TO THE EDITOR:

In his letter in last week’s Patriot, Mr. Chris Rauch suggested the “Common theme” was no compliance by the subject, leading to police shootings. He was silent on the other “common theme;” that is, people of color are treated different from white people. In many cases, they did not even commit a crime; they were essentially stopped for being black. A quick internet search will provide quick verification of this. Rauch then asked “how do we solve this?” and gave the easy, white wash answers of respecting police and family values. Isn’t it better to address the real problems of lack of opportunity for people of color to break out of generations of a culture of hopelessness? I know; Mary Kiffmeyer would say they need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, like she did; … but what if you are barefooted?

In another letter, my representative, Shane Mekeland criticized Gov. Walz’ special sessions to extend COVID response oversight and argued to safely reopen MN. In truth, Walz has been safely reopening, basing his decisions on the data, unlike governors in states like Florida, Texas, Iowa, Georgia, and both Dakotas, who have chosen to roll the dice, leading to higher per capita COVID stats. In fact, the Texas lieutenant governor said elderly would gladly die to save the economy. Walz’ conservative response to COVID has no doubt saved many lives. And shouldn’t every single life matter?

Nancy Hassett

Big Lake, MN