Readers Write: ‘Childless cat ladies,’ JD Vance, crime, bear hunting

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

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As I enter my sunset years, I must take responsibility for past actions and past sins. So to Sen. JD Vance: I am a childless dog man. To Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (who recently said her ”kids keep [her] humble” but that “unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble”): I clearly have lived a life lacking in humility due to my lack of biological children. So I ask forgiveness.

You see, I was unmarried till I was 43. Then I met my now-wife, who had been widowed for six years. She had two daughters. I fell in love with my wife and stepdaughters. My wife and I married and we became a family.

I’ve always called my stepdaughters my “daughters.” I thought this was OK because I loved them. Now, through the education I’ve received from two real parents (JD and Sarah), I realize that I was lying, both to myself and to my community. Again I ask forgiveness.

My daughters are now 39 and 40. They have gifted us with three wonderful grandchildren. I love them dearly. So is it OK to call them my grandchildren? Or maybe once childless, always childless — including grandchildren — is the rule. I suppose I should write JD and Sarah to find out what the rules are.

My greatest sin was in 1997. My daughters were scared of dogs. I thought it would be good for them to have a dog. I really believe that loving animals is good for us, as humans. We got a black lab puppy that we named Zoe. My girls loved her immediately, and both of them still love dogs. So I think I was right about that one.

Zoe died in 2001, at nearly 14. Fortunately, she had a natural death because there were no immigrants in the neighborhood.

I continue to do penance for my sins. I try to give back to my community. I’ve practiced medicine for over 45 years. I love my work. But maybe I am just overcompensating for many years of sin.

The truth is finally out: I am the childless dog man of Plymouth. I ask all of your forgiveness.

Vic Sandler, Plymouth

Sen. JD Vance on Monday, at the Georgia Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner in Atlanta: “But you know, the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that ... no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric, and needs to cut this crap out.”

Vance concludes “pretty strong evidence” shows that since a Republican was a possible victim of harm twice, it must have been due to rhetoric from a liberal. I’m not sure this Yale-educated lawyer has given this any real intellectual analysis.

Try this, Mr. Vance. The teenager who actually shot former President Donald Trump was a registered Republican and the man with the rifle in Florida had previously voted for Trump. Perhaps it was the behavior of Trump that caused them to act and not liberal rhetoric. And consider this: John Wilkes Booth was a member of the Know Nothing Party (an anti-immigration party), Charles Guiteau was a Republican who assassinated Republican President James Garfield because he was denied a job, John Schrank shot Teddy Roosevelt because the ghost of William McKinley told him to, Lee Harvey Oswald was a Communist, and John Hinkley was declared not guilty due to insanity.

It is important not to jump to conclusions when trying to explain cause and effect.

But, perhaps you could explain what has caused the threats of violence in Springfield, Ohio?

James Halvorson, Farmington

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I was pleased to see the Star Tribune headline “Trump says Dems inspire the violence” (Sept. 17). I certainly think political violence should be broadly condemned, and I hope that both candidates will tone done the rhetoric. No one, public figure or private citizen, should be afraid for their lives, and everyone should hold themselves to the same standards they advocate for the opposing party.

Matt Flory, St. Louis Park

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My Kamala Harris/Tim Walz lawn sign was but a tiny blue dot in my predominantly MAGA-red Lindstrom neighborhood. And still, this little yard sign was apparently too upsetting/unnerving/disturbing for someone around here to handle. It vanished.

But what the culprit can’t take is my vote — or your vote — or our collective resolve to joyfully help get out the vote in what’s decidedly the most consequential election of our lifetime. The stakes for the future of our republic couldn’t be higher. Whether you’re concerned about jobs, affordable housing, the rule of law, national security or attacks on education, the environment, your health or your safety, I encourage you to vote for Harris and Walz. Together, we can turn the page on the dangerous nonsense of divisiveness and get about the business of creating the next remarkable chapter of our extraordinary American legacy — by the people, of the people, for the people. All the people, that is — even yard sign thieves.

Teri Mach Ryan, Lindstrom

The Minneapolis Police Department has tipped its hand regarding how it views street safety and traffic violence: It’s the victims who are in the wrong.

De’Miaya Broome is a victim of traffic violence (“Teenager struck, killed by SUV in Mpls. is ID’d,” Sept. 17). Yet Chief Brian O’Hara is, according to the story, “openly wondering why parents allow children that young to be in downtown Minneapolis so late on a Saturday night.”

Broome was not killed because she was a teenager. Traffic violence and teens being downtown are wholly unrelated, and only one is an epidemic that the Minneapolis Police Department does not take seriously. Making excuses and victim-blaming pedestrians, like O’Hara has, is symptomatic of America’s deadly deference to, and reverence for, cars — and this rhetoric is damaging to people like me who have lost loved ones to traffic violence. My heart breaks for De’Miaya Broome’s family and friends. She should not have died, full stop. Our city, state and country need to start prioritizing street safety over cars. The Minneapolis Police Department can start by blaming perpetrators instead of victims.

Karin Haas, Minneapolis

In reference to Wednesday’s front-page article, “‘Owen was a hero,’” about a boy who saved his father from a bear they were trying to hunt: While he certainly deserves the attention he is getting for saving his father from the clutches of a bear, I have to question what got the two of them in that situation in the first place. I have never been able to understand the joy a hunter gets from shooting and killing a completely unsuspecting, innocent animal, a living being totally powerless at the hands of a human with a gun. As the national debate about gun control and the senseless loss of human lives continues, perhaps we should also take into account the thousands — millions? — of innocent animal lives that guns take every year, as well.

Caryn Schall, Minnetonka