Readers Write: Fire safety, tree ordinance, women’s sports, semantics, editorial changes

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

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One year ago last week I woke up coughing. I quickly saw my entire house was on fire — it was coming from the electrical outlets, lighting up the walls and making everything dark and smoky. And five kids were asleep near me. This accidental electrical fire destroyed my entire home — one that was first owned by my great-grandparents and has been in my family for generations.

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. Everyone inside, including five children and I, evacuated and were helped by the St. Paul Fire Department. Last week we were able to move back home — thanks to the help of so many. Our new home is safer: We have smoke detectors, egress windows and a home fire sprinkler system to quickly extinguish any fire. Our local contractor, Paul Davis Restoration, worked with the National Fire Sprinkler Association and so many local subcontractors who rallied behind our family to give discounted or donated products and labor. One of these donations was a fire sprinkler system by NFSA and Sprinkler Fitters Local 417, to make sure we have optimal fire protection. Fire sprinklers are currently required in new apartment complexes and multifamily homes but can also be used in single-family homes. I can’t say this enough or loud enough: Fire sprinklers buy time, and time buys life. They’re providing both safety and peace of mind to me and my family. Because of the help of so many, we’re home safe for the holidays.

Tara Wirtz, St. Paul

Concerning Sunday’s front-page article by Liz Navratil, “Builders push back on Edina tree rules,” I am employed as a medical courier and within the course of my job I travel all over the Twin Cities metro area and beyond. While I am all for the protection of the metro’s tree canopy, it seems to me that Edina has a serious problem with dead trees. This issue is most evident along the Highway 62 corridor along with all the trash that seems to never get picked up. It boggles my mind that one of the area’s most affluent cities puts up with all the dead trees on both public and private property. Surely there must be something that can be done to address both the dead trees and the trash along Highway 62.

Lawrence Monn, Waconia

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Apparently, God is in big financial trouble in Edina. According to an article in Sunday’s Minnesota Star Tribune, “Builders push back on Edina tree rules,” trees that are removed by home builders are assigned a dollar amount based on the species and size of the tree and those builders must place money in escrow until they can prove that comparable replacements survived. Sometimes tens of thousands of dollars must be placed in escrow.

Some weeks ago here in Edina, we had a substantial blowdown of many of those old-growth trees. Since it was an act of nature and nature’s God, then in all fairness, God should have to place thousands of dollars in escrow just like home builders. And why not? God must be just as concerned about the environment as anyone in Edina. City Manager Scott Neal claims that one way to reduce tree damage is to build in some financial disincentives that encourage people to preserve trees rather than remove them. It would be interesting to hear from God what he thinks of the city’s “disincentive” program.

Earl Faulkner Sr., Edina

I was anxious on Sunday to get my paper and read about how, for the first time in the history of the soccer program at Minnesota State Mankato, the girls’ soccer team made it to the Final Four in North Carolina. Happily, the boys’ football team won their championship game that same day as well. You can read all about that game from a nice article in the paper (”Call them drama kings, but Mavericks keep winning,” Dec. 8). Tomorrow I’m making an eye appointment, because clearly I’ve missed the one about the exciting win in double overtime for the girls! I guess we haven’t come that far yet.

Anne O’Brien, Brooklyn Park

Calling a person ignorant is not an insult, as a letter writer claimed on Dec 8. Ignorance is a lack of knowledge or information. We are all ignorant about a lot of things; we can’t understand or know everything. Now, calling a person “stupid” is an insult. Even if true, we avoid the insult with less harsh and more focused language.

Calling Trump voters ignorant, as another letter writer did, is not an insult; it’s a cogent observation. When so many said they wanted Trump back because he can better fix the broken economy, they exhibited their ignorance of how complex national and international economic systems operate and affect them and also how little a president can control any of that. Their anecdotal personal observations of higher grocery, housing or whatever else prices is the evidence they use to justify their conclusions. We should all know that individual anecdotal observation is a really bad way to make important decisions. But many don’t; they are ignorant of that fact.

The vast majority of these folks manage to navigate their way through a difficult world, work productively, raise families, and be admired by others. They are not stupid. They are good people whose ignorance in understanding in some critical areas led them to make a very bad choice.

Dennis Fazio, Minneapolis

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A letter writer on the Dec. 8 editorial page takes another letter writer to task who said that Arne Carlson, in considering Trump’s victory, “failed to realize how many poorly informed people live among us,” and that that is the same as calling Trump voters “ignorant.” He further says that is an insult. Not quite. Here are some definitions of the word “ignorant” taken from Merriam-Webster:

1. Destitute of knowledge or education

2. Lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified

3. Resulting from or showing lack of knowledge or intelligence

4. Unaware, uninformed

There is nothing here that rises to the level of being an insult; it is more akin to a statement of fact. Calling someone “stupid” would be an insult — not calling them poorly informed or ignorant. The letter writer is apparently uninformed or ignorant (no offense intended) of the meaning of these words.

Kevin Wentworth, Red Wing, Minn.

After several months of reading and reflecting on the Star Tribune’s new editorial format, I’ve come to the conclusion that the strength of your viewpoints has been measurably watered down. Perhaps that’s by design, but I personally miss opinions written with strong, declarative sentences, with few qualifiers, tersely penned by a group of writers on behalf of the paper. Take a stand, make a point, and I’m fine with that — even if I disagree. Good pro-con debate leads to enlightened thinking, which ultimately brings us closer to the truth.

The top-to-bottom space on the left side of the editorial page now looks more like column inches devoted to the personal viewpoints of individual staffers. Instead of making a convincing argument in favor of reducing the proposed 2025 tax increases here and across the nation, the column in Tuesday’s paper, penned by a Star Tribune editorial writer, reads more like a news story, replete with paraphrasing and many lines of quotes (“Listen to taxpayers: Reduce the 2025 property tax increase,” Dec. 10). Please, if it’s supposed to be an opinion piece, give us more of where you stand. We can read what the mayors and council members of Minneapolis and St. Paul, property owners and others, say about the issue over in the news sections of the paper.

Bruce L. Lindquist, St. Louis Park