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Not much difference between Noem and Himmler

Letters

To the editor: I do not see much difference between Kristi Noem’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and Heinrich Himmler’s SS (Sicherheitsdienst). They both operate in a murky gray area without any legal supervision. The SS determined who was German. ICE determines who is American. The main tool of both is fear. People who might object to violence by the SS or ICE hesitate to act because of fear. Complaints receive no government traction. Bullets to the head dissuade protest. Both Noem and Himmler are zealous advocates of charismatic leaders (Donald Trump and Adolph ...

Limiting how we are treated

Columns

What are our personal rules that determine how we want other people to interact with us, and to treat us? What are the boundaries that we expect other people to recognize, accept, and respect? We all have those personal rules but we do not always think about them or put them into words. These rules are a big part of who we are, and they determine what we want and expect from other people. They determine what we will accept and tolerate from the people we encounter in our life. We tend to react when the boundaries we set are violated. There are also internal boundaries, or rules, ...

Passing on chance of glory

Columns

I recently stopped at the post office to mail a few packets. This is something that would normally take only a few minutes, but it consumed nearly half an hour and caused my wife to suffer some undue alarm. It wasn’t the post office’s fault. As I approached its exit, a vaguely familiar face hovered before me. It took a moment for the memory synapses to click. “Mr. Schrader?” I asked. “Is that you?” It was. Mel Schrader taught science class when I was in seventh grade. We chatted amiably for several minutes when a particular memory percolated up. “I remember in ...

Good turnout for town hall meetings

Letters

To the Editor: I’d like to thank the residents of Brown and Redwood counties for attending the recent town meetings Senator Dahms and I held recently. We saw good turnout at all our stops, and it was clear the Number 1 topic on people’s mind was fraud in the State of Minnesota. I share these frustrations and residents should know I am working to put an end to it, and to ensure that those who allowed fraud to flourish are finally held accountable. We also heard concerns from business owners and employees about the state’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave program. The program ...

Second Amendment, upon further review

Letters

To the editor: Whenever another mass shooting occurs, the sensible left renews its call for legislation to protect our citizens from gun violence by lunatics wielding weapons of mass destruction in pursuit of slaughtering innocent, unarmed, law-abiding people. Now I’m thinking that I need to avail myself of my Second Amendment right to bear arms for the actual reason that it became part of our Bill of Rights. Our forefathers in our country’s infancy thought it prudent to allow citizens to arm themselves in the face of an intrusive threat posed by a foreign invasion or government ...

The guns have come out

Letters

To the editor: When Kristy Noem stepped off the airplane and gave her speech at the Minneapolis airport yesterday, she did not offer condolences or comfort regarding the fact that a person had just died. Instead, she initiated a scathing attack on the victim, portraying her as some kind of evil monster while at the same time giving a gushing account over how wonderful the ice agent was who had killed her. Something is very, very wrong with this modern bromance between the Republican Party and the Christian church for allowing this type of behavior to continue while praising it at ...