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Living our choices

Today I think positively of what will be. Some say the system is wrong. Some blame the government for their ills. One word comes to mind: responsibility. Responsibility, in itself has little to do with systems or governments. You guessed it. It has to do with the person. People make choices. Whatever our choices one thing is certain: we must live with our choices. Out of all this comes experience. Out of that comes knowledge. Knowing something out there is greater than you is the first step to wisdom. What will be is greater than what is. In the end its not what you know, but who you ...

Playbook on truth and honesty

Most educators and coaches have spent parts of their career convincing teenagers that truth and honesty are attributes to a life well lived. Unfortunately, we are in need of a new instruction manual on how to do this as our youth have seen and heard just the opposite for many many years. Adults, we cannot say "it's just the way it is". We have a responsibility to teach the values that hold societies in harmony. Denny Lux New Ulm

The weight of leadership

To the editor: U.S. Rep (Brad) Finstad’s newsletter again demonstrated an appalling use of rhetoric and misinformation. Blaming Senate Democrats for “recklessness”, “game playing” and “chaos” is a prime example of misinformation and “political games”. No one asked to shut down DHS. No one asked to shut down ICE. They ask for professional and Constitutional behavior from all federal employees — a minimum ask for the use of our tax dollars. Responsibility and leadership come with a high expectation of honesty. The minuscule percentage of the “worst of the ...

Rules of engagement

For the better part of three weeks, our President’s foray into Iran has been scrutinized by people around the world. Allow me to pile on. The President, who usually doesn’t choose his words carefully as he does his worst caricature of Archie Bunker’s malapropisms, has labeled the U.S. military’s attack on Iran as an “excursion.” I thought he was just attempting to minimize the potential for disaster with his need to exercise his fetish to bully. But, in fact, the unprovoked attack with the enormously, ever-increasing price tag has been anything but a stroll through a park ...

Celebrating death?

Robert Mueller died last week at age 81 of Parkinson's disease. After he graduated from Princeton University, a friend of his was killed in Vietnam. Mueller set aside his career goals and enlisted. Among his military awards were a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. President Clinton appointed him U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California in 1992. President George W. Bush appointed him FBI director in 2001. In 2017, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed him special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Barack Obama described ...

Miscalculation of an analogy

“A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Alexander Pope obviously never knew Donald Trump when he wrote this famous quote in his poem “An Essay on Criticism” in the early Eighteenth Century, but he was obviously familiar with the type of person who is currently residing in what’s-left-of-the-White House. President Trump did it again today. In a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, Trump was questioned by a Japanese reporter about why he hadn’t given our allies a heads up about our attacking Iran. His response was that we “went in very hard” and that we “wanted ...