact it was a thoughtful self-examination to better understand his personal feelings about hunting. The letter writer, a self-described lifelong hunter, lists the usual reasons why he, and now his 13-year-old son, hunt: It's legal, good for the economy, etc. He also states that hunting can teach a person "valuable life lessons." Exactly what "valuable life lesson" a person can learn from hiding in the bushes, then killing an unsuspecting deer with a high-powered rifle, is not mentioned. The letter writer missed the main point of the article, the dominating question of all nonhunters: No matter how you justify it, how can anyone get a thrill from the kill?

Here are numbers that give me pause as I try analyzing and prioritizing the many problems, especially violence, we face in the U.S. (reports have some variation, but numbers generally conform):

• Annual homicides by firearms: approximately 12,000.

• Blacks shot and killed annually by cops: approximately 250 (virtually all have been confirmed as armed and dangerous).

• Unarmed blacks killed annually by cops: statistics vary, but the total approximates 15.

• Total black homicide victims with white perpetrators: approximately 250.

• Trends in both raw count and per-capita deaths by firearms — dramatically downward until approximately two years ago, after Ferguson, Mo. Multiple/mass killings are up as expected.

• Finally, for comparison, total annual fetal deaths by abortions — approximately 900,000.

I'm not sure what it all means, so make your own comparisons. Do your own research to supplement or refine these numbers, then draw your own conclusions. I wonder if we are barking up the right trees and putting out the right fires. I wonder if the many demonstrators for various causes operate with all the right facts.

Here is the other side of the article on Freeborn County wind farms ("Blowback on wind project," Nov. 18). Farm commodity prices are down, and land values have decreased because of it. Farmland owners are struggling to make a living off the land, and the income from wind turbines could be the difference between keeping the land in the family and selling it. With decreasing land values, property tax income falls and taxes are shifted to the cities.

Hartland Township, which has an existing wind farm, has been able to upgrade roads and road working equipment with its share of new property taxes. When a township official pointed this out at a County Board meeting, an official from the township fighting the new wind farm said, "We don't need new tax money because we get free money from the state," then went on to thank the grant writer for the money.

A suburban letter writer on Nov. 20 complained about the condition of roads in downtown Minneapolis. It is often to our cities that suburban people come for their business needs, medical care, and their dining and entertainment pleasure. We who live in the urban core of the Twin Cities pay substantially more in property taxes than do those who live outside these boundaries. They escape this taxation simply by returning home. However, it is with the help of our property taxes that everyone in this state, and from elsewhere, benefits from what these two cities offer.

There are many entities with an urban location that are exempt from paying city property taxes, such as hospitals, colleges, religious organizations, all levels of government functions and public parks. We city residents are taxed to make up this lack of funding to provide citywide services for public safety, water and sewers, street lighting and road upkeep, including the potholes that disturbed the suburbanite's enjoyment of her evening downtown.

We city dwellers are proud of where we live and hope that everyone continues to enjoy whatever in the cityscape appeals to them, whether it's a marathon, numerous museums and art galleries, outstanding concerts and plays, or all kinds of sporting events. Yes, even a Super Bowl game, watched by the world.

Regarding allowing only Super Bowl ticket holders to ride light rail on Super Bowl Sunday ("Super Bowl's LRT plan is questioned," Nov. 17): I can certainly understand the difficulty of trying to balance security for the Super Bowl while trying not to inconvenience regular riders too much. Why not have two sets of trains? The Super Bowl train could go straight from the Mall of America to U.S. Bank Stadium with no additional stops. The "normal train" would stop at all stations except U.S. Bank Stadium. Just a thought.