Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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It must be a heavy burden to have an ego so fragile, and to be so insecure, that you must be fawned over by subordinates on a regular basis. This refers to the current president and his three-hour-and-15-minute live TV Cabinet meeting, as detailed in the article “Holding court for 3 hours on live TV” on Aug. 27.

Evidently, each Cabinet member is required to praise the president, each one then trying to outdo the other in the lavishness (outlandishness?) of their comments. Just as astounding as the ego and insecurity issues is the willingness of supposedly educated adults in very responsible positions participating in this praise fest.

Then, for the president and Cabinet members, plus who knows how many other subordinates and aides, spending over three hours in such a meeting seems a huge waste of time and money. Don’t they all have important jobs that need their attention? Where are Elon Musk and his minions to root out waste when you really need them?

Of course, at the end of the article, the president proclaims, “I have no ego when it comes to this stuff.” Hypocrisy to the nth degree.

Ron Bender, Richfield

I was so surprised by Sherman’s comments that I went back and re-read Hunegs’ position. As a Jewish person who finds the situation in Gaza terribly painful to watch, I appreciated the balanced approach with which Hunegs expressed similar dissatisfaction with both the suffering of Gazans and with the violence perpetuated against Israelis on Oct. 7 and ongoing refusal to accept terms for peace and exchange of remaining prisoners — at the expense of the citizens of Gaza that Hamas purports to care about.

I am not a fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and I oppose his current policies — as do many in the Minnesota, American and global Jewish communities. No, disagreement with current Israeli government policy is not anti-Semitism. But use of that disagreement to justify anti-Semitic words and actions is. I’m sorry that Mr. Sherman doesn’t understand the difference.

Lynn Bolnick, St. Louis Park

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Noting that Hunegs does not speak for all Jews, Sherman challenged Hunegs’ “flattening of the Jewish opinion.” But consistent with Hunegs, the American Jewish Committee’s survey “The State of Antisemitism in America 2024” found that 84% of American Jews see boycotts of American Jewish individuals and events as “completely” or “somewhat” unacceptable.

Bruce Kohn, Edina

I’d like to thank Senior District Judge Bruce Peterson for his thoughtful piece regarding restorative justice (“Let’s examine Mary Moriarty’s decision with a longer lens,” Aug. 25, about the Hennepin County attorney’s decision not to seek re-election). Just as we don’t hang people for stealing a sheep like they did in England back in the day, maybe we should stop destroying young people that make mistakes.

The crimes can be horrific. The victims want to see punishment and revenge. However, if hanging the perp is (presumably) off the table, as is life without parole, what’s the next best outcome? Is it a good outcome to slam that youngster into a living hell that makes them worse the right thing to do? They will probably lash out again when they are released, since they probably won’t have been changed for the better spontaneously in the slammer. Wouldn’t it be better if we could try to find a way to heal them from the injuries life has dealt them and make them a contributing member of society again?

People’s lives turn them into violent criminals, but they aren’t born that way. Would the victims rather see someone else victimized by the same perpetrator or meet that perpetrator after their recovery and hear how truly sorry they are for the pain they’ve caused and to see the good that they have done with their life since then?

It’s a hard decision to make and it takes a courageous person to do what’s right based on data in front of an angry family calling for revenge. I wish Moriarty the best and I hope that we get another person like her rather than someone that believes that it’s better to hang them all and let God sort them out.

The Minnesota Star Tribune, as the leading news publication for Minneapolis, needs to fairly and accurately report on the elections and politics in the city. Use of simple terms to describe complex positions helps people understand who candidates are. In the current races, and for the last few years, the paper has been doing the public relations work of the extremely left, socialist wing of the DFL in terming their candidates as “progressives” and the non-socialists as “moderates.”

If you ask each candidate, they will tell you their simple label and, I believe, all current candidates running as Democrats for mayor and the council will choose “progressive.” However, there are clear differences in approach and the endorsements that garners. It is the journalist’s responsibility to describe the candidates and the groupings of politicians and their supporting organizations.

Throwing the non-socialists out of the “progressive” group is completely misleading to voters. I am sure someone will say “progressive politics have changed,” but that is not true or, at least, not generally accepted and understood. What I suggest is identifying the extreme left of Minneapolis as just that, or as “socialist,” which is concise and accurate. Leave the people who have been progressive for years and decades with that label. Using “moderate” as a sort of “left-behind progressive” is a distortion that does not serve all Minneapolitans.

Glen Larson, Minneapolis

I think that one of the main benefits of children getting phones is communication with friends and family. I also know, however, that this can be a drawback for spending too much time calling and texting them. I know that another drawback can be a lack of attention span and respect. Back to communication, though, a potential benefit of having a phone is that if a sports commitment gets canceled or postponed or ends early and you need to get driven home, a phone might come in handy. Another thing is the amount of times that my older sister, who is now almost 14 years old and got a phone last year, has had to go on to Google and go “I wonder what this means.” One word: curiosity.

Many children will also think that once they get a phone they will be the coolest kid ever, but once again, how it is with most things, once you get it, it’s not as cool anymore.