Readers Write (June 1): Inattentive driving, disabilities, Hillary Clinton's opponents, violence and protest, Obama in Japan

Recent articles and commentary in the Star Tribune about the rise in distracted driving have definitely hit home. Since April 26, my family and close friends alone have had the following serious encounters with inattentive drivers:

• A friend driving home from grocery shopping was seriously injured when a car ran a red light, totaling her car and landing her in the hospital.

• Another friend was rear-ended on her way to work while stopped at a red light.

• My oldest child's partner was rear-ended on the way home from a trip to her bank while stopped for a red light.

• The same day my husband was very nearly hit head-on by a driver running a red light.

• My other adult child was rear-ended while stopped in heavy traffic on 35W. (The state trooper apologized for taking so long to show up at the scene, explaining that he alone had been called to 15 accidents so far that day!)

All these accidents occurred because drivers didn't see or heed a stoplight or brake lights in front of them. This trend must be reversed.

Drivers — all of us — wake up!

I read the May 31 cover story regarding the crusader for disability accessibility ("Blackmail or leverage," May 31). This is truly an important issue, and we have important legislation as a result. However, it appears Dr. David Ketroser is nothing more than a bully by searching for businesses not in compliance. Unless these were "innocent" encounters, the sheer volumes show the actions as simply trolling for violators. Was the subject of the article really interested in the services or goods? Businesses are most certainly aware of the various legislation supporting those who are disabled, and in most cases strive to do what is right. I can expect to pay more, I guess, due to these egregious filings. Finally, it appears all financial settlement demands are pocketed by this recurring litigant. This is plain wrong.

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As a person with a major disability (TARS — thrombocytopenia absent radius syndrome), I resent the collection of inspirational/vilifying articles in the May 31 issue. Regarding the lawsuits filed by Ketroser, please realize that litigation is the only recourse there is for upholding the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 25-year-old law for which I fought tooth-and-nail in the 1980s. This law is the only reason someone like Hana France ("Competitive advantage," Sports) gets to go to school at all. I am 51, and not so lucky. I was flat-out excluded or treated like crap in the public school system from kindergarten through college, even though I was an honors grad in high school and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota. Then, I started my own business when my disabilities proved it was nigh impossible to find a job outside the U.

The only people systematically treated worse than blacks in this country are the disabled. We are consistently denied decent education, transit, housing, health care and employment. Until this changes, I applaud the heroes of every age (including the France family) for progressing the opportunities for people with disabilities.

I have two questions for conservatives in regard to Hillary Clinton's e-mails. The first is this:

Where was your outrage when the entire George W. Bush administration, including both his secretaries of state, ran all their official e-mails through the Republican National Committee's private e-mail servers?

And the other is this:

You all agree that Donald Trump should face equal scrutiny and have to answer for his alleged Trump University scam, yes?

I mean, certainly you aren't trying to engage in a partisan witch hunt, right?

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The more I hear attacks on Clinton, the more I am inclined to support her. An example is the latest e-mail flak. The State Department report that she misused e-mails while secretary of state said that other former secretaries of state did the same thing. Yet, she is the only one who has been criticized. Clearly the attacks are based on a politically desperate attempt for a scandal rather than any supposed misdeeds.

Anyone who thinks that she is the less truthful of the two likely candidates should look at the Star Tribune's May 1 summary of PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter scorecards. Clinton scored 23 percent "true" and 26 percent "mostly true," while Trump racked up 2 percent "true" and 7 percent "mostly true." Clinton's "false" percentage was 11 and "pants on fire" percentage was 2; for Trump, it was 43 percent "false" and 18 percent "pants on fire."

Not only does Clinton have the best record of public service of the two choices, she is the most trustworthy.

The Star Tribune Editorial Board ("Civility takes a hit as protesters cry foul," May 27), writing about violent behavior at political events, seems to be so puzzled by this "troubling trend."

I suggest that board members try taking off their left-leaning protective lenses and start identifying the culprits. For the most part, they are leftists who take their cues from their playbook, Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" — which teaches the ends (socialism and its various forms) justify the means (lying, intimidation and violence).

This "troubling trend" is not puzzling to me.

President Obama's call for a moral awakening during his visit to Hiroshima is one that should be answered. He said that the "souls ask us to look inward, to take stock of who we are and what we might become."

I am thankful to the St. Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee, which for more than 60 years has reminded us of the 80,000 who were killed three days after Hiroshima, and the destructive power of nuclear weapons. The work of SPNSSC provides us with symbols of friendship and peace like the Japanese Garden and labyrinth at Como Park. A visit sponsored by the organization last fall of survivor Michiko Harada imprinted a lasting and moving memory in my first-year students at Hamline.

We must work for peace, remember those days in August 1945, and respond with the president, "never again."

The writer, a former mayor of St. Paul, is a professor of practice in the Management, Marketing and Public Administration Department at Hamline University.