Readers Write: CPE in prison, state spending, Bryn Mawr, MPD budget, Mary Murphy

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

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Every month I look forward to reading the columns of contributing columnist Angela Denker. Her Dec. 26 story about the clinical pastoral education graduates in the Stillwater prison and how she experienced the true presence of the Christmas season was my greatest literary gift of the season (“What can’t be confined,” Strib Voices, Dec. 26).

Fifty years ago in Edmonton, Alberta, at a Good Samaritan nursing home, I took a quarter of CPE. Though I was a teacher and not seeking ordained ministry, the supervisor needed a “token” woman in his group, and I agreed to participate. It was the most challenging and intense experience of my life! To read about this rigorous training being offered to inmates at Stillwater prison alongside pastoral candidates, the participants’ experiences and the hope the program provides in a prison setting was truly inspiring! Thank you for publishing this article about the graduation ceremony. It was my best gift this Christmas!

Dorothy Meyer, Park Rapids, Minn.

Thank you to the Minnesota Star Tribune and Andy Brehm for his Dec. 23 comments on illegal immigrant entitlement in his column criticizing DFL spending (“Actually, the DFL deserves complete credit for the budgetary mess Minnesota finds itself in,” Strib Voices, Dec. 23). I am currently a DFL voter but disapprove (as do my legal immigrant friends) of enabling unauthorized foreigners who break federal law to live in Minnesota. Our hard-earned taxpayer dollars should go to improve lives of citizens and legal residents, especially children and the vulnerable, not to enhancing the self-image of those who see themselves as humanitarians by passing laws “to provide college tuition support and generous health insurance subsidies for some of the 81,000 illegal immigrants living here,” which is, as Brehm says, “an affront to American sovereignty and ... a magnet” for more illegal immigration. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party was founded by human rights champion Hubert H. Humphrey, first a senator and later U.S. vice president, and was joined by figures like Sen. and later U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale. I doubt either DFLer would have approved of laws rewarding illegal immigration.

We all possess human rights. There is no such thing as “immigrant rights,” an invention of those who want to control the narrative by merging terms. Human rights do not include illegal entry and demand for benefits. Illegal immigrants and their advocates have succeeded in normalizing and rewarding lawbreaking. Citizens of other nations have buddied up to Minnesota’s elected officials and news media, which I saw years ago as a visitor at our State Capitol. The tail should never wag the dog. Will we become a country, like many around the world, where law is not respected and anything anyone can get away with is OK?

Linda Huhn, Minneapolis

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I had told myself not to waste time reading the next column from Brehm. I failed. Oh, well. On Dec. 23, after he agreed that “cheap political blame games are a waste of time,” he blamed automatic inflation increases in K-12 spending as wasteful while student populations are decreasing. Cart before the horse. Students’ families are exiting public schools in large part because schools are not supported well enough financially in the first place. And as a corporate lawyer, he must be at least a little familiar with fixed costs. For example, school buildings themselves have inflationary expenses regardless of student attendance. An obvious reason there are not enough qualified teachers is that, like police, they need pay commensurate with the continually increasing stress they so often face.

Of course, Brehm paid no attention in general to what government spending provides — things like no-charge school meals that allow kids and families to avoid shame that distracts students from the learning he wants, and things like paid family and medical leave that helps families focus on what matters, including school. Programs like the North Star Promise scholarship allow people to go to college and continue learning so that they can be effective corporate employees. Brehm criticizes college tuition for illegal immigrants. In the process, he diminishes so-called Dreamers, who are innocent people trying to find a way to earn enough to buy goods and services from corporations that hire lawyers. All the while, Brehm says he’s “all for racial, cultural and political diversity.”

Jim Bartos, Maple Grove

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Brehm’s commentary regarding the DFL’s responsibility for the state deficit was exactly right. One big error he fails to mention, however, was the decision to send out checks instead of keeping the previous budget surplus for a “rainy day” fund ... and here we are; it’s pouring.

Dianne Damman, Eden Prairie

There were many inaccurate statements in a recent article (“Dayton family member’s purchase of wooded parcel sparks feud,” Dec. 24) but most of all it incorrectly portrayed the Bryn Mawr neighbors as unwilling to work with Vanessa Dayton. You left out the part where, on a Sunday afternoon, over 30 neighbors got together to clear brush and lay wood chips to reroute the trail around her property and onto the public right of way that goes through the woods so that no one would cross her property.

What was her response? She called the police, again.

Renee Torbenson, Minneapolis

I do strongly agree with the letter writer of “MPD isn’t hurting for funds” (Readers Write, Dec. 26) who says “We need to invest in both policing and additional, appropriate alternatives.” And the budget for MPD, she suggests, sounds strong. Opengov.com says the Minneapolis Police Department budget jumped from $183 million in 2020 to $231 million in 2024. That’s roughly a 26% increase. However, I disagree with the author that this is a good amount of funding. It’s very little if you consider that inflation from 2020 to 2024 has been about 20%, meaning MPD’s budget has increased only about 5% in real money in the years since 2020. How will 5% pay for steep but necessary increases in city police salaries to keep them competitive with suburban ones (where the job often is safer)? How will it pay for getting a full police force back onto our streets? How will 5% fund sorely needed additional alternatives to prevent lawbreaking before it happens? If we want a safer city, then instead of “defunding,” we must fund more and also reform. Doing both requires a much higher MPD budget.

Richard Jewell, Minneapolis

I remember when Rep. Mary Murphy was chair of the House judiciary committee (“Longest serving woman in the Minnesota House,” Dec. 27). The hearing room was always full of people who had strong opinions about criminal justice: cops, prosecutors, social service agencies, victims’ service agencies. I was the state public defender, so I was there pretty often. At the first meeting of the committee she said, “Next meeting, each of you bring in a picture of your family to pass around. We won’t agree about a lot of things in here, but we all should know we are people connected to other people.” So we did.

Especially right now, we need more politicians like Mary Murphy.

John Stuart, Minneapolis