Readers Write (Sept. 9): Obama's nap, ISIL, phy-ed, senior citizen woes, in praise of print, LRT labels, trickle-down economics

The photo on page A3 of the Sept. 6 Star Tribune tells all about how our western leaders view the threat of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: concerned. British Prime Minister David Cameron: thoughtful. And President Obama: asleep.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted between Aug. 20-24 found that 67 percent of Americans think that the Islamic militant group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is a major threat to the United States. Hogwash!

A media propaganda-induced trance of hyperbole has set in even though ISIL has never threatened or attacked the United States. Despite that fact, the U.S. president, without a declaration of war from Congress, has illegally executed an unprovoked war on the ISIL with airstrikes and drone attacks.

This self-fulfilling fact alone guarantees that the ISIL will strike at the United States. Remember, politicians, bankers, the military-industrial complex and the corporate media with monopoly control over free speech have political and economic reasons for whipping up war.

Our imperial president would be wise to insist that it's not his job to declare war — only Congress has the exclusive power to declare war, and Congress has abdicated its constitutional duty. In the meantime, the president should work through the United Nations, seek peace agreements, encourage democracy and tell the hawks to put up or shut up.

Kids not graduating because they couldn't pass phy-ed ("No gym, no sweat," Aug. 7)? That's the dumbest thing I've heard yet. Under those rules, I would never have graduated from high school, even though I was in the National Honor Society and in the upper decile of my class. My phy-ed instructors took pity on me, which is the only way I passed. If they converted A to F to societal grading, it would have been A: superstar; B and C: average; D: dweeb; and F: hopeless (my category).

I understand the benefits of exercise. But in our sports-obsessed culture, everything has to be competitive. Why not simple calisthenics and running (as best you are able) a couple times a day? Why is dodge ball still in the elementary school curriculum? That's just a license for the superstars to take out their aggression on the helpless. Why make physical exercise so demoralizing and humiliating for those of us who simply can't compete? Wake up, people. We don't all want to nor are we able to meet your expectations. Bring some humanity into this process.

Minneapolis public schools face great challenges in closing the achievement gap. However, reducing or eliminating physical education is not the solution.

In fact, data from the 2013 Minnesota Student Survey show that children who report being more physically active also report higher grades. There is a growing body of research that school-based physical activity positively affects student performance, improves classroom behavior and improves cognitive function.

With this evidence in mind, we should be giving students more opportunities to be physically active and learn lifelong skills for physical activity through physical education, not reducing them.

The writer is regional vice president of advocacy for the American Heart Association.

Just read the Sept. 8 front-page article "Neighbors clash in public housing." Without knowing the full story, this article seems to illustrate that senior citizens are treated like second-class citizens in this country, while the people who are hoarding knives and guns and stealing items from common areas do so with apparent impunity. The seniors are suddenly under siege in their own homes and are treated like criminals when they fight back. This is a wake-up call. Seniors and allies to seniors, rise up! This could be you or your parents or grandparents.

For example, I've never seen nor read the obituaries on a digital news platform, but I can't escape seeing them in a newspaper. It's sometimes shocking to see how many people die in our community within the span of one week. It reminds me of how brief our time is on Earth and that no day is promised.

It is sad to read through these pages and realize that so many smiling and good people have left us. However, it is an important part of the cycle of life that needs to be in the open and not hidden away.

The small print and few inches of space dedicated to people listed in the obituary pages does not tell their whole story, nor does it do justice to the degree of loss felt by loved ones and friends, but it is our way of sharing the news of a death in our community and of paying respect to someone who passed away.

In the movie "The Dead Poet's Society," Robin Williams played the role of a schoolteacher who asked his students to reflect on their mortality. He asked them to look at old photos lining the school hallway and to peer into the eyes of students who attended the school a century earlier. He then crept up behind the students and whispered "carpe diem," as if the long-dead students in those old photos were sharing their best advice from the grave.

I feel the same way when I take the time to read through the obits and look at the faces of the dearly departed. Those wonderful people are telling us the same thing.

And now we have antiseptic names for the light-rail lines — Green and Blue. Apparently "Hiawatha," "Central Corridor," "Southwest" and "Bottineau" were as confusing as "Lindbergh" and "Humphrey." The Star Tribune Sept. 8 editorial didn't help much, since it refers to the LRT lines by name (color), color (name) and just name. Please pick a style and stay with it.

Great economic news. Lots of people who, according to conservatives, are supposed to be making money are doing it in spades. Now when does the trickle-down stuff start?