Readers Write: Presidential debates, campus protests, reading

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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Will President Joe Biden debate former President Donald Trump? Should he? A reprinted editorial from the Wall Street Journal (”'Happy to debate’? We’ll see,” May 1) suggests that if Biden debates Trump he might stumble over his words, shuffle onto the stage or, better yet, trip and fall. From the tone of this editorial, he might need his Secret Service to assist him onto the stage.

I guess nobody at WSJ remembers their last debate, but if and when one occurs this year, perhaps a gag order (or a shock collar) should be placed on Trump for when he starts shouting over Biden something like “CRIME FAMILY VERMIN RADICAL LEFT IMMIGRATION DISASTER HOAX HUNTER DERANGED STOLEN ELECTION.”

Trump’s demeanor hasn’t exactly improved since that last debate; I think that could be an age thing. What’s even the point of a debate when the only words Biden will be able to get out are “Will you shut up, man?”

Mary Alice Divine, White Bear Lake

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Tom Burgett, Eden Prairie

A letter writer on Saturday (“Not all suffering seems to matter”) wonders why campus protests have not arisen against regimes and groups outside the Mideast who have perpetrated horrors on civilians, and he suggests that the explanation for the focus on Israeli violence against Gaza citizens is antisemitism. But he fails to mention another important consideration.

The writer mentions several examples of other atrocities: persecution of religious and ethnic minorities by China and Myanmar, violence against civilians in Sudan and North Korea, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In every one of those cases, the United States government has vehemently condemned those actions. But Israel is a different story.

Make no mistake, the massacre of 1,200 Israeli citizens and the kidnapping of hundreds more on Oct. 7 was horrific. Hamas has proved to the world that it can never be part of any peaceful accord, and the Palestinians can’t expect to move forward toward sovereignty until they abolish Hamas and present moderate leadership. Israel has every right to defend itself, and the U.S. was right to show its strong solidarity with Israel following that eruption of violence.

But Israel’s overreaction has reached astounding proportions: 34,000 killed in the Gaza Strip, about 1.7 in every 100 citizens. And almost 2 million displaced — 85% of the population. But the U.S. goes on shipping tanks, artillery, rockets and guns. Those are my tax dollars funding the bombs blowing up innocent Palestinians, for weeks and months with no end in sight. The U.S. finally got around to expressing some concern for the safety of civilians, but those words mean little when the weapons of war keep flowing through the pipeline.

The campus protesters are rightly calling out Israel — not Jewish people — for genocide of the Palestinians. They are raising their voices against this particular injustice because our own politicians are merely whispering. I am grateful for the students who take this principled stand. They speak my own outrage.

Jeff Naylor, Minneapolis

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Remember when, not too long ago, all “Minnesota nice” people got their snuggies in a bundle about bullying and harassment and the need to address this existential issue with rules, regulations, codes of conduct, counseling and the creation of safe spaces? I don’t remember them telling us that their “genuine concern” excluded those from the Jewish community. I guess I missed it.

Michael Bates, Ham Lake

The protests at Columbia University entered a new and more serious phase earlier this week. After the takeover of Hamilton Hall on campus these were no longer protesters but rioters, anarchists and trespassers. Unfortunately, this takeover was reminiscent of the Jan. 6 rioters and the storming of our Capitol with broken windows, forced entry and barricades. These people should be prosecuted the same as the Jan. 6 rioters, with the appropriate charges and due process. Columbia’s president has threatened expulsion for students participating in this, but will she follow up? In too many cases “protesters” who block streets, damage properties or otherwise disrupt ordinary citizens from carrying on their life like the blockade of the Golden Gate Bridge are released without charges. Indeed, the so-called protesters in Hamilton Hall are already demanding to be absolved of their crime.

Finally, my sympathy goes out to the many students who are being cheated out of normal campus life and studying for finals. Not to mention those who have had graduation ceremonies canceled such as students at the University of Southern California. Many of these students experienced the same loss of graduation recognition four years in high school due to the pandemic.

Steve Hayden, Eden Prairie

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Why would Hamas start a war that it knew it couldn’t win other than to expose the inhumanity of the Israeli government? All rational people can agree that Jews have been treated very poorly over the centuries. And I think that most rational people can agree that the current system of apartheid against Palestinians under Israeli control is wrong.

The real sides in this issue are the human beings vs. the people who govern them. Until we get governments that place human beings first, we will never have peace between nations and groups. The people who rule us in all our countries are concerned with creating divisions between groups, so that they can maintain power. Too often rulers are more concerned with power than humanity.

The protesters on our college campuses should unite and face the real enemy: inhumane governments.

Bill Schletzer, Plymouth

Gov. Tim Walz and our state leaders are making us all proud to take action against book bans (”State wisely mulls banning book bans,” editorial, May 1). In addition to being the right thing to do, new research shows that access to diverse books can actually improve student achievement. In a six-month pilot study conducted by First Book Research & Insights, the research arm of the national nonprofit First Book, educators reported that, after adding diverse books to their classroom libraries, collective student reading time increased by four hours per week, and students’ reading scores were 3 points higher than national annual expected averages. The gains were greatest for the lowest-scoring students. Classrooms that added bilingual and LGBTQ+ titles cited the greatest improvements.

To be successful in our diverse world, all kids need to grow up with diverse books where they can see themselves and learn about others — cultivating empathy and understanding, and most importantly, inspiring kids to read!