Of course it would be ideal if the State Fair enacted a masking policy and required vaccination for attendees, but let's stop and consider the matter from the State Fair's perspective and consider the decision in context ("State Fair fumbles COVID policy," editorial, Aug. 20). The State Fair effectively canceled itself last year. How many organizations made the decision to sacrifice an entire year's revenue for the sake of public health? None that I can think of. (And I don't consider the State Fair Food Parade anything more than a well-done attempt to give Minnesotans a boost and vendors a chance to do some business.)

Now that we know the State Fair is capable of making difficult choices and, as the Star Tribune Editorial Board points out, is an organization that rarely makes a mistake, I'm willing to give benefit of the doubt that checking vaccine cards at the gates might not have been safe. As for a masking policy, do we really think an extremely part-time labor force, many of whom are young and holding jobs for the first time, can effectively ensure that the millions who attend the fair wear masks inside buildings? The last year and a half has shown us that large retail corporations with full-time workforces struggled to pull that off, and many made no attempt to enforce at all.

The State Fair is the standard of a thing done well in Minnesota, and we should keep that in mind before we insist we know better, while demanding more of them than we did anyone else.

Bernard McFall, St. Paul

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I was pleased to see the Editorial Board take issue with the decision of State Fair leadership to not require vaccinations or masks at this year's event. A lack of enforcement resources is reported to be a key driver of the decision. That response misses the mark. It is unlikely that fairgoers would expect any type of militarized response to nonconformers. Midwesterners are generally a conforming bunch. A requirement of vaccinations and masks would have sent a message that conforms to our ideals that the Great Minnesota Get-Together is about coming together safely to celebrate our community, not risking our lives because we can't afford armed guards at every gate. Signs at every door should be sufficient. I know of several sign-makers who can still meet the deadline.

Steve Bonoff, Minneapolis

I got my Minnesota permit to carry a pistol in 2005, and I keep it current, along with my training. Carrying a gun levels the field for me in protecting myself and my wife. Carrying a gun has diffused two incidents in my life since 2005. One time the aggressor backed off when he saw my gun and then politely shook my hand. My gun made me feel secure, in the other incident, while I waited for police to arrive. The aggressor was detained, and I was able to drive home without him following me.

I don't go to the State Fair because it's crowded, and I have no other self-protection options. It's especially risky because we have to pay most vendors with cash. I'm very vulnerable without a way to protect myself and family.

Please allow holders of a valid Minnesota permit to carry a pistol to do so on the fairgrounds.

Samuel David Self, Anoka

What are the former Minnesota GOP staffers complaining about? Their former party chair, Jennifer Carnahan, merely adopted the management style they have all heartily endorsed by their votes and continued enthusiasm for Donald Trump ("Carnahan out as state GOP chair," front page, Aug. 20). It appears she has learned the basic principles of the Trump school of management pretty well: ruling by grudges, retaliation and intimidation. Withholding information to her preferred candidates. Making people sign nondisclosure agreements so they can't speak out. Requiring subordinates to "pump up" and stroke her ego. Allowing sexually inappropriate language to thrive within the organization. Associating with (alleged) sex traffickers.

Erik Pratt, St. Paul

I applaud the efforts of Wabasso, Minn., to push back against Dollar General and the corporate assault of yet another small rural town ("Dollar General gets no salute from small Minnesota town," Aug. 16). The long, enduring fight to force corporate restructuring of rural America started years ago — one corporate factory farm at a time. I should know — our family farm in rural Dodge County is surrounded by 11 swine factory farms in a 3-mile radius. The act of forcing factory farms into rural areas is part of the coordinated, deliberate and intentional corporate effort to force corporatization of rural areas and secure a new corporate order. In the process, farm families have been pushed off the land, hollowing out neighboring small towns desperate to survive.

This devastating hollowing-out is nowhere more evident than rural Minnesota. During my youth, my hometown, Blooming Prairie, was a bustling community, sharing an attitude of abundance and kinship. When bread was broken, there was enough for everyone. The town boasted two grocery stores, local banks, two drugstores, a dime store, several restaurants and implement dealers, a furniture store, two clothing stores, local barber shops, a doctor's office, a dental office, a liquor store, a pool hall, local accounting firms and other businesses on the lively Main Street as local dollars circulated in the small community.

A healthy interdependence permeated the community as residents bought local products and supported local businesses — long before corporate giants aided by Republican-aligned Farm Bureau operatives constructed factory farms and extracted wealth from the rural area, divided the farming community and created a sick dependency upon industry giants. Succumbing to the corporate takeover that shuttered Main Street in a single generation, local businesses eventually closed their doors.

One by one they closed — schools, churches, restaurants and stores.

I watch, in angst, as my hometown withers and dies. Thanks to corporate greed, dollars that once circulated in Blooming Prairie and other small towns have been stripped, the profit landing on the corporate balance sheet. Dollars have been funneled to multinational corporations such as Hormel, with corporate headquarters just 15 miles to the south and that enjoys billions in corporate profits. Never content with corporate performance, "man is the only animal whose desires increase as they are fed; the only animal that is never satisfied."

Tragically, the latest business to open in many rural towns is a funeral home. When small towns are done burying the dead, who will bury the towns?

Sonja Trom Eayrs, Maple Grove