Readers Write: Hortman assassination, starvation in Gaza, mascot criticisms

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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I am certain I am not alone with many questions regarding the horrific murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. The Minnesota Star Tribune responsibly published as much information regarding the overall police response on July 27 as is publicly available (“New details about police activity after lawmaker shootings raise questions about response”). I have questions regarding further details of Vance Boelter’s movements, the response by police after witnessing Mark’s murder and the existence, if any, of accomplices. I am certain responders followed protocol, especially in light of the murder of three Burnsville public servants not long ago. Such unusual tragedies remind us how dangerous the job of our first responders can be. They all deserve our support and gratitude.

Robert Wetherille, Eden Prairie

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It’s been 25 years since Columbine. We saw this in Parkland and Uvalde.

Police Chief Mark Bruley made this flawed call. Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, might have survived had Brooklyn Park Police Department followed an active shooter protocol instead of “de-escalation.”

After two years of his missteps and ethical lapses leading up to this tragic day, this is the final straw.

Howard Dotson, Minneapolis

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Thank you Minnesota Star Tribune for your thorough article on July 26. I tend to be forgiving about mistakes made in a new crisis scenario like this, but one detail sticks out to me: The accused shooter was “impersonating a police officer.” This oversight could inform us about future safety. Lately, masked and highly armed people have arrived in apparent Immigration and Customs Enforcement uniforms with unmarked vehicles and military equipment to yank people off the streets in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Are they actual federal employees of some sort? As the Minneapolis City Council fine tunes its separation ordinance to prohibit our police from any interaction with these masked people, to not be compliant in sending people to gulags in the Louisiana swamps or “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida, I would ask for one exception: Let Minneapolis police officers check to be sure they are not impersonators. Each and every one of these apparent federal officers should be personally identified by a local officer, and that identity confirmed by their respective agencies.

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“ ... a New Hope police officer ‘self-dispatched’ ... ” stops alongside a police style SUV. The gunman is allegedly in the drivers seat. He does not respond to requests from the officer, who drives away to check on state Sen. Ann Rest. It is inexplicable how the New Hope police officer could just drive away! At 3:35 a.m. Brooklyn Park police arrive at the home of Rep. Melissa Hortman and encounter the gunman. More than an hour passed before they entered the home. The Hortmans should be alive today.

Joe Carr, Eden Prairie

Why is the U.S. still giving a blank check to Israel?

The U.S. has strongly supported Israel since it came into being in 1948 and President Kennedy began military assistance in 1962. American military support is now $3.8 billion annually. There are good reasons for that historical support, especially in the early decades of Israel’s existence. But after 59,000 Palestinian deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza and imminent starvation facing a third of Gaza’s population (“Mass starvation stalks Gaza, from babies to doctors,” July 27), it is high time to end America’s no-strings-attached military support.

Israel is a very skilled military power. It’s lethally competent at war fighting and killing. A continued U.S. alliance with Israel makes sense if supremacy and domination of the Palestinian people is the goal, but what are the American people giving up in moral prestige? And what is the moral injury to our psyche with people in Gaza starving as American weaponry is used against them?

Michael Darger, Minneapolis

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Absent courageous protestors, most of us are seemingly silent as rampant hunger, starvation and possibly famine afflict residents of Gaza. Before it allows food trucks to cross the border, Israel wants Hamas to release remaining hostages that were taken on Oct. 7. Thus, contending parties are blaming each other for food not reaching hungry mouths in Gaza.

Where is the governmental leadership here? It is a travesty that hungry mouths are pawns in a political battle. It is even more of a travesty that so few of us are speaking out. If we remain silent, aren’t we as complicit as the political leaders of the U.S. and of Israel?

Paul Gilje, St. Paul

I enjoyed the article about the Scopes “monkey trial,” (July 24) in particular the role H.L. Mencken played in the proceedings. It reminded me of another commentary by a newsman that was published more than 100 years ago. On July 26, 1920, the Evening Baltimore Sun included this prediction by Mencken: “As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.”

Chris Simonson, Wabasha, Minn.

I read Gary Langendorf’s piece about President Donald Trump “suggesting” that the mascots for the Washington Commanders and the Cleveland Chiefs be changed back to their original mascots (“Readers Write,” July 28).

Read this: “President Donald Trump is threatening to hold up a new stadium deal if Washington’s NFL team did not restore its name to a racial slur, despite decades of psychological research showing the negative mental health impacts of Native American mascots” (Trump’s team name demand spurns data," July 28).

My friend, this is not a suggestion.

We all need to see, and understand, the difference.

Karen Schott, Excelsior

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While there are definitely more pressing problems in the world (i.e., President Donald Trump’s presidency and kakistocracy perhaps the most), I would offer a solution for the conundrum facing Washington Commanders about reverting to their old moniker. The nom de football team, “Redskins,” can be restored. The solution is replacing the team’s mascot. Rather than using the likeness of a Native American, substitute an image of a red skinned potato. That should appease all parties concerned, and perhaps increase the appreciation for a long overlooked, healthy and mostly, homegrown in the U.S. foodstuff. Everybody wins. So much winning.