Readers Write: (Oct. 4): Federal shutdown, MNsure, CIA in Syria, sex offenders, Catholic Church

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama refuse to negotiate with House Republicans on Obamacare, causing a federal government shutdown. The House has sent multiple government funding bills to the Senate that defunded or delayed Obamacare. Americans have shown in the polls that we do not want this health care takeover. Yet Reid refuses to negotiate. He'd rather protect Obama's legacy than protect our country from what even some Democrats call a "train wreck." Also, President Obama will negotiate with a terrorist state's president, but not our elected members of Congress. Obama is trying to blame conservatives for the government shutdown. But he and Reid are the ones refusing to negotiate.

I believe most Americans will see through this as Democrats' simply wanting to protect Obama's only legacy at all costs. The proof will be at the election polls in 2014.

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What would have happened if Democrats had refused to accept George W. Bush as president in 2000 because we knew that the Supreme Court had made a wrong decision based on its political orientation? Do you remember the scorn the Republicans hurled at Democrats and independents that were angry and upset over the decision? But the government didn't grind to a halt or fall into chaos. This country was an example to the world that people who deeply disagree can still get along well enough to run a country. Rule of law won.

But not now. The Republicans have devolved into Third World tactics by refusing to follow the rule of law. They would rather destroy everything and descend into chaos rather than take their lumps and plan for another day and another battle.

If we give in to the minority that wants to hold the country hostage, we will only see more of their tactics in the future.

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Enough with the glitches already! The latest report in the Star Tribune, "MNsure health exchange busy, but still bumpy" (Oct. 3), seems to reflect a journalistic obsession with MNsure problems and the whining of some who are attempting to get on board early. Relax — you have until Dec. 15 to receive coverage by Jan. 1.

We do not live in a glitch-free society. Remember the many automobile recalls from an industry that has had more than 100 years of practice. Users of personal computers are constantly frustrated by glitches. Even the StarTrib, my favorite newspaper, has had its moments. That faded page I could not read, and the crease that ran through my favorite column, could likely be blamed on a computer glitch at the printing facility. These and many other examples could be cause for whining, but I will have nothing of that.

Let's all give the good folks at MNsure a break. The system is probably not as simple as printing a newspaper. Oh, yes, in case you missed the good news — 2,500 accounts were set up by MNsure in the first 24 hours.

We are again being fed nonsense: The CIA is trying "to provide enough support to help ensure that politically moderate, U.S.-supported militias don't lose but not enough for them to win," so that a political settlement can be arrived at in the Syrian conflict ("CIA expanding its training of Syrian rebels," Oct. 3). Nonsense. No entity can fine-tune the outcome of a war, especially not a minor payer in the conflict that the United States is. One can regulate the temperature of bathwater, but not the outcome of a gigantic, violent struggle.

In "Sex offenders not wanted in Cambridge" (Oct. 2), Christy Gunderson, "a mental health worker for 23 years," was quoted saying that sex offenders are not human and that they should not be treated as such. How frustrating and utterly disappointing that a person with a mental-health background would spread that kind of fear and prejudice. How does it move toward a constructive solution? And surely dehumanizing people does not advance public safety, no matter whom the person is or what crime they have committed.

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Sex offenses are a mental-health issue, are preventable, and the state program is riddled with problems. Saying that someone is not human is to degrade them in the same way that Hitler degraded the Jews. Yes, I just compared it to the mentality of the Holocaust. If we can't treat other humans as humans after they make a mistake, then we ourselves have no right to claim to be human. Shame on the Star Tribune for publishing such shameful rhetoric.

A Sept. 19 article about the acclaimed Jeremiah Program mentioned only in passing that the program, which assists single mothers, "opened its doors near the Basilica of Saint Mary's." No mention in that article that the Jeremiah Program was founded by the basilica's Rev. Michael O'Connor and was funded and supported by the basilica and the archdiocese. So it did not surprise me to see the headline "The shame of the Catholic workplace" in the Sept. 30 Opinion Exchange page. The Star Tribune dismisses and hides the Catholic Church's involvement in the positive but is eager to sensationalize the negative.