Readers Write: Venezuela boat strikes, maternal suicide, Hennepin County attorney race

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

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Let’s see if I correctly understand the Trump administration’s rationale for killing two survivors of one of the boat bombings in the Gulf of Mexico. These two people were clinging to the remains of their boat, and they almost certainly were wounded, having somehow survived the attack. Yet, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump are now saying the survivors were killed in self-defense.

Can someone in MAGA or the GOP explain how two wounded people clinging to a destroyed fishing boat in the sea are a threat to the U.S.? More to the point, will anyone be held accountable for what is almost certainly a criminal violation of U.S. military codes and international law, as well as basic concepts of morality? This situation highlights exactly why some Democratic politicians recently posted a video reminding our military that they are not obligated to follow orders that are clearly illegal.

I don’t really expect anything other than lies and smoke from Trump and his followers, but sometimes I still foolishly hope that someone in the GOP will develop the intellectual and emotional backbone needed to leave MAGA. Meanwhile, Trump, Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others in this administration are fast turning our country into a pariah state on the order of Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Chuck Wurzinger, Coon Rapids

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Here’s what I’m wondering. Where is Norm Coleman? The champion of Hegseth. The man who walked the halls of the Senate with Hegseth and held his hand during his contentious confirmation hearing. Coleman did everything he could to get Hegseth confirmed. But since Hegseth got the job he’s been an unmitigated disaster. Let’s not forget how Hegseth called in hundreds of top U.S. military leaders from around the world to tell them to lose weight and shave. And through all of Hegseth’s ignominious failures there’s not been a word of support from the man who helped him get the job. Not a peep. No letter to the editor. Nada.

Coleman, where are you? Speak up. Let’s hear your defense of the indefensible.

Doug Williams, Robbinsdale

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It’s rare that I laugh out loud while reading the front page of the Star Tribune, but I did laugh at Hegseth’s ridiculous statement citing the “fog of war” to explain why he didn’t stick around to watch the lethal second strike on unarmed survivors of a small ship off the coast of Venezuela. I stopped laughing when I read that he blamed the admiral in charge for the second blast, and that Trump said he “didn’t know anything” and “didn’t know anything about people.”

Steve Young-Burns, Minneapolis

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Don’t overlook the “why,” in addition to the “what” and “who,” about blowing up and killing all those on suspected drug boats. How messy it would be to have to listen to any survivors claiming to be innocent. Imagine the survivors testifying in an international court. I trust that those who award the Nobel Peace Prize are paying attention to Trump and his administration. If these actions are not enough to raise eyebrows, Trump is considering a land invasion of Venezuela (Star Tribune, Dec. 2). The U.S. will be lucky if Trump doesn’t start a war, either outright or covert. To add insult to injury regarding Trump’s interest in peace, remember that Trump ordered the decadeslong peace vigil in Washington, D.C., be removed (Star Tribune, Sept. 8). God help us.

Peter Berglund, St. Paul

I read with disgust the information given to Emily Johnson (“Minnesota could end maternal suicide but settles for ‘better than most,’” Strib Voices, Dec. 1) that it would take months for her to obtain a therapy appointment to address her postpartum depression. This information was so wrong as to warrant a reprimand on the part of the medical team, insurance provider or whoever provided this response.

There certainly may be a long waitlist in hospital or clinic-based organizations, or medical insurance companies may have limitations. But this is entirely untrue in the greater world of therapists in the Twin Cities. Johnson acknowledges suicidal ideation. Could her situation have been any more dire? Why was she so misdirected?

Kudos to Johnson was for finding help and then putting her experience into action.

However, we should not be so blind as to perpetuate the same old story that it takes weeks or months to secure a therapy appointment. This is dangerous information. And, unfortunately, in the case of Johnson, it very well could have resulted in death.

Elizabeth Levang, Plymouth

The writer has worked in the field of pregnancy, infant and perinatal loss for some 30 years and was a founding member of the Pregnancy Loss and Infant Death Alliance.

Over the past few years, I have been learning some of the strategies neuroscience educators have found to help regulate an overactive nervous system. I’ve labeled this overactive hypervigilance “survival mode” because that’s what is happening due to my past experience with trauma and growing up in an unloving household. Neuroscience explains it all as well as helps me feel more compassion for myself and others with this understanding. And for early intervention to work, a village of support is needed, as is mentioned in the article.

Not only do I hope Shen is elected, I also hope he receives the kinds of support he needs to create a village of support for this early intervention.

Karen Cox, Circle Pines

Regarding “Chiropractic care squeezed” (Dec. 1): The same Minnesota government that gladly handed out over a billion in tax dollars to fraudulent “providers” of food and housing and autism services that were never performed is now cutting Medicaid payments to real providers (chiropractors) who are providing actual services to low-income Minnesotans — just to save a literal fraction ($6 million) of the money they so carelessly doled out. Make it make sense.