Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.
•••
While watching the Jan. 6 select committee hearings, I'm reminded again how former President Donald Trump's lies about a stolen election turned so many citizens' lives upside down ("Allies warned Trump election claims false," front page, June 14). He cares nothing for these men and women — from local election volunteers, to Republican elected officials, to Capitol police — who were just fulfilling their duties. I won't name names, because they have received enough vitriol, injury and death threats.
He destroys lives of innocent people while pardoning his guilty cronies, all in his quest for power. The ones who did the right thing lost jobs, had their children threatened, needed security and even moved out of their homes.
Never forget the election volunteer in Georgia whom Trump called out by name many times. He was explicitly told by Georgia elections officials that she did nothing clandestine. But Trump continued to defame her. Imagine the fear she lived through as she and her family received death threats and had people shouting outside her home all hours of the day and night. Strangers appeared at her door to coerce her to confess to something she didn't do. She stood up to them, declaring, "The devil is a liar."
I think by now, while listening to these hearings, we can all come to understand who the devil is.
Mary Alice Divine, White Bear Lake
•••
Just imagine for a moment if a marauding band of criminals invaded your home on Jan. 6 instead of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Would you call it a "dust-up" if they broke your windows, brandished military assault weapons, destroyed your property, stole your belongings and threatened to hang a family member? I think not. Would you believe these lunatics if they posed as peace-loving tourists out for a family stroll? I think not. It was a deadly and bloody battle in all our homes. The carnage was filmed and reality has been exposed. We can only hope the steadfast Trump loyalists will finally see the light of day and stop following him into his putrid and polluted swamp. Our democracy depends upon it.
Laurie Cowles, Northfield
•••
If Republicans truly want to win the White House in 2024, they better nominate Rep. Liz Cheney.
Ralph Shepard, Oakdale
•••
Since ex-President Trump's "Big Lie" that the election was stolen has been demolished by the Jan. 6 committee, if it was not already totally discredited, what about the thousands of duped individuals — many small-money donors here in Minnesota and elsewhere — who contributed some $250 million to his bogus defense fund, most of which was siphoned off for other self-aggrandizing purposes?
They may have a viable class action seeking reimbursement, maybe even punitive damages, against the perpetrator for deceit, fraud and other wrongdoing.
It would be more than poetic justice for the man who promulgated and embraced the cockamamie theory of electoral fraud to shell out to his gullible victims for defrauding them.
Marshall H. Tanick, Minneapolis
•••
On Monday we learned that the Trump campaign used false claims of election fraud to raise more than $250 million from supporters for their legal court battles. "So not only was there the 'Big Lie,' there was the 'big rip-off,'" Rep. Zoe Lofgren said. Where did Trump supporters' donations go?
I doubt the donors could say for sure, although it seems Kimberly Guilfoyle, one of Trump's many advisers, was paid $60,000 by Trump's "official election defense fund" for a two-and-a-half minute speech introducing her fiancé, Donald Trump Jr., at the Jan. 6 "Stop the Steal" rally.
I wonder how long many of the Trump donors had to work to earn $60,000.
I wonder, too, at the temerity of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who sent me an e-mail at 3:58 p.m. Monday imploring me to "stop the radical Democrats ... [and] donate $35 or more as soon as possible."
Also available at the NRSC website store: T-shirts featuring the former president hugging the American flag.
Christopher O. Moore, Belle Plaine
PARKWAYS
Goal seems to be exclusion
Once again, the specter of exclusion returns to the Twin Cities parkways.
As a disabled senior citizen who depends on motorized access to enjoy the East and West River Parkways every day, I am already familiar with the tactics of special interests attempting to grab exclusive control of these urban treasures for themselves.
They begin with a deceptive title such as "Open Parkways" — but their goal is to close parkways to citizens who have different needs.
They employ soothing words like "greater flexibility, functionality and aesthetics" — when they mean to raise barricades, deploy orange traffic cones and post road closures.
They claim it will only be done "for a temporary duration of time" — but call for a "transition" — suggesting permanent change.
They boast "active human use" to imply that some current parkway users — like my wife and I — are less than active humans. And they want to take some of it away from us.
Good people in the Twin Cities have successfully shared our parkway system with each other for more than a hundred years. Please don't let special interests divide us from each other by closing off parts of the parkways for themselves.
Jack P. Maloney, St. Paul
DISABILITY SUPPORT PROGRAMS
This system needs help
Lives "turned upside down" and "languishing": These words hit me powerfully in the June 5 story, "Doors close for disabled adults." As a Twin Cities psychologist who has worked with people with disabilities on their life enrichment and employment goals for more than 35 years, I can say that the safety net designed to protect the people with the most significant needs among us is tragically failing these individuals. Of the 3,500 on waitlists, quite a few require greater staff attention, needs that have intensified due to the isolation of the last two years. When the staff are not there because wages are not competitive, these individuals are left behind and too often forgotten.
Who doesn't find meaning in life from what they do during the day — with work, play, education, friends, hobbies? That's what so many with significant disabilities are missing when they can't attend a day program. Let's not beat around the bush and forget that these services are essential to people's mental and physical health. Thousands of Minnesotans just don't have the options that people without disabilities often take for granted. These programs are the foundation for healthy, fulfilled lives and these services are being denied.
There are costs to do this right and to do it well, but they are worth it. We hope the Legislature and governor can resolve this significant dilemma soon and provide the resources that are needed to catch up.
Linda L. Moore, Eden Prairie
The writer is executive director at Chrestomathy Inc.
TREE REMOVAL
Consider a replanting, care program
Regarding the unfortunate demise of trees on Cleveland Avenue ("A modern Cleveland Avenue will serve generations to come," Opinion Exchange, June 14): As part of my involvement with the nonprofit organization Build:Public, I toured tree farms in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois last year to select large trees for several projects we have been developing for the public realm in Minneapolis and Bismarck, N.D. We had a great array of trees from which we could choose.
I am a landscape architect and well-aware of the standard arguments against planting large trees: after five to ten years, the 2-foot tree will catch up to the 5-foot tree in size; the larger trees can require more attention to get established; it is more expensive to purchase the larger trees and more challenging to move them into place.
On the other hand, the large plants make a dramatic and immediate impact. We have seen them transform a stark commercial corner in the city into a shaded oasis, providing the multiple benefits that we all have to come to understand derive from an expansive tree canopy.
So, perhaps, if the trees along Cleveland Avenue must go, the county and community could enter into an agreement whereby the county purchases and installs the trees and members of the community "adopt" a tree and agree to a maintenance program developed by the talented arborists on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. Seems like a win-win.
Bob Close, St. Paul
