Readers Write: Tesla, DEI at the DOD, the good in people

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

•••

Tuesday evening, returning to my parked Tesla after work, I found a paper slid on its windshield containing a picture of Elon Musk’s unambiguous salute along with a handwritten note exhorting me to sell my car. I found this overt action a bit disconcerting, though not as unsettling as reports of vandalism committed against Tesla dealers and vehicles.

While I will not argue against anyone’s right to peacefully boycott Tesla because of Musk’s deplorable behavior, intimidating Tesla owners does not really make sense. I purchased my Tesla because of its superior electric vehicle technology and, mostly, to combat climate change and do good in the world.

Next, Tesla is a U.S. company, and Teslas sold here were made in the U.S. by some of its 120,000 American employees. The Washington Post reports that many of these American employees do not support Musk’s political actions. Owning a Tesla shows a desire to buy American and support Tesla’s mostly nonpartisan employees.

Finally, according to data from Strategic Vision, an average of more than 70% of Tesla buyers from 2016-2024 reported their political affiliation as Democrat or independent. If you are a liberal, most of us are too!

There is a window sticker on my Tesla that says, “Love the car, not the CEO.” I’d like to implore my fellow citizens to “Love (or at least not hate) the Tesla owner,” who likely finds Musk’s behavior as abhorrent as you do.

Jeffrey Derby, Bloomington

•••

How much more embarrassing can Gov. Tim Walz get? Well, just stand by and we’ll find out. While on his self-imposed rehabilitation tour, Walz is taking issue with Musk and his DOGE team (“Walz slams Musk at town hall,” front page, March 19). It is not surprising that a Democrat would take issue with the government’s financial efficiency, as Walz has presided over hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud over his tenure. Telling a Wisconsin audience that he wakes up and checks Tesla stock, Walz says he takes comfort in the fact the company is in a rough patch. But then he reassures them he is not vindictive!

Pardon me while I put on my hip boots. Here is a self-made multi-billionaire whose Tesla EVs were the darlings of the green energy movement. Yet now that he has partnered with President Donald Trump, his cars are trashed — literally and figuratively. Walz also called Musk a “South African nepo baby”! I will let the reader pass judgement on that.

Walz, what have you contributed to society? Have you placed thousands of Starlink satellites around the globe to improve communication? Did you begin Neuralink, which is advancing science for the blind to see and the paralyzed to walk? Did you improve social media by founding X Corp.? No, you did nothing like that.

Rather, you presided over the spending of an $17.5 billion budget surplus. You acquiesced as Minnesota Democrats increased spending by $19.3 billion — a 37% increase that put Minnesota on the path to a structural deficit for the next biennium. While you are out gallivanting around the country, burnishing your presidential credentials, your state is in increasingly dire circumstances. Walz, I’m not a vindictive fellow either, but I can draw you a map back to Cornhusker country.

Joe Polunc, Waconia

•••

Buried on page A3 of the March 19 Minnesota Star Tribune was the most significant news event of the day, the successful return of stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams from the International Space Station (“Astronauts return to space after being stranded 9 months”). These astronauts were supposed to be at the station for a nine days, but ended up stranded for more than nine months. Who steps up but Musk with his SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The mission was flawless. Former NASA astronaut Charles Camarda said, “Elon Musk saved the U.S. space program.”

In the same paper, on the front page, Walz was gloating that watching Tesla stock drop improves his mood and that “This guy’s life is going to get very, very difficult.” Schadenfreude at its worst. Only petty, envious people wish misfortune on others. This behavior is never acceptable, and coming from the leader of our state is shameful.

Chad Hagen, Cook, Minn.

The U.S. Department of Defense is literally erasing history (“Web record of Iwo Jima flag-raiser erased in DEI purge,” March 19). In an attempt to remove DEI from federal government programs, references to Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and women service members are being purged from the DOD website. The website has a “Sports Heroes Who Served” category. A reference to Jackie Robinson is only incidentally made on another (white) player’s page. In comparison, the pages dedicated to baseball legends Ty Cobb and Yogi Berra remain on the site. I do hope someone at the DOD had the sense to archive the removed pages of our military heroes so that they can be restored when this country returns to its senses. [Opinion editor’s note: The DOD restored the Robinson page Wednesday and said it was removed in error.]

Kate Winsor, North Oaks

•••

Trump’s recent post on Truth Social featuring a pink triangle, the symbol used by Nazis to identify gay prisoners in concentration camps, was full-on fascist. Now is the time for all of us, but especially Republican leaders and voters, to speak out against the dangerous symbols and dehumanizing rhetoric used by this administration. Anything less makes you complicit in the othering of our fellow citizens and the violence that is sure to follow. Get on the right side of history. True patriots speak up and fight against bigotry, hatred and fascism.

Mary Vrabel, Minneapolis

•••

I am outraged by the Trump administration’s attempts at revisionist history. To erase references to noteworthy nonwhite or women soldiers from the Arlington National Cemetery website and to now erase references on the DOD website to Pfc. Ira Hayes hoisting the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima as well as the Navajo Code Talkers' critical contributions to winning the war in the Pacific is simply obscene. These actions are an affront to veterans and to America. If there was ever a doubt as to whether racism and misogyny are behind the DEI edict, they have now been laid bare.

Bernard Dusich, St. Paul

•••

What will be the next insanity: removing any mention of Barack Obama as president?

Paul Waytz, Minneapolis

I was recently rear-ended while driving across town on Interstate 94 during rush hour. What has stuck with me is how everyone involved reacted and how smoothly everything went after the collision.

After the vehicles involved navigated to the shoulder, everyone’s first concern was ensuring everyone was OK. Nobody bemoaned their damaged car or sniped about inattentive driving, and not a single person angrily complained about being waylaid from where they were headed. Within moments after hanging up with emergency dispatch, trucks from the Department of Transportation arrived and calmly escorted us off the highway. A few beats later, highway patrol showed up, collected statements and information, and handed us paperwork to relay to our insurance companies. In total, no more than 30 minutes elapsed between the fender-bender and everyone continuing on to where they were headed. During that time, the four people involved shared stories about our infant children (and words of thanks that none were in our cars during the crash) and enjoyed an affable conversation about living in the Twin Cities.

Everyone involved handled an objectively bad event with grace and humanity. But rather than leave the scene wallowing in misery or furious at my rotten luck, the way the other drivers responded strengthened my belief that most people are able and willing to accept responsibility for their actions and can meet a stressful and difficult situation with compassion.

Jay Eidsness, Minneapolis