Readers Write: Reopening churches and more, victory gardens, face masks

I am disturbed by the number of businesses and organizations that are urging outright defiance of the governor's pandemic orders — and by the "outrage" expressed in many letters printed here. Suddenly, everyone is an epidemiologist, supremely confident in their own logic — it's a no-brainer that churches are the same as big-box retail; restaurants are no different from grocery stores; masks are a pointless nuisance. As if no one in charge had ever thought of these points, and any fool can see what the right response should be.

Between the average person in Minnesota (including me), and trained epidemiologists and government officials who must review all the facts and policy options and make hard decisions about the best way to serve all the cantankerous factions that make up "the public," I will choose the latter. And the businesses (and churches) hurling invective at the governor should think twice about that. Their customers (and members) hold varying opinions on this topic. I bet I'm not the only one keeping track of the prominent voices of rebellion — to be sure I never patronize them again when this sorry episode comes to an end.

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By deciding to defy state public health orders ("Some churches say they'll defy order," May 21) the Catholic Church in Minnesota once again places its own interests above civic duties and the welfare of the larger community. As it still struggles to recover from myriad clergy abuse scandals and a long history of coverups that placed the interests of priests and church hierarchy above the welfare of vulnerable youth and parishioners, one would think that today the church would be more committed to protecting the health of the community and helping to shield vulnerable populations like the elderly from the spread of COVID-19. ("What you do to the least of us, you do to me.")

Instead, the church is aligning itself with the armed bullies protesting outside the governor's residence. How Christian is that?

The Star Tribune editorial supporting the governor's intention to keep all churches closed for the foreseeable future (probably until August) cites the Arkansas church that had a large outbreak in early March ("Caution key on worship services," May 21). What you and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed to note was that the incident occurred before social distancing and other preventive measures were being observed there or almost anywhere in the country. That is nothing like what would happen if churches were allowed to reopen these days.

I may have missed it, but the argument I have not found on the topic of opening the houses of worship is the amount of time worshipers will spend in their church, 10 at a time or more. The comparisons between shoppers at Walmart or other businesses and churches is how much time a person spends in a place. Shoppers move around, separating in a step or two, probably spending less than 20 minutes in the entire store. In a church service, worshipers (who knows how many) sit in one place for double or more the time a shopper does. The virus is said to spread by proximity and duration. Will grandma or grandpa (no doubt untested for the virus) sit close together for a long time or move around like a shopper? Maybe it's time to dial in that thought.

Only 10 mass-goers in the Cathedral nave?! Utter nonsense.

Having been a math teacher in my former life, I can say the Rev. John Ubel's requested solution from last week is spot on ("We safely hold more than 10," Readers Write, May 15). Here's an estimated arithmetical solution to how many can safely attend Cathedral services: Divide the entire square footage of the pews by the square footage of each person's safety circle. To find the area of that circle, take pi times the radius squared. Given a 6-foot safety radius, that gives roughly 100 square feet per person. Not knowing exactly the pew square footage, I'll use 150 feet by 150 feet as an approximation, or 22,500 square feet. Divide by our safety space and that yields about 225 prayerful people in the Cathedral. Yes, it's a far cry from the old 2,000 attendees, but it's far, far, far better than 10.

Yes, we Minnesotans have a well-meaning governor and competent staff, but one size does not fit all, whether it's masks, circles or churches. Ten prayerful attendees in the Cathedral is more than capricious, it is ludicrous. Let's ask those legislative presbyopists to come up with a wiser ruling.

Yes, masks and distances do matter, but prayerful supplications may matter too. We need all the help we can get.

Cheers and press prayerfully on.

I implore religious leaders to patiently await the opportunity for large religious gatherings.

With the pandemic and skyrocketing unemployment, victory gardens are coming back with gardeners being encouraged to grow extra food. That makes Falcon Heights City Council's actions ("How does his garden grow? It doesn't," May 21) all the more bewildering. Why would it cite Quentin Nguyen for wanting to put a community garden in his front yard?

If Falcon Heights truly wants to "study" front-yard vegetable gardens, this is a great opportunity for the city to do it. Mr. Nguyen and his partners can show the City Council what a vegetable garden can add to the neighborhood. Why not invite others to try front yard vegetable gardens, too?

I once worked in a chemical plant in Louisiana. For some reason the workers did not want to wear hard hats as required by the company. "It's a chemical plant, not a construction zone," some complained. There was a big meeting where the pros and cons were discussed. The defining moment came when one worker rose to explain his objection: "I've been working here for 17 years and a hard hat has only saved my life once."

I think about that guy when I hear people complain about wearing masks.