Readers Write: Fifth District endorsement, Hiroshima anniversary

The Star Tribune Editorial Board's entirely predictable and very long editorial recommending the election of Antone Melton-Meaux over Rep. Ilhan Omar for the Fifth District congressional seat could have been much shorter had it been honest ("Pick Melton-Meaux for integrity, progress," editorial, Aug. 6).

This is what an straightforward expression of the Editorial Board's opinion would have said:

"We recommend a vote for Antone Melton-Meaux over Ilhan Omar because he will never rock the boat occupied by the city or state's power elite. He can be relied upon to favor the interests of the city and state's business leaders regardless of what might be best for the great majority of citizens. He will be 'practical,' which means he will demonstrate no ability to see beyond the present nor will he ever seek to seriously alter the status quo."

That's it. That's what that long editorial really said.

I read with great interest the commentary by Minneapolis City Council Member Andrea Jenkins about Omar's courage ("Times call for courage. Ilhan Omar has it," Opinion Exchange, Aug. 6). Omar has the "courage" to continue to make or approve anti-Semitic statements despite indicating she will stop. Some of us call that chutzpah.

I am deeply disappointed by the Editorial Board's wish to replace my congresswoman, Ilhan Omar. In the worst pandemic in a century, she has advocated for Medicare for All so all might have health care. In a time of climate change that could make us extinct and the economic depression of our lifetimes, she has joined others calling for a Green New Deal, which would create millions of jobs building infrastructure that just might save us. In a time of hate and division, she has consistently sided with the oppressed, opposed military adventurism and pressed for peace. She has done all this despite numerous death threats and calls from the president to deport her.

The board, however, backs a complete newcomer to politics, with no record at all in any office or political party, no resume of advocacy, no substance or detail in any policy positions. He may be a very nice guy, but let's be clear that the entire campaign is designed to rid Trump of a critic and deprive this district of our progressive voice. You certainly know that literally millions of dollars have poured into his campaign from out-of-state billionaires who usually donate to Republicans. You certainly know about the bundled contributions and the money coming in from ideological PACs like Americans for Tomorrow's Future.

When I read the endorsement for Melton-Meaux and the criticism of Omar, I noticed the Star Tribune failed to mention that Omar abstained on a vote to recognize the Armenian genocide. Frankly, her abstaining is offensive. In her reasoning, she more or less states it's because America should focus on its own history and not someone else's. But if that is true, why did civil rights icon the late Rep. John Lewis vote to recognize it? Fellow "Squad" members Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib also voted to recognize the genocide.

If we take her reasoning to the extreme, then America should not recognize any genocide unless it happens in America. That's disgusting and the fact that she has not discussed her decision further is just wrong. People need to think what Omar abstaining from this acknowledgment really means before the upcoming primary.

I am not sure what is worse, giving your husband's company more than $1 million to promote your campaign or not seeming to know what his cut is. There was a time I felt it was encouraging to see an immigrant candidate making it politically with what seemed to be a genuine message. Now I just feel sad that she seems to have no idea about how her actions make her look.

Hopefully she only has a few more months in office and rules are put in place that do not allow candidates to profit from their office.

Revisionist history raises its ugly head once again. The Associated Press article "Urgency to bear witness grows for last Hiroshima survivors" (Aug. 5) is informative and interesting until the last two paragraphs. There the writer refers to an ill-informed claim that the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were unnecessary because Japan was on the verge of surrender.

While the invasion would have eventually succeeded, hundreds of thousands of Japanese, likely more than a million, and many thousands of Americans would have been killed or wounded. That view is "long accepted by many Americans" because it is based on the history of that war. Gar Alperovitz, while promoting the laudable goal of insuring that nuclear weapons are never used again, has chosen to support his position by adopting a common and false revisionist narrative.

Thanks for the Aug. 6 article "Hiroshima survivors call for nuclear disarmament" mentioning the annual remembrance in the Hiroshima Peace Park and the push to get the Japanese government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Thank you also for the Aug. 5 article about Hiroshima survivors bearing witness. Most of them are now gone on this 75th anniversary of bombings that inside of a few minutes killed more than 100,000, as many as the U.S. has lost to the coronavirus in several months. The articles also mention the two prevailing arguments on the bomb: that horrible as it was, it saved a lot of future lives, and that it was unnecessary because the Japanese were ready to surrender. When I was drafted in 1970 and given Geneva Conventions training, I gradually came to a different, mostly unmentioned position. International law says killing civilians is a war crime, and I believe that using the bomb was illegal and immoral, a stance reported in a Nov. 24, 2019, Star Tribune article in which Pope Francis traveled to Japan and called nuclear weapons "evil."

I would also urge the Star Tribune, in the future, to mention the annual Hiroshima Remembrance, which takes place every Aug. 6 at 7:30 a.m. since 1982. It happens at the Peace Garden near Lake Harriet, a wonderful place to visit any time to meditate on working for peace at home, in the community and the world. A way to start would be to call our senators and urge a United States signature on the United Nations Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons.