Allow me to offer a contrary "d" word to the Sept. 5 letter lamenting the shortage of 90-degree days this summer (he called it "disappointing, discouraging, and disagreeable").
Delightful!
ROBERT W. CARLSON, Plymouth
FERGUSON
Debate rages on about the proper response
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for an investigation of the Ferguson (Mo.) Police Department. Now the U.S. attorney general is going to launch an in-depth investigation of the police and their actions following the shooting.
My question: Will they also investigate the individuals who looted and burned businesses? How about those who threw Molotov cocktails and shot at the police? Are they going to be investigated? After all, many of them were seen on videotape broadcast on nationwide television. Many Ferguson citizens are demanding "equal justice" — is that equal justice for all parties involved, including those whose lives were in danger and those whose property was destroyed by those individuals involved in the riots?
TERRENCE A. LOGAN, Minnetonka
• • •
I'd like to agree with the Sept. 5 letter writer who wrote that we must leave militarization to the armed forces and not arm our police force as if they were in the midst of a war zone. He asked: Who is the enemy, "an America public, where any citizen can at any time become a threat?"
As a matter of fact, yes. Thanks to the National Rifle Association, any citizen may be armed with an unconcealed or even a concealed weapon that he or she could pull at any given moment. Citizens are not yet required to wear badges reading "I'm a criminal with a gun" or "I'm a law-abiding citizen with a gun." How am I to tell the difference when I see a gun on a citizen? I'm sure the military arming of our police force is a direct result of the lax (or rather nonexistent, or, as the NRA would have it, "not enforced") gun laws in our country. Can't have one without the other.
BARBARA LAMAN, St. Peter, Minn.
PRIVACY
Have we become a 'Santa Claus' society?
Amid the growing brouhaha of indignation about the invasion of our privacy by hackers, the National Security Agency, advertisers, etc., remember the quote: "Don't do anything that you wouldn't want to read on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper." With the Internet, tomorrow is today gone viral. It's given us a Santa Claus society. The Internet "knows when you've been sleeping … knows when you're awake … knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake."
Get used to it. Anything we say or do may go viral. So you'd better watch out; you'd better not cry; you better not pout. Rather than blame the hackers, the government or the other party, the Internet challenges us to think twice before we say or do something. In the end, the buck stops with each of us.
Who knows? Maybe living in a Santa Claus society will be more effective than our individual consciences in making us responsible for our own behavior. A Chinese proverb says: "If you don't want anyone to know, don't do it."
HARVEY BARTZ, White Bear Lake
HAMAS
Comparison to ISIL was disingenuous
A Sept. 5 letter writer who suggests that Hamas is distinctly different from ISIL because it was "democratically elected" is disingenuous, to say the least.
Hamas, an organization deemed to be a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Nations and even the Arab League, gained control of Gaza in January 2006 by overthrowing the existing Fatah government and, in the process, murdering hundreds of Palestinians who opposed it, in many cases by throwing them off rooftops. After completing the forceful takeover and wiping out the opposition, Hamas held an election in which, not surprisingly, it emerged victorious. Its winning platform was based on a promise to eradicate Israel and kill all the Jews living there.
The writer goes on to criticize Israel for adding to the misery of the Palestinians by closing its border with Gaza. Yet, this border was not closed until after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, resulting in the death of hundreds of Israeli citizens.
Finally, the election that brought Hamas to power in Gaza occurred more than eight years ago. Some democracy.
RONALD HASKVITZ, St. Louis Park
2014 CAMPAIGN
Why won't Dayton, Franken debate more?
I heard today that KSTP-TV has offered our governor and U.S. Senate candidates an opportunity to debate their respective opponents in a prime-time event that would be broadcast statewide. It seems that Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken have declined that proposal and will only agree to a Sunday-morning broadcast in the metro area.
I would assume this is not the first time an incumbent candidate from either party has declined this type of opportunity. But it does make me wonder what Mr. Dayton and Mr. Franken are afraid of this year?
MICHAEL FECKLER, Eagan
PARKING
Common courtesy from SUVs, please
Twice in the last week I have had to wait 10 to 20 minutes for an SUV owner to move his or her vehicle parked beside mine in a mall parking area because I could not enter either side of my 1998 Toyota Tercel. A 7- or 8-inch space between cars doesn't do it, folks. (Perhaps shopping mall owners need to redraw the lines on a part of their parking area for SUV parking only.)
PHYLLIS J. PETERSON, Minneapolis
CVS
Kudos to pharmacy for taking health stance
Congratulations to CVS pharmacies for no longer selling cigarettes or tobacco products. That is wonderful!
The company boasts about reinventing its pharmacies to have a "health care mission." If so, why is at least a quarter of the floor space in my favorite California CVS a full liquor store? Must be for medicinal purposes only.
