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Letters

Urge lawmakers to save our libraries

To the editor: I am writing on behalf of the New Ulm Public Library Board to call attention to the critical importance of including library funding in next year’s federal budget for FY26. The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding supports libraries of all types through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and its grant programs, including direct-to-state grants. We urge our legislators to reinstate funding for IMLS, including LSTA funding, and to support the reauthorization of the Museum and Library Services Act of 2018. Among other important services, ...

Affirmative Action the reason for lack of experience in top-level positions

To the editor: I recently read a news article about why things went wrong in the performance of U.S. Secret Service at the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Trump. It was noted that “pre-existing issues in leadership and training created an environment” in which the failures could occur, like giving significant responsibilities to Secret Service personnel with little to no experience in advanced planning roles. It also noted a lack of coordination and planning between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners.”  In my employment experience, “little to ...

Stolen from my father’s grave

To the editor: To the person who stole the cardinal solar light from my dad’s grave at Soldier’s Rest in the New Ulm Cemetery on Memorial Day: You didn’t just take a garden ornament. You took something deeply symbolic, a light placed with love, in remembrance and honor of my dad. The moment I saw it was gone, I felt sick. That light wasn’t expensive, but it had deep meaning. A cardinal — a symbol of hope, presence, and love – chosen specifically for my dad. Stealing from a veteran’s grave is beyond disrespectful. It violates not only the memory of the person buried ...

Historic superlatives have become trite

To the editor: From the point of view of a narcissist, who can look at pictures contrasting President Obama’s inauguration and his own first inauguration, 47 still boasts about his historically large crowd. (“No one’s ever seen anything like it!”) This self-same narcissist, when confronted with the enormity of the June 14 No Kings demonstrations and contrasted with his crashing of the U.S. military’s 250th anniversary parade, which coincides with his birthday, pouted and fell asleep. Again, there are pictures to contradict 47’s version of what really happened that ...

High Court reform needed

To the editor: It is becoming increasingly obvious every day that the current U.S. Supreme Court does not care about the Constitution or the rule of law. They only care about delivering decisions based on the desires of their overlord, Donald Trump. Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump packed the court to do their bidding. For some historical perspective the U.S. Supreme Court expanded from seven to nine members under Andrew Jackson in 1837. The Eighth and Ninth Circuits Act of 1837 was a federal statute which increased the size of the Supreme Court of the United States, and which also ...

People are afraid

Re: Defund Human Rights Commission July 2 To the editor: If you truly believe U.S. citizens and those with valid paperwork to be in the U.S. who have brown skin are not afraid of ICE, you need to expand your social circle. People are afraid. If you truly believe not providing health care, a basic human right, to everyone will save money, you need to understand emergency care is given to everyone — at a higher cost and less effectively given the lack of timely care. If you truly believe taking SNAP resources away from those “undeserving”, you need to spend some time at the ...