Readers Write (Sept. 6): Smoking bans, heroin use, religion's role, militarized cops, school suspensions, Obama's leadership

This summer the University of Minnesota went smoke-free. But did the ban go far enough? Whether you're a heavy smoker or only a casual secondhand smoker, you have more to worry about than cigarette smoke.

Last October, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (a United Nations agency) determined that the air we breathe is a leading cause of cancer worldwide, causing 220,000 deaths in 2010. And it's not the cigarette smokers who are polluting the air: It's the cars, factories, power plants, etc.

In other words, burning fossil fuels is an imminent public health risk to anyone living in a region using coal, oil or natural gas. If the university wants to ensure health by banning smoking, why is it so hesitant to divest from the fossil-fuel industry, let alone to wean itself off fossil fuels?

Is it possible people do not perceive fossil-fuel use as a public-health issue, but rather as an environmental issue, a nonissue or something else less urgent than a pandemic?

The recent summit on heroin use in Minnesota is a good step toward coordinating efforts to address the surge in heroin and opioid painkiller medication addiction ("Heading off heroin," Sept. 5). Unfortunately, the article's focus seemed almost exclusively on law enforcement — the least-effective way to deal with it, according to many studies.

Although mention was made of speakers urging a public-health approach, that approach was given short shrift. It is good that first responders now have naloxone available to give to someone suffering an overdose. Unfortunately, there was that no mention of the desperate need for availability of the only treatment ever proven to work: maintenance on either buprenorphine (Suboxone and others) or methadone. Abstinence-based treatments, such as 12-step programs and others, have repeatedly been shown to be ineffective, leading to further relapses and death.

The World Health Organization and the U.S. government recommend medication maintenance as the first-line treatment for heroin addiction. It's time for state, county and local governments and large health care organizations to step up and commit to making access to buprenorphine and methadone maintenance rapidly available and affordable throughout the state. Access to effective treatment will reduce deaths from overdose more effectively and more cheaply than will increased law enforcement.

The Sept. 4 counterpoint "Deep 'loyalties of religion and nation'? Beware," by Erick Kaardal and Tom Dahlberg completely missed the point of David Pence's Aug. 31 commentary "The world as it is: The influence of religion." Pence was not writing about America at all. His article was a clearly written explanation of the complex social structures of parts of the world that are very different from America. I found it to be one of the best articles I've ever read in a newspaper or anywhere else for that matter. It increased my understanding of people who are often difficult to comprehend from an American point of view.

I had to chuckle at the response of the Sept. 5 letter writer from Minneapolis regarding our police dressing in camouflage uniforms, riding in Humvees and having access to military-grade weapons ("Leave militarization to the armed forces").

Given the increase in gang activity in our state over the last 25 to 30 years, the number of murders in certain areas of the Twin Cities, and the types of weapons that criminals have access to and utilize, I want the people who protect me to be better-trained and better-equipped than criminals. As someone once said, it doesn't make sense to bring a knife to a gunfight. To be fearful of people wearing camouflage, carrying whatever type of weapons and driving in Humvees is plain silly. To be scared to death of black helicopters flying training missions downtown is plain silly. Do you also fear military planes flying the metropolitan skies?

With today's instant media attention, we, the public, will know almost instantly if there is some "military type" action that we should fear. Until I hear or see members of our police force indiscriminately invading homes and killing or arresting families for no reason or rounding up people and performing mass executions, I will not lose any sleep over what they wear, the weapons the use or the vehicles they drive.

When is someone going to stand up for the rest of the class?

The story also states that, "Critics argue that suspension data shows teachers overwhelmingly target — and harm — children of color." If you think that's the case, why don't you ask for a camera in the classroom? Or are you worried about what you may see?

So let me get this straight: President Obama has delivered us from two wars, vastly improved our health care system and pulled us out of the Great Recession, but the Star Tribune Editorial Board still wants more ("The urgent need for Obama to lead," Sept 4)?

You want him to destroy ISIS, neuter Putin, cure Ebola, peacefully unite Libya, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria and … Scotland? You want Obama to make blood brothers of the Sunni, Shiites, Kurds, Christians and Jews? Undo all the calamity that the Bush/Cheney era did while smoothing over the Saudis, Kuwaitis and Qataris for something the French and Brits did to them 100 years ago?

I truly appreciate your crediting Obama's considerable and often-overlooked accomplishments, but I can only imagine what your Christmas list looked like when you were a child.