Readers Write (Oct. 20): Model Railroad Museum, Democratic presidential race, guns, racial disparities

It was distressing to read that the Twin City Model Railroad Museum may be closing this month ("Model train museum has chugged along for generations, but its time is running out," Oct. 16.) We have brought our three sons to this museum in Bandana Square for 16 years, and even as teenagers they still appreciate the trains.

Cities such as Wayzata have a model train situated next to their train depot museum, and it remains popular. Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry's "Great Train Story" is well-attended, and the Lake Superior Railroad Museum is another favorite. Surely there must be more and similar opportunities available to accommodate this historic collection. Thus, I present a challenge for local collectors, investors, hobbyists, developers and museum boards in Minnesota: Please visit the museum yourself; you'll immediately see why a space needs to be provided to accommodate this wonderful collection of train heritage!

An Oct. 16 letter writer skeptically challenged the Star Tribune Editorial Board on Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal. He asks: "What was the malfeasance?" What are the "enduring ethical issues?" Why the "doubts about her honesty?"

I'm no fan of politically motivated smear campaigns (which, let's be honest, the Republican-led Benghazi investigation is), but there is just no way to reconcile Hillary's deleting of what she says were only her personal e-mails before handing the rest over for review. Even absent any incriminating evidence in those e-mails, that act is so blatantly suspicious as to be a dishonest, ethical lapse. Yet she asks us to take her word that she impartially curated her collection of e-mails for potential criminal review.

This is akin to the police pulling over a driver on suspicion of drug possession and allowing the suspect to clean the car before being searched. That's malfeasance, baby.

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The Oct. 16 letter writer questions why Clinton should still be the subject of investigations. An "enduring ethical issue" not mentioned was the Clinton Foundation structure — "donations" from other countries while Clinton was secretary of state. That, when added to the optics of Benghazi, unsecured e-mail servers, the Clinton double-standard mentality and so on certainly explains some of the polling results that question things like honesty, integrity, patriotism, etc. It would not be a surprise if Samsonite International turns out to be one of her campaign or Clinton Foundation donors — Hillary Clinton has a lot of baggage.

I see from the Oct. 17 article "Biden team hints he's getting in" that his team hasn't been reading what the pundits have been saying about Clinton's performance at the Oct. 13 Democratic debate. According to the corporate, mainstream press, Hillary's stellar performance, among other things, has removed the space for a Biden run.

Could it be that the Biden team's and the DNC's internal polling indicates that Bernie Sanders was the big winner of last Tuesday's debate, contrary to mainstream media's spin? For the establishment Democrats, the possibility of the insurrectionist Sanders winning the nomination is a scary proposition. Remember, he isn't even a Democrat.

Hence, here comes the white knight Joe Biden to save the day for the Democratic Party.

An editorial from the Washington Post, reprinted in the Star Tribune (Other Views, Oct. 17), complains about a law passed in 2005 that shields gun manufacturers and sellers from lawsuits when their products are misused by others. The law does allow the companies to be sued if they are negligent or have broken the law. That's why a gun store was recently found liable for the wounding of two police officers who were shot with a gun that was illegally purchased from the store.

What the Washington Post and many progressives want is for people to be able to sue gun manufacturers and dealers when guns are used to commit murder even if the manufacturer or gun store did nothing illegal. It is legal to manufacture guns in the U.S., and it is legal to sell them. It would not make sense to allow people to sue gun manufacturers or dealers for doing something that is legal. If progressives want to ban the manufacture and sale of firearms, they should straightforwardly propose a law doing just that. It would lose by a large margin. The American people are against the illegal use of guns, but we aren't against guns.

Malcolm Gladwell — Canadian journalist, staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, social commentator and bestselling author of "The Tipping Point" and "Outliers" — is now studying the phenomena of school shootings.

What Gladwell discovered is more chilling than any horror film. His findings indicate that since the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, shooters are less radicalized, less alienated and less insane. Pardon an analogy that may be lost on millennials, but it is like taking a Xerox copy of something and making another photocopy of that photocopy, another photocopy of that photocopy, and so on and so forth. Gladwell suspects that social media has created an underground culture that not only makes mass shootings more acceptable, but may even encourage them.

We see this social phenomena already in rioting: The first people who break windows, set fires, destroy property are certifiably crazy; those following behind are usually "bottom feeders," someone who may have got a post on their social media account and wishes to join in the party or just get free stuff.

The premise that extreme antisocial behavior can be copied and transmitted from the insane to the sane is disturbing, to say the least. However, if bad behavior can be transmitted like a disease, why can't good behavior also be transmitted the same way? To combat this social phenomenon, I suggest that schools include character-building curricula, those that develop eulogy assets as well as résumé assets.

Unlike Nancy Reagan's "just say no" war on drugs campaign a generation ago, teachers should instruct our children not only to make better choices, but help them develop character traits that will help them do it.