Readers Write (Oct. 31): Campaign literature, Washington NFL team, Minneapolis budget priorities, marijuana, Ebola

Are you being bombarded with expensive campaign literature this week before the election? Do some of these brightly colored pieces feature Photoshopped pictures of the opponent, who is clearly a rabid zombie?

Here's a little primer to help you distinguish truth from lies and distortions (L&D).

• If it looks like the front page of the National Enquirer, it's L&D campaign lit.

• If it's the size of a billboard, it's L&D campaign lit.

• If it makes wild accusations about the opponent, it's probably L&D campaign lit.

• If it screams at you about an inflammatory issue you never heard about before, it's L&D campaign lit.

• If it doesn't footnote any credible sources for its hysterical claims, chances are it's L&D campaign lit.

Just load those L&D pieces into your recycle bins, folks. Seriously.

On Sunday, Native American groups will hold a "No Honor in Racism Rally" at 10 a.m. at TCF Bank Stadium before the Washington-Minnesota football game. Their goal is to encourage the Washington team to stop using the offensive "Redskins" team name.

Why do we still give our tacit, sometimes vociferous approval to this racism and bigotry toward Native Americans? We have publicly stopped using offensive slurs for African-Americans, Asian-Americans, gays, Jews, etc. Why can't we extend similar respect?

The Washington Post predicts that the event Sunday will be the largest-ever Native American rally against racism. If that happens, maybe Washington's owner, Dan Snyder, will finally understand that derogatory terms of the 19th century are unacceptable in the 21st.

Attend the rally. Support respect for Native Americans. Be a part of change.

Hennepin County Board Member Jeff Johnson's "no" vote regarding the NFL team name ("County Board condemns use of 'Redskins' name," Oct. 29) could not have been because the issue has "nothing to do" with the county. Of course it does! A facility within the county will host the event, and tax revenue will be generated for the county by spectators attending venues throughout the county on game day. Johnson's decision to court conservative voters rather than to take a stand for citizens of his county is what people find frustrating about government.

I wonder: Without the help of the Native Americans centuries ago who served as guides and protectors for Father Hennepin as he explored a land unfamiliar to any Europeans, just what county board would Jeff Johnson be a member of?

In the Oct. 29 article "Council chewing on budget," Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson and Council Member Lisa Goodman criticize some of Mayor Betsy Hodges' priorities; they say we should focus more on "core" services like police and fire, instead of bike infrastructure and equity staff.

This era is already marked by economic stagnation and rising social and racial inequities. Has there ever been a time when it's more important to be innovative in solving our society's problems? In a time when the federal Highway Trust Fund is bankrupt, what is more cost-effective to meet our city's transportation needs than investing $750,000 in building high-quality bikeways to promote healthy, sustainable transportation? In a time of rising racial and social inequities, it seems only logical that we would invest in some new strategies for solving our city's problems, instead of just putting more police on the streets.

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I welcome any elected official who believes that transportation safety is different from public safety on a walk with me as I try to cross any city intersection with my infant son in a stroller. The dangers are real, and I live them everyday. The mayor has my safety in mind.

In response to an Oct. 29 letter writer's fear that children will be harmed by the legalization of marijuana and that Colorado has suffered social disaster and "legal chaos" due to legalization, I'd like to point out that there is no evidence of this. We now have two state-sized laboratories (Colorado and Washington) that have legalized pot, and it is no longer possible to make up statistics about what we imagine will happen with legalized weed. Welcome to 2014, where marijuana legalization has not hurt children as predicted, and where there is more social order and less legal chaos, since police don't have to waste time busting people for marijuana.

One month ago (Sept. 29), a Star Tribune editorial carried the headline "Global Warming: There is no 'Planet B.'" The editorial lamented that "even in the world's foremost democracy, corporate money and political influence, it seems, speak louder than scientific evidence."

Having recognized the seriousness, how in the world can the Editorial Board justify endorsing the re-election of U.S. Reps. Erik Paulsen and John Kline, who have their heads so firmly planted in the sand regarding climate change that they both voted earlier this year to prohibit the Defense Department from spending a dime to even study the problem?

The problem with unduly strict quarantines of health workers who have visited the Ebola-plagued countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has not been adequately articulated. What is missing from the discussion is what might happen if the virus spreads to other countries in Africa, which could happen easily (despite initial success in Nigeria and Senegal). The more African countries to which Ebola spreads, the greater the difficulty will be for the world (the global economy could break down), and ever more quarantines will need to be imposed.