Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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It's easy to be an armchair quarterback and criticize Gov. Tim Walz for his response to COVID-19 when it was first declared a national health emergency ("We now see the damage wrought," Readers Write, July 23). Anyone can look back and say how it should have been handled differently. More could have been done if our president had not insisted the numbers were small and downplayed it. More could have been done if our president had not left it up to each individual state to deal with getting their own supplies, creating bidding wars and driving up costs, turning state against state!

In the early days of this pandemic, thousands of people were dying and no one knew for certain what the immediate and long-term threat could bring to our children. Gov. Walz was not willing to gamble with our children's lives! He did the best he could with the limited, conflicting and confusing information he had at the time, trying to protect all of us. Safety was his highest priority. Gov. Walz didn't care about polls, he cared about people. He cares about our children. He cares about our lives. He did his best to offer relief to small businesses and help people who were hurting at a time when no one had the advantage of 20:20 hindsight. He is my hero. Thank you, Gov. Walz, for having the courage, integrity and a calm hand on the tiller when we needed it most!

Martha Wade, Bloomington

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A recent letter writer brought up the damage done to our students during the COVID closure. Let's move forward and make this a watershed moment in education. Let's start the next school year with an assessment of each student's reading, writing and arithmetic capabilities, and then follow that up by placing them in classrooms where they feel just as proficient as the student sitting next to them (regardless of age).

In my opinion, the worst thing we can do is to put our kids in an environment where they feel "dumb," because I fear they just might stop trying.

Jack Kohler, Plymouth

I have followed Birk's career dating back to when he was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. He has worked very hard all the way through his career, first earning a spot as the Vikings' starting center, then becoming All Pro and finally winning a Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens. That and more has earned my respect.

All during that time, he was a model citizen and a great ambassador for the NFL, which is why the league hired him after he retired. He has done many things to serve the community. Several years ago, he handed out winter jackets to needy students in a Coats for Kids program. I watched him. He jumped right in, handing out coats and talking with the elementary students.

He is kind, giving and authentic — not at all deserving of the harsh criticism he is receiving from extremists who want to smear him and keep him from getting elected ("Birk stands by his abortion comments," July 21). Throughout his adult life, he has shown strong character again and again. Despite seeing other NFL players make horrible choices such as abusing a wife or girlfriend, Birk has shown the same discipline off the field as he has on it. He has never gotten a woman pregnant and told her to go get an abortion. Rather, he has been faithful to his wife and helped her raise eight children.

Honestly, we need strong leaders like him. Matt has shown qualities that will make him a good choice for voters.

Dave Hrbacek, St. Anthony

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Matt Birk evidently believes that we do not create our own lives but are born into a role: men are workers and women are child-bearers. Period. Marie Curie and US. Rep. Liz Cheney be damned.

And while I admire the way Birk has led his life, sadly, he failed to learn one of life's great lessons: Everyone doesn't have to do things the way you do them.

And now that he wants to become a part of our governing class, that failure automatically disqualifies him. Why? Birk wants the women of Minnesota to forget their silly notion of playing a role in business and politics, and get down to their real role of bearing and raising children.

Mr. Birk: Women can walk and chew gum at the same time, as you yourself have done, balancing a career with being a good father to your eight (8!) children.

Birk's understanding of abortion is as simple-minded as his understanding of the role of American women. He sees abortion not as an act of desperation but as a psychological tool: "An abortion is not going to heal the wounds of rape," he warns us. Well, duh. But no rape victim I have ever heard of got an abortion to cure their depression. For such victims, abortion has a much more practical purpose: In the case of very young girls it's to allow them to live normal teenage lives without the burdens of unwanted and forced motherhood.

Steven Kaplan, St. Paul

Thank God the Supreme Court has returned the issue of abortion and perhaps other cultural issues to the states and the people.

Where the Constitution is silent on specific issues, the justices have no bases on which to decide a case. Legitimate judicial review does not include fabulist thinking; emanations and penumbras do not cut it.

And so the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision has been overturned for the very reason that the Constitution is silent on the issue of abortion. The 10th Amendment says issues not directly addressed in the Constitution become the province of the states and the people. Our Constitution was constructed in large part to check our national government from becoming an all-powerful, abusive government such as the European governments from which the founders fled.

So now the issue of abortion will be decided by us, the people, thorough our elected representatives. Tragic that the political party that once fought for the least and most forgotten among us has now taken up the banner of killing babies in the womb as its primary issue to win elections.

The Supreme Court is unelected, and it was never charged with ruling on every and all issues. In America, the people rule, not unelected justices. The reversal of Roe is a welcome return to the proper role and function of the court under our constitutional system. Thank God, indeed.

Gregg Schweiger, Duluth

About Judge Paul Magnuson's character and competency, I bring a different perspective than that of a July 23 letter writer responding to "Lane given 2-plus years in Floyd case" (July 22). I was a litigator for 31 years during which I appeared in state and federal courts before many, many judges including numerous appearances before Judge Magnuson. As a result I had the privilege, probably not afforded to the letter writer, to observe Judge Magnuson conduct many court sessions and read many of his decisions. When I retired, I reflected on the quality of the judges before whom I appeared and rated Judge Magnuson as one of the best. He continues to deserve that rating.

Wayne Anthony Hergott, Edina