Letters to the editor

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Preemptive measures

I have been reading the 50th anniversary edition of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany. It is scary reading when the comparison is made to the U.S. of the present time. All aspects of society in Germany were under the control of the dictatorship. The U.S. is not under a dictatorship, but precursor socialist paths do exist and need to be understood and vehemently opposed.

Thanks to Thinking Minnesota for your conservative journalism in opposition to these socialist paths.  

Ron Wood
Waseca, MN

Light rail fail

The government that turned the Twin Cities light rail, which should be the envy of the nation, into a manure pile that cannot pay for itself with ridiculously low fees and fares paid on the honor system should never be trusted to manage any important transportation questions again.

Brian Raja
Grand Rapids, MN

All aboard?

The Democrats in this state (as well as other states) are completely detached from reality. Biking, walking and “rolling” obviously won’t work during the winter months and the trains which were touted so highly sit idle. I can’t even go to a Twins game because they don’t run.

I won’t even start with the craziness of the “Duluth Express” for a mere $200 million. Most people could probably drive to Duluth faster and cheaper than the train. So, what do you do in Duluth — I guess rent a car to drive along the shoreline. Other than a few cities such as New York City and Chicago, mass transit is a bust. We never learn!

Howard Abel
Elk River, MN

The long goodbye

What’s really remarkable about everything described is that it was done with a razor-thin DFL majority of one vote in the Minnesota State Senate. Say what you will about them, but the DFL is incredibly disciplined and maintains monolithic, ruthless control.

I came to Minnesota from New York in 1972 to pursue an M.A. at what is now the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. I stayed on for another six years after

I finished the degree and had two jobs, one of which was with a state government agency. After all, would you want to go back to the Bronx?

I remember the TIME cover story to which you referred, and in fact still have my copy, with then Gov. Wendell Anderson holding up a walleye (yuk, yuk). What you didn’t mention is that the article’s author, Lance Morrow, is still with us and in his update last year, noted that he couldn’t possibly write the same thing now.

I was back in Minnesota in September 2022 for the first time since 2010. The “Good Life in Minnesota” is now a dump rivaling Detroit, St. Louis, or New Orleans. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live there now, and I can see the state lurching even further leftward as normies and taxpayers leave the state.

Meanwhile, for all the claims that those leaving Minnesota for Texas and Florida are “blue locusts” bringing their voting habits with them, I offer that here in Florida, Republican voter registration surpassed that of the Dems for the first time ever in November 2021, and now the gap has widened to over 541,000.

Every day, I thank God that even if I have to live in Brandon’s America, I can still get to live in Ron DeSantis’ Florida.

Howard Hirsch
Vero Beach, FL

Stately article

I think every government official in Minnesota should be forced to read the “State of Our State” article by John Phelan on page 32 of the 2023 summer issue of Thinking Minnesota. Every citizen of Minnesota should be appalled by the changes in our state during the past 50 years! I certainly am.

Lois Meissner
Eden Prairie, MN

Big Government problems

As an electrician who has done work in a number of Section 8 apartment buildings over a period of 25 plus years, I have seen a lot of damage done to families by this free handout program and the rules it enforces on these one-parent households.

First is the rule that requires young males to leave the family when they reach the age of around 18 as they are not allowed to live in these Section 8 households. What do the lawmakers think is going to happen when all these young men are released onto the streets with no income, place to live, or any resemblance of a job? And most have done horribly in school without a father figure to help them find their way. Many join gangs as a result.

The girls have seen their role models in action, and most get pregnant early so that they can start their own new family knowing that having more kids equals more money for mothers.

This is a cycle that is extremely difficult to escape for any of the offspring from such a situation. “Free” money is hard to ignore with no real-life family experience for the kids born into it. This is a sad waste of human potential.

Kevin Mackey
Grand Marais, MN