Breaking news: Sunday is Easter, a most excellent day to celebrate the miracles of life.
Like the miracle that took place this week in St. Paul.
On Wednesday, Donnell Gibson was driving to work and saw flames shooting out of a home. Then saw kids go inside a burning house. This is the point at which a true hero emerged and a miracle took place.
Gibson stopped his car, ran up to the house, went inside and began to rescue 10 family members, one by one. And because of his courageous actions, those 10 Minnesotans are alive today.
This just in: The world today could use a few more heroes like Donnell Gibson.
Neil F. Anderson, Richfield
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Here a Neville Chamberlain, there a Neville Chamberlain …
My bet is that the majority of Americans who voted for President Obama never heard of Neville Chamberlain nor his failed appeasement deal with Adolf Hitler that tarnished his reputation in the annals of history.
Obama will become the Neville Chamberlain of our century with his appeasement deal over Iran's nuclear weapons program. And I'm afraid that the consequences of this deal will be much worse than the carnage from World War II.
As the saying goes, those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.
Corby Pelto, Plymouth
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Some of us are old enough to remember the late 1930s and "peace for our time." Before leaping with joy at the recent success with a nation with a somewhat questionable history, perhaps we might wonder if John Kerry will join hands with Neville Chamberlain in history.
Raymond G. Karnes, Zimmerman, Minn.
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The devil will be in the details, but we as a nation can be proud of the work of Secretary of State John Kerry. Ben Rhodes on the National Security Council has advised President Obama ably since 2007. Finally, without our president continuing to take an active role, this significant event may not have occurred.
The threat of Iran producing weapons-grade uranium and plutonium has been reduced significantly through a very rigid inspection program agreed to by Iran. Iran's nuclear power plant at Arak will also be monitored to ensure that weapons-grade plutonium will not be created. Most significantly, this agreement should assure the region and Israel in particular that Iran wants to do the things it takes to live with its neighbors while at the same time not sacrificing its low-level enrichment facility necessary for medical research and nuclear power. U-235 is the fissionable material required to produce an atomic bomb, but it does not appear in abundance in nature, as is the case with U-238. It must be separated from U-238 by either gaseous diffusion or by the use of centrifuges. Weapons-grade uranium requires an enrichment of U-235 of 85 percent purity or more. It's my understanding that this agreement does not allow Iran to enrich at levels higher than 5 percent — high enough to support both medical research and future atomic reactors but a long way from producing weapons-grade material.
Gayland Hokanson, Minneapolis
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Iranians party in the streets of Tehran and extol the leadership of their president, Hassan Rowhani, while Rowhani exclaims vociferously that Iran has won.
Iran will continue to create the bomb and the missile to deliver it. The lifting of all sanctions will allow Iran to continue its efforts to violently conquer and rule most of the Mideast. Where are the parades of support in America for the deal? We remember too well that President Bill Clinton led us down this same path with North Korea, paving the way for that country to develop the bomb while giving it economic help along the way.
The absence of effective American leadership has already caused the Middle East to be in turmoil; this deal could well turn the Mideast into a powder keg. America is in need of effective leadership.
Bill Halling, Edina
EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT
Opposition to abortion is an honorable reason to resist
Congratulations to state Reps. Cindy Pugh and Bob Dettmer for their principled defense of unborn children (Readers Write, April 4). By choosing to remove their names as co-authors of H.F. 212, they honor the memory of Alice Paul, the author of the original version of the Equal Rights Amendment who famously described abortion as "the ultimate exploitation of women." At a time when the number of abortions in some communities in the United States exceeds live births, and those deemed "unfit" or "defective" are routinely victimized in the womb, including the vast majority of Down syndrome babies, such moral courage from our elected representatives is to be loudly applauded.
Bernard Carpenter, Chanhassen
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
We've seen it at its worst, and this is why we mustn't enshrine it
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act states that freedom of religion is absolute. It isn't. The original Mormon doctrine allowed for men to marry several women. But the courts have ruled that bigamy is illegal, even though it is found in the Bible. In Minnesota, a cult was formed in which the leader would take 13-year-old girls as his "maidens" and have sex with them. This was found to be illegal, even though it was their religion. Need I bring up the Jonestown massacre? There were churches in the South that taught that blacks were inferior to whites, and laws of discrimination were passed. The Civil Rights Act made those laws illegal.
I am a straight male, brought up in the 1950s and '60s, and I would make fun of gays. Everyone did. Until I made someone cry. Then I realized that sexual orientation is not a choice. Who would choose a life of discrimination, of being teased in school, of jokes being told behind their back? People can no more choose their sexual orientation than the color of their skin.
If you were in the service business and someone committed a lewd or illegal act in your presence, you could refuse them service. You can discriminate against what someone does, but you cannot discriminate against what someone is.
Jerry Leppart, Eden Prairie
LURKING AND SPITTING LAWS
Not racial bias, but good sense
I may be considered a jackpine savage, but where I come from, hacking up a gob and spitting it on the sidewalk is just plain wrong, no matter if you're black, white, rich or poor ("Why city's archaic laws must go," Readers Write, April 2). If the rulers in the ivory tower in downtown Minneapolis repeal this law, it will be just another example of political correctness trampling common sense — welcome to the New Order.
G.L. Smegal, Cambridge, Minn.
CITIZENSHIP
A case of twisted priorities
We live under a peculiar system. On one hand, a great effort has been made to "legalize" the 12 million people living in this country illegally. On the other hand, an unfortunate man who was flown into this country 30 years ago to become the adopted child of American citizens but was then abandoned and raised by abusive foster parents who never sought citizenship for him now faces deportation (April 3). How can we even talk about justice and humanity?
