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I don't understand what all the fuss is about regarding the call to prayer ("Minneapolis ends limits on Muslim call to prayer," April 14). As an Israeli Jew, I cherish cultural diversity. I grew up on the Carmel in Haifa, Israel, next to a Palestinian Israeli village, Kababir, where the inhabitants were Muslims. I loved being invited to celebrations at the mosque. I loved listening to the beautiful sounds of the calls to prayer. It was a gift to learn Muslim traditions.

It seems some Americans are adverse to people who are different than they are. If we all kept the same traditions life would be bland. I understand the loudness is bothersome early in the morning, but if the emphasis is placed on cultural enrichment rather than comfort it might be appreciated.

Our children might grow up to be more open to diversity.

Dorit Miles, Minnetonka

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All Minnesotans should have to live under the same laws. Noise restrictions exist for a reason. Furthermore, exceptions to noise regulations solely for religious purposes are an unconstitutional violation of separation of government and religion. For government to grant a special favor for a religion, which nobody else gets, amounts to a government endorsement of that religion.

For those Minneapolis City Council members and Star Tribune editorial writers who support this exception ("Call to prayer is a call to inclusion," editorial, April 13), would you be willing to have this loud, amplified sound outside your house every day at 4 a.m.? Or does this "tolerance" only exist because it is not in your backyard?

Muslims were able to figure out when to pray for decades before the calls to prayer began during the pandemic. Alarm clocks are not expensive. Muslim leaders could broadcast by radio, internet, text message alerts or robocalls to those people who wished to receive their message.

Not all traditions are good or appropriate. We are not a theocracy, and there are plenty of non-Muslims who enjoy their sleep (and, I daresay, some Muslims as well).

Tolerance should be a two-way street. I urge Muslim leaders to return to the pre-pandemic days when they were good neighbors, willing to live and let live. Would Muslim leaders welcome someone standing outside their mosque, interrupting their services with a loud, amplified, non-Muslim message?

And lest I be accused of having a double standard, I also find loud Christian church bells to be annoying, but at least they are usually only once a week and not at 4 a.m. And if they violate the hours or decibel levels that other citizens must live by, then they should cease, too.

Should atheist organizations be allowed to blare a loud, amplified message in Minneapolis at 4 a.m.? No. And neither should anyone else, with the exception of police and fire vehicles. That noise has a secular purpose that cannot be accomplished by a quieter method.

August Berkshire, Minneapolis

The writer is associate chair of Minnesota Atheists.

The recent leak of classified Pentagon records ("Guard member arrested in secret document leak, April 14) reminds me of how freely top-secret authorizations have been handed out by our military services and government generally. When I was a very junior officer in the U.S. military many decades ago, I was given a top-secret security clearance without really needing it. I recall once receiving a top-secret communication. It was from the Defense Department telling me not to disclose to any local news media information about possible Soviet submarines near Cuba. I was stationed near landlocked Oklahoma City; I knew nothing about Soviet submarines beyond what the top-secret notice told me; and the chances of being asked such a question by Oklahoma media were less than nil.

I doubt this practice has become better over the years. How the allegedly low-ranking Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira qualified for top-secret clearance is beyond me.

Kent Harbison, Roseville

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How would Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty handle Jack Teixeira, given he does not have a fully formed cerebral cortex?

Arthur Glassman, Minnetonka

There it goes again, another "example" of the benefits of being Cuban ("If Cuba can eradicate illiteracy, Minnesota certainly can," Opinion Exchange, April 16). I agree with author Tim Reardon — Minnesota can do better in improving reading skills and also in special education and mental health.

I was there during the tsunami that unleashed 15- to 18-year-olds into the countryside to teach reading. I saw the materials: Fidel is good. Communism is salvation. The U.S. is evil. Those were sentences in the primer that taught illiterate Cubans how to read. Reading or propaganda?

My relative asked her granddaughter to read to me. She picked up a book of Jose Marti's poetry familiar to me and read a poem. Her reading speed was terrific. She read the page aloud to me in record time. She paused, and I pointed out a word asking her what it meant. She did not know the meaning of the word. This happened four years ago.

Reardon is correct. Minnesota can do better in improving the education of its children. But please, do not make Cuba the pinnacle that Minnesota's educational programs ought to achieve.

Ramon I. Reina, Victoria, Minn.

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It is very discouraging to find out regularly that Minnesota children rank so low in the country in the ability to read. That is not a ranking to be proud of, and one that could be and should be corrected by our state and teachers union leaders.

I did appreciate the commentary "If Cuba can eradicate illiteracy, Minnesota certainly can." But guess what, we don't try — but we do have the Legislature appropriate more money each year to "education" with no charge that improvement in reading by any percentage be required. Instead, we allow the teachers union to use the funds to invest in the Democratic Party so that the funds from the government will keep coming.

If more people are required then maybe, using the example of the Cuba effort, the teachers union could ask retired teachers to take on this task and fund it with the money usually funneled to support of the Democratic Party. I bet they would love to participate in a program that would actually show progress in this important part of a child's education.

It is time for Gov. Tim Walz and the Legislature to use their bully pulpits to encourage the teachers union to get serious about improving the reading scores.

How about some real leadership, folks, and solving a problem for once?

B.T. Johnson, Minnetonka

I read with some sadness and a touch of nostalgia that schools across the state are phasing out the use of student lockers ("Combination of factors expels lockers from school," April 16). I hope school districts understand the deprivation inherent in this action. Future generations of students will now go through their entire lives without experiencing recurring dreams about forgetting their locker combinations.

Kevin Moe, Woodbury