Readers Write: Biden’s legacy, immigration, Strib coverage, Medicare Advantage, semantics

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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The news is teeming with articles on “Trump-proofing” President Joe Biden’s legacy and subverting President-elect Donald Trump’s explicit and implicit agenda (“EPA to allow California to ban new gas car sales,” Dec. 15). Efforts will be at least partly successful, as the incoming administration has no clearly enunciated plan and Trump has made some unfulfillable promises.

My concern is Biden’s climate legacy. Climate change is the overarching threat to the survival of human civilization and must be addressed without further delay. Fortunately, much of Biden’s climate legacy is already Trump-proof. His sustainable energy successes — facilitated by the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act — have benefited state and other subnational jurisdictions, business and industry, individuals, public health and the economy nationwide in red states and blue states alike. The staunchest Trump supporters have happily fed at the trough. Facts are facts. They’re not disputable. Trump can’t undo all the progress.

However, Biden’s successes are inadequate and are diminished by counterproductive actions like authorizing new fossil fuel leases, development and infrastructure. Our greenhouse gas and other climate-changing emissions are increasing as overall energy use grows faster than use of sustainables. Moreover, we are increasing fossil fuel exports and aren’t exempt from responsibility for the pollution they cause. Climate doesn’t care where fossils are burned, only that they are burned.

It’s more important than ever to strengthen our climate goals and pursue them aggressively. Fortunately, climate-advocacy groups are restrategizing efforts to attain a stable climate that can support us and the ecosystems and resources critical for our survival.

Carol Steinhart, Madison, Wis.

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Ho hum, another oil spill that was reported deep in the first section of the Sunday edition (”Enbridge pipeline spills 70,000 gallons of oil,” Dec. 15). When does it end? Or is this the new norm and elected officials just don’t care?

Roughly 70,000 gallons of oil were spilled in Wisconsin this past November and reported a tad over a month later in the paper. Enbridge simply blows it off. They have removed about 60% of the damage, according to officials. Is oil cleanup ever 100%?

Think now about what mining companies want to do near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. How much long-term damage is going to be done up there? Personally, I say enough is enough.

Paul Tuveson, Woodbury

After reading Pastor Angela Denker’s excellent column (“Citizenship in Trump’s America,” Strib Voices, Dec. 15), I now sit here remembering the day of my Norwegian family’s swearing in: Nov. 15, 1956. It was just us three in the judge’s office. I penned my name on the document in my illegible scrawl. At 10 years old, I had little idea then what that meant. I feel it intensely today.

Harald Eriksen, Brooklyn Park

I am a long-time reader of the Minnesota Star Tribune and especially enjoy reading the Variety section. The Sunday version used to contain more local (and national) arts information but now it seems that the majority of the article space is taken up by extensive reviews of expensive homes and home remodels, and by what seems to be advertising for local expensive restaurants that get one or two pages of “ad” space, basically for free. Meanwhile, if there are any articles or profiles of local arts organizations or individuals, they are brief and not at all regular.

I want to encourage whoever edits the Variety section — especially the weekend versions — to please bring back more coverage of local theater, music, dance and other performing and visual arts, and take time to celebrate our thriving arts scene and encourage us all to support all of our local artists with our presence and our cash.

In addition, I would like to encourage more everyday-people-related articles that profile our neighbors and the things that they are doing in and around the Twin Cities. Some of the community newspapers do these kinds of articles and the Star Tribune should as well. Although it was a front-page article, I was very impressed with the Dec. 8 article on the Buddhist teenager and leader (“Behind the facemask, a spiritual leader”). That is the kind of article that I would love to see in Variety more often, but including it on the front page was a good thing as well.

Mary Burns-Klinger, Minneapolis

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I thought one of the letters to the editor in Sunday’s paper had a fairly valid point. “More punch, please” discussed the watering down of the editorial staff’s viewpoints. Then I thought about your lack of political endorsements in the last election cycle and realized that the comments were right on the money. Then I moved on to the Variety section and noticed, in what could be construed as an effort to not offend anybody, the Restaurant of the Year, for the first time nearly two decades, was awarded to not one, not two but three restaurants!

In the early part of the 20th century there was a cartoon in the New York Tribune titled “The Timid Soul.” I sincerely hope that the Star Tribune is not turning into the Caspar Milquetoast of daily newspapers.

Bruce Lemke, Orono

Jill Burcum suggests that the incoming presidential administration tackle the problem of Medicare Advantage providers unfairly preying on our federal funds through their excessive profiteering (“Will Musk have the guts to take on insurers?” Strib Voices, Dec. 15). She wrote about a sensible improvement that “would deliver taxpayer savings and ensure that health care dollars go toward patient care rather than insurers’ bottom lines.” Hallelujah! I’m all for that. Even though I did not vote for Trump in 2016 or in 2024, if his administration succeeds in better policing of the Medicare Advantage providers, curtailing their greedy raid on our Medicare funds, great! Proceed on that initiative at top speed. It will be a positive action in helping America reform our health care system.

Diane J. Peterson, St. Paul

On Dec. 15 the editorial page carried a letter distinguishing Trump voters as ignorant of how economic forces work when they believed his promises to lower prices (“It’s merely an observation”). The writer distinguishes stupidity from ignorance. The point is well taken. But those voters are not merely inadequately informed. They are people who want a better life and hope that someone can solve the problem. Thus, along comes Trump who claims to have the fix.

But Trump never meaningfully explained how he would accomplish the fix. Apparently the absence of a rational explanation did not deter believers. Nor did Trump’s history of lying deter believers. The drive to find an answer was great and Trump was promising an answer. Were those voters who supported Trump ignorant of the complexity of economic factors? Sure. Were they also unwise to believe that Trump had the answers even though he failed to disclose his solution? Probably.

“Ignorance” is only one factor that generated Trump support. Incautious belief in the claims of a person like Trump, who is known to lie and misrepresent, is also likely a very large part of the voting dynamic.

Thomas Wexler, Edina

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After reading the letter “It’s merely an observation,” another word came to my mind. It was “condescending.”

Sheila Knoedler, Eden Prairie