Readers Write: Israel/Hamas war, liberal arts degrees, Uber and Lyft

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

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How pathetic. Dozens of pious church leaders signed a lengthy mea culpa opinion piece about Christianity’s past persecution of Jews and Muslims, calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire and resumption of humanitarian aid in Gaza (“How we as Christians have contributed over the ages to Mideast violence,” Opinion Exchange, March 26).

And the Jewish hostages abducted from Israel, numbering over 100, including babies and children?

I wanted to say they were an afterthought, but they weren’t mentioned at all.

By attempting to show how much they’ve learned, these Christian faith leaders reveal how very little they’ve learned.

Leslie Martin, Inver Grove Heights

After three readings of “How we as Christians have contributed over the ages to Mideast violence” I’m still confused about the authors’ point. Especially when they try to link history to Hamas’ current and latest attempts at destroying Israel.

Eight hundred years ago, after the last Crusaders were defeated by the Muslim army, Europe abandoned Mideast Christians to lives of third-class citizenship. So, today, centuries of persecution has reduced Christians’ Mideast population from a historic 10% or more to only 4%.

As for the Christians causing the Holocaust, I remind these authors that Christians made up a vast majority of the Allied World War II soldiers killed or wounded in Europe during our successful destruction of the authors of the Holocaust.

Now, I’m willing to confess that my letter will have zero affect on Hamas’ vow to kill and remove all Jews from Israel. If only the authors would characterize their pointless article the same way.

Terry Larkin, Deephaven

The commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the opinion pages, which blames Christians for the deaths of tens of thousands over decades, is so misguided and shamelessly inaccurate that I am embarrassed for the organizations that allowed themselves to be represented by the article. I will not lower myself to respond to their premise that blames Christians for all the problems in the Middle East. All I’ll say is this: The release of all the hostages taken by Palestinians in October would lead to an immediate cease-fire, but Hamas will not agree, because it is willing to watch its own people starve rather than lose control.

Also, there could be a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem, as soon as the Palestinians agree that Israel has a right to exist. As long as Hamas and its extremist ideology rules the Gaza Strip, there is no chance that there can be a two-state solution. There is a reason other Mideast countries have backed away from supporting Palestinians and their radical agenda.

Scott Sayer, Long Lake

Commentary writer Maura Lerner (“What has my party come to?” Opinion Exchange, March 27) claims, “I’m not equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.” Well, don’t look now, but every other word she wrote says she’s doing exactly that.

She ignores the U.S. House resolution that passed 311-14, with 92 cowardly Democrats abstaining, which explicitly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. AIPAC has been using the scurrilous antisemite tag as a cudgel for at least 50 years to keep legislators gagged.

Not a good look, Lerner.

William Beyer, St. Louis Park

I earned a liberal arts degree many years ago, and the college recently invited me to take part in a career-mentorship program. I replied that I didn’t think I was the best person for this, because in the decade after getting the degree I had been a well digger and then teacher of English as a foreign language (in the Peace Corps), then a commercial artist, an ad writer for manufactured housing, a scene painter for TV production, a construction worker, a census taker, a stained glass artisan, a life model for art classes and a theater reviewer for a California newspaper — before stumbling into a computer-related field that I eventually retired from after 30 years of writing operating systems for communications satellites. During those engineering years I found many upper-management types who had majored in history, speech, English and the arts, as well as the expected technical degrees. One such boss (history major) said, “Look around you. Many of these technically brilliant people can’t write a decent sentence to save their lives. That’s the difference between being trained and being educated.”

Indeed, the person from my college, dismissing my qualms, said, “Well, I’d say that shows the value of a liberal arts education!” and she was right. I knew I could do pretty much anything so long as I was willing to give it a try, and that confidence and broad background have given me a very good start for everything I’ve done in life.

Steve Hoffmann, Anoka

Having spent much of my career as a college teacher I appreciate the recent letters supporting the value of a college education, particularly a liberal arts curriculum, for reasons other than the salary predicted soon after graduation. In my mind, what is perhaps even more important is that a liberal arts education not only opens many doors to current cultural activities, but it reflects upon the history of our species and gives us the opportunity to think about and perhaps develop insights into what it means to be a human being in this day and age.

John Robertson, Minneapolis

I fully support requiring Uber and Lyft, and similar companies, to make sure that their drivers make at least the minimum wage without tips.

I am a former rideshare driver. The only way that I had any positive return on my driving was through tax credits allowed for business deductions because of the costs for wear-and-tear on my car and the cost of gasoline. I quit rather than make the taxpayers pay me so that Uber and Lyft could rake in millions!

Why is Minneapolis and the rest of Minnesota assuming that if these companies leave that there will be no competitor to offer the same services and appropriate pay to the drivers? Why are we buying the Uber and Lyft narrative that no one else could provide the services? Why are we willing to make a mockery of our so-called protections?

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I recently read J. Dan E. Maruska’s commentary “Minnesota can do better than Uber, Lyft” (Opinion Exchange, March 23), and I thought I was reading an article from the satirical website “The Onion.” Maruska’s commentary argues that creating a rideshare app would be easy, cost little money and could be up and running “in less than a matter of weeks.” The “Shark Tank” pitch for this startup would be appointment television for sure.

It’s not mentioned in the commentary, but these rideshare companies spent millions of dollars and years of development to create a better mousetrap to taxis/cabs. Are Uber and Lyft perfect? No, but remember that driving for Uber and Lyft was never meant to be full-time work. Let’s stop regulating it as such.

I wish Maruska godspeed on his entrepreneurial journey!