Readers Write: ICE drawdown, for-profit health care, boomers and the environment

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

•••

In all of their training and preparation for Operation Metro Surge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apparently did not anticipate that decent people would actually rise in defense of their neighbors, their friends or their community against cruelty and violence. They assumed they would have the run of the streets where they would naturally intimidate everyday people into silence by force and a menacing presence.

It is amazing, how great that miscalculation. What it has awakened here. For every person pushed to the ground, for every person detained, there are 10,000 more ready to spring to their place — to help with rent, to deliver groceries, to give support, to march in protest and to resist armed, masked gangs where they meet them in the street. The drawdown of ICE in Minnesota is a sure sign that they realize now what they did not before: that they will never be able to defeat a community of good people who believe in one another.

Mark Ferrey, White Bear Lake

•••

I really want to feel good about the end of the ICE siege, but I can’t get rid of the feeling that this needs to be our war. Minnesota has brought the one weapon to the fight against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the attorney general that other places won’t — the undeniable truth about what this administration is doing.

In Minnesota we have kept the truth front and center. Our press covered it all at great personal risk. Local police talked honestly about their experiences with ICE and about what real law enforcement looks like. A good number of our elected officials supported and defended the citizens who took to the streets because it was all too terrible to ignore. We used our cameras to show the violence committed by those masked people. Our judges demanded accountability and honesty. Pieces of this do happen in other cities, but Minnesota is where it all came together so the truth could not be denied.

DHS is going to go elsewhere with their same game plan and I am deeply concerned that the truth will be hidden again and their lies will gain traction. I don’t like to think about what that means for the future of our democracy.

Lenore Millibergity, Minneapolis

•••

As I watch the news events in Minneapolis unfold, I am struck by this thought — Minnesota has taken the Hawaiian concept of an Aloha life and brought it into real life. Aloha doesn’t just mean hello or goodbye. An Aloha life means taking care of your neighbor, helping those who need help with food, funds and friendship, and standing your ground against unlawful incursions into your communities. So, congratulations! You’ve just become the second Aloha state of our 50 states. Keep up this blessed work. We, in Hawaii, applaud your efforts, your kindness and your absolute dedication to following the tenets of our Constitution. Aloha to you all.

Coinciding with the ICE surge in the Twin Cities, gun sales have reportedly also surged (“First-time buyers spur firearm sales,” Feb. 13). For those who have bought guns, now is the time to also buy a gun safe.

Counterintuitively, a firearm in a home increases the risk of both homicide and suicide. Because the usual definition of a mass shooting is a shooting in public, seldom mentioned is the fact that a home is the most frequent site of a mass shooting, and the shooter is most likely a family member.

I fail to understand how an individual can believe that a shotgun can protect from ICE or Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents who will fire at will when someone yells “Gun!” Recent experience in Minneapolis tells us that the best defense is video recording. If you feel unsafe, buy a system for your home and post signs that everyone is being recorded.

I can appreciate that if someone chooses to own a firearm, they want it to be available when they think they need it. A handgun kept in a bedside table is easily taken by a child. If kept in the glove box of a car, simply stolen. A biometric gun safe secures a handgun for around $100 — approximately the same cost as a box of shells.

You bought a gun, now go out and buy a gun safe. The life you save may be your own, or that of a kid you know.

Given the recent horrific events occurring in the Twin Cities and appropriate coverage in the Minnesota Star Tribune, I wonder how many people ventured to the Business section on Feb. 12. An article describes the reaction toward UnitedHealth Group’s financially supporting an optional course at the University of Minnesota Medical School promoting health quality at a reduced cost (“University of Minnesota med school changes class after accusations of UnitedHealth ‘propaganda’”). Regarding that word “propaganda”: Whether there was favoritism toward UnitedHealth Group or not, at the very least, the medical school would be naive to think there would not be some positive bias from UnitedHealth Group, and then sufficiently scrutinize course material beforehand.

Additionally, either the title or the theme of the course was “value-based care,” which these days apparently means taking care of people at a lower cost. Yes, I am ancient and ranting, but decades ago, when I graduated medical school and into my years of private practice, I thought value-based care was the concept of giving good care to patients after thoughtful diagnostic evaluation and a plan. Now it appears that “care value” has gone out the window in favor of “financial value.”

Finally, halfway through the article I found the disturbing issue regarding medical students and how they have “... aspired to executive roles within the for-profit industry.” I’m sorry, if you want that kind of job, get an MBA, not an MD. For every medical student that goes into business, that’s one less that will be caring for patients — and that’s not valuable.

Paul Waytz, Minneapolis

The writer is a retired physician.

I sincerely apologize for the utter failure of my generation to preserve the Earth for you and your children, and their children and on and on. I tried. I am a scientist who worked for nearly 40 years in environmental protection, mostly as a state regulator (MPCA and Met Council). I felt like my colleagues and I made at least some positive difference. But the president has just ended the federal government’s authority to control carbon dioxide emissions and other pollutants that are heating the planet. This action will eliminate the federal government’s ability to limit greenhouse gases that are fueling heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and other extreme weather. He says he believes that climate change is a “scam.” He believes that the vast majority of experts around the world are wrong, and that they have been wrong for over 160 years (Google Eunice Foote). No. Actually, all that he believes is that he will get multimillion-dollar campaign donations from companies that make more money if they’re allowed to pollute. Oh well, we had a fairly good run. Good luck everyone.