Readers Write: Football’s violence, Israel-Gaza war, the death penalty

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

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Kudos to Dick Schwartz and Michael Rand for reminding us all of the senseless violence of tackle football (“Football, maybe I actually can quit you” and “Football glory has high price,” Sept. 27). Wasn’t it just a few years ago that we were all wringing our hands with worry over the damaging effects of young (mostly) men slamming their heads together repeatedly and thereby inviting CTE into their brains in later life? Weren’t the numbers of young football players declining? Weren’t there heartfelt pleas from players and parents to stop the violence, which is constantly dangerous and occasionally fatal? How quickly we forget. How many fans blithely walk past an ambulance on their way to the stands of a high school or college or pro football game. An ambulance? Just in case, I guess.

I played football as a young man (eight-man, just to give you an idea of how old I am), and I loved it. And I had my “bell rung” more than once. And I was a fan for many years. But I began tapering off several years ago when I saw at that time how much the violence was being celebrated by commentators and even former players. And when Bennet Omalu released his devastating report on CTE — a report widely dismissed by the football powers that be at the time but subsequently proven by further research and eventually acknowledged by the NFL — that was it for me. I am astonished and frustrated at how, in spite of the evidence, we continue allow and sometimes encourage children and teenagers to play the game. And how the media, including the Minnesota Star Tribune, continue give it such vast and encouraging coverage. Young adults? Well, it’s their brains, and they have the freedom of choice if they want to play. But we continue to fail our younger players.

Thank you once again, Mr. Schwartz and Mr. Rand, for reminding us all of the continuing senselessness and danger of America’s King of Sports.

Mark Storry, Minneapolis

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Thanks to Schwartz for sharing his personal change of attitude regarding football. It’s bittersweet that the neurological afflictions of two fan-favorite football players, Tommy Kramer and Bret Favre, attributed to their years of repeated head trauma, has brought about the harsh realities of this sport into the spotlight. This isn’t anything new. Years ago, President Lyndon Johnson said of his Republican nemesis, then-congressman Gerald Ford, “He’s a nice guy, but he played too much football with his helmet off.” But while we take stock of the personal injuries suffered in this sport, we haven’t fully come to grips with the cultural implications of this form of entertainment. What does it say about us Americans that so many of us ignore the irony of finding pleasure in violent, harmful sports? One might presume that most of us would be appalled to learn that during the 350 years of its existence, the Roman Colosseum was the site where an estimated 400,000 people died, witnessed by an “entertained” audience. And, of course, football is different. But isn’t football just a more civilized expression of our dark fascination with violence?

Of course, there are other issues surrounding our enjoyment of watching football. There’s school and team loyalty. There are big economic profits tied to the sport.

Finally, I’m inclined to ponder this: As I have witnessed and supported the woman’s movement for equality over the years, I’ve been struck by the lack of much activism to incorporate women into the sport of football. Activists have pushed to include women in the field of combat — but not football.

Do these women know something we men are missing?

Richard Masur, Minneapolis

With all the conflict and upheaval in Gaza, an online writer recently asked how the international community can ensure that education remains a priority for children in Gaza. Sadly, there is no evidence that the education of children in Gaza was ever a priority for families living there or for Hamas, its governing agency. The only apparent priority of the people in Gaza since putting Hamas in charge in 2007 is loyalty to Hamas itself, whose violence and savagery is openly celebrated in the streets. The priority that must be given to the education of children in Gaza and in Israel would most directly be restored by joining Israel in its efforts to eliminate Hamas and compel the Palestinian Authority to follow through on the Oslo Accords agreed to in 1993.

Children will once again be the priority when Hamas is destroyed and the Palestinians settle on a nation in the West Bank and recognize once again the state of Israel. Given the helplessness, incompetence and bias of the “international community,” understood to mean the United Nations, it will have no meaningful role in restoring this priority. The U.N. calls Hamas a political movement and accordingly, Oct. 7 is deemed a political protest, notwithstanding the group’s present attempts to claim otherwise. We wonder how Americans would have reacted if 9/11 had been described as a political protest by the international community.

Priorities in both Israel and Gaza will change for the better once Hamas is defeated and the West Bank is settled. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria will remain a threat and must be dealt with as well.

Phil Cole and Ron Haskvitz, Eden Prairie

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Some protest the United States’ supply of weapons to Israel as if those weapons are only relevant to the war with Hamas in Gaza. And surely we should try to alleviate the harms to Palestinian civilians caused by the war that Hamas viciously initiated. But Israel is also uniquely threatened by other Arab neighbors who are devoted to its destruction. No other European country faces similar, constant, multinational threats.

Hezbollah now decries the recent pager and cellphone explosions as an act of a new war. How ironic is that claim when Hezbollah has been sending rockets into Israel for years. Hezbollah missiles have caused thousands of Israelis to evacuate their homes in northern Israel. Every country should be able to defend itself against such attacks.

Israel needs to be prepared to defend itself against frequent attacks from Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Gaza and from every other enemy planted in the area. The United States’ commitment to Israel is not merely to defend against Hamas. Israel must live under a multinational threat every day. Every minute of every day, Israel must be alert to the possibility of attack from a neighboring country. The United States’ commitment is needed to assist Israel to combat those antisemitic, warring attacks.

Thomas Wexler, Edina

Barbarism is alive and well in the United States. Our embrace of the death penalty puts us squarely in the center of the 15th century (“Long past time to end the death penalty,” Strib Voices, Sept. 28).

Of the G-7 countries, only the U.S. and Japan still have the death penalty as law. Japan has just released the longest-serving inmate on death row (46 years) after DNA testing exonerated him. Japan is also on a watch list for inhumane treatment of prisoners, who can be held for long periods without charges being filed, which leads to many false confessions.

In the U.S., there were five executions slated for the week of Sept. 20-27. One man in South Carolina was executed after the state could not find a way to execute prisoners for 13 years. It’s not just South Carolina; most states are finding it difficult to find a method to execute someone that is “humane.” In Missouri a man very likely to have been innocent was executed on Sept. 24.

Then there is the most egregious case of all. Next month Texas is slated to execute not only an innocent man, but the crime he is alleged to have committed does not even exist.

Robert Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter. His conviction was based on pseudoscience, “shaken baby syndrome.” It has been debunked by the science community and Texas itself has a law on the books about junk science. It passed in 2013, but the courts are not allowing Robersons’ lawyers to use it. His lawyers have discovered hidden medical records that point to his daughter dying of severe pneumonia. It is up to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to save his life.

The Innocence Project has exonerated 251 people from death row — innocent people slated to be murdered by the state.

This is the 21st century. Time to put barbarism behind us.

Irving Kellman, Plymouth