Letters to the editor: May 10

Upholding strong family values

I was raised to love and respect this nation; taught all human life is precious, including the unborn; that right and wrong are absolute, not some relative thing each person decides for themselves. My father, who grew up during the Depression and felt it honorable to serve his country, taught me financial responsibility and the importance of not accumulating debt. As a youth, I asked him to take me hunting, solidifying within me a deep appreciation for God's creation and the beauty of this land.

Until recently, our nation upheld that value system, where strong marriages, family and strong work ethic were the bread and butter of a healthy society. Now, if you hold traditional moral values and believe in Second Amendment rights, you're considered a potential domestic terrorist by your own government.

Don't believe me? Read the Department of Homeland Security's April 7, 2009, report available at www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=490506 . It says: "Right-wing extremism ... may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

It's reminiscent of Nazi Germany, where the government convinced non-Jewish citizens that Jewish neighbors were a threat (and must be hated and exterminated).

Let's heed the warning of the prophet Isaiah: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil."

God's word is the bottom line, and putting our trust in him saves each of us from the sin nature present in all mankind.

Finally, the Budgeteer's April 19 cover editorial insultingly suggested that if you attended the Duluth Tea Party, you were somehow coerced by "rich zealots and big business."

I was unable to attend, as I was exercising my right to bear a shotgun and hunt for wild turkeys. But I feel we must be heard: This nation is too valuable to allow leftist agendas to flush it down the toilet!

Kristin Walch

Duluth

'My View' on R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect, like tolerance, is often demanded and expected, but is seldom returned. Beware of respect and tolerance. The Duluth School Board has disrespected the citizens of Duluth by not allowing a vote on the Red Plan in the first place -- to see if it is what the majority really wants and can afford, or is willing to pay for.

But now, I am sure, [the school board] would like some respect and civility from those who have already been disrespected. I certainly feel disrespected.

To the Budgeteer's "Our View" on May 3, a tenth "Tools of Civility" can and should be added: "Let people vote."

Especially on matters that affect them the most. It is democracy.

Everyone knows that the law (ordinance) authored by Mike Jaros was not intended to be used in the manner the school board used it to foist this boondoggle upon the people of Duluth. So much for respect!

Derek Alexander

Duluth

Call your reps to support sensible firearm bills

I appreciate Mary Streufert's letter in the April 19 issue bringing to your attention several bills currently in the Minnesota Legislature.

Two companion bills, HF954 and SF722, are essentially copies of a bill co-crafted by the National Rifle Association and a bipartisan group of legislators -- and are certainly worthy of our support. These bills make court-ordered mental health records accessible to the National Instant Check System, preventing those with violent mental health problems from legally purchasing firearms. They do this while protecting the right of people to seek assistance privately and allowing those found to be no longer restricted a venue to regain their ownership rights.

These bills actually may prevent crime and affect criminals, rather than furthering the agenda of making firearms so expensive, difficult or legally dangerous to own that eventually only criminals and the very rich will own them.

HF953 and SF1165, however, are a form of bureaucratic Russian roulette. They are packed with senseless notifications, applications, investigations, aggravations, pitfalls, pratfalls, perils and penalties.

Transferring a firearm under these two laws would be like walking barefoot through a cow pasture on a spring night after the cattle have just gotten back on green grass. (For those of you with a rural background, you know you'd never make it without stepping in something.)

I'm sorry to say that probably only Democrats will be able to affect the vote on HF953/SF1165, as no Republican sponsored either one and obviously won't be supporting them.

However, after proving in the last election that Democrats will vote for Democrats even if they intend to destroy your way of life, I doubt your legislators feel a need to respond to your desires or listen to you. You can, however, try.

Please review these bills and contact your legislators.

Lowell Rudd

Chairman, Second Amendment Committee, Citizens Research Council

Whole Red Plan process has no place in democracy

I just read another lecture in the media (the Budgeteer's May 3 editorial) about how undemocratically the Red Plan's opponents acted at the last school board meeting.

I'll tell you what was undemocratic about that meeting: It was a group of elected officials supposedly taking in feedback from their constituents in a sham exhibit of weighing opposing opinions.

The crowd was overwhelmingly against their plans. Some of the speeches describing the flaws and shortcomings of their thinking were eloquent.

Board members sat there and pretended to listen, then voted the way they were going to vote from the beginning. That was the true failure of democracy.

Hopefully, we can get to the polls before it's too late and finally have our democratic right to actually be heard honored.

Incidentally, the pro-Red Plan people keep pointing out the minor tweaking of the plan at Ordean as evidence they are listening. But it's the Red Plan itself that many of us don't want!

It costs way too much. It's going to result in larger class sizes and fewer teachers, undermining the most important ingredients for a good education.

It's going to burden the kids it's supposedly helping with another huge debt (we're not paying for this thing with cash, so they're the ones who are going to be paying for it for years to come.

It's already hurt kids by squeezing the operating budget -- I'm convinced the district would have gotten a higher levy if it weren't for the Red Plan.

It's going to wreck a peaceful East neighborhood and throw away a beautiful Central location.

And it's going to force more busing (particularly disastrous when fuel spikes up again).

Finally, it's going to create lasting community divisions because of the end-around that Rep. Mike Jaros called a violation of the spirit of the law (which he co-authored) and because of a distrust about a process that allowed the same contractor that stands to benefit from fixing the flaws in our schools to identify what those flaws supposedly are. These are just some of our objections.

If the last school board meeting got a bit rambunctious, it's because we feel our concerns are not really being heard. Do you really think we would have been listened to more if we'd been soft-spoken and genteelly polite? Not a chance, not in that sham.

The local machinations of democracy have never felt more insidious and hollow.

Loren Martell

Duluth