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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Americans, for the most part, see Europe as a tourist destination, a place to enjoy diverse cuisine and classical architecture. It is seldom seen as the massive battleground it once was, where millions died in two world wars, including hundreds of thousands of our own soldiers. But travel to Ukraine in Eastern Europe, mere hours by car, and the landscape changes from comfort and commerce back to the tumult of war.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of Russia's unprovoked invasion, we are reminded that liberty has its vulnerabilities. It is never fully insulated and at times must be defended against aggressive force.
Had the United States and its coalition partners not intervened by providing military and economic assistance, a sovereign, democratic, European nation would not have survived. This unwavering solidarity is an unmistakable acknowledgment that the fight for freedom extends beyond the borders of Europe.
Jim Paladino, Tampa, Fla.
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Brilliant. I refer to John Rash's final words in his column on Jan. 28 titled "In tank debate, all was not quiet on the German front." In that title he refers to Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front," a classic and penetrating antiwar novel about World War I's victimized ground troops, now made into a new Oscar-nominated movie. Regarding destroyed Russian military "recruits" in Ukraine, Rash observes, "it's Russia's leaders who should be rereading Remarque's novel."
No doubt, Ukrainian people are suffering the most, but they are not alone.
Jim Bartos, Maple Grove
CHILD ABUSE
A sprawling, tragic problem
D.J. Tice and a recent letter writer are disagreeing on an important topic ("Another death roll of kids Minnesota didn't save," Opinion Exchange, Feb. 10, and "A truly wrenching decision," Readers Write, Feb. 14).
The letter writer is right about the trauma of being removed from the only home you have ever known. It should never happen for the wrong reasons.
Tice refers to the many more children "permanently blighted" for each of the 88 dead children investigated in the Safe Passage for Children study. "Blighted" is a soft word for the attempted suicides, self-harm, repeated rape and violence against children my caseload kids lived with.
This CASA volunteer guardian ad litem sat through over 100 courtroom hearings representing 50 children traumatized relentlessly in terrifying home settings.
Decisions made by judges in the courtroom are painful for everyone.
A child's story brought into the courtroom that forced the decision by a judge is never seen or heard outside — unless the child dies and the Star Tribune has a reporter on the case or if Safe Passage for Children investigates (both rarely done).
The vast majority of courtroom stories remain forever invisible except to the child suffering these traumas — a child who will live forever with the deep mental scars left behind. There are over 80,000 reports of child abuse in Minnesota annually. Hennepin County reports that families involved in child abuse cases have an average of 3.9 children.
A society that valued children and young families would wrap support services around the child and work diligently to help this family achieve a minimum safety status and continue to be there when needed.
The letter writer is right about foster care. I would add that group homes are truly underserving the children that need a safe and humane place to grow up. We do need better answers.
Underserved, abused and neglected children lack skills and develop behaviors that are impacting our schools, public health and making neighborhoods unsafe and unhappy.
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz has remarked that 90% of the youth in juvenile justice had passed through Child Protective Services.
This former CASA believes two things could keep Minnesota children safer and healthier:
1) Reporting and tracking those things that matter to the children being served. Today's CPS and guardian ad litem metrics concentrate more on employee performance than child outcomes.
2) Recognizing that the costs of underserving abused and neglected children include the cost of broken schools and dangerous communities.
Mike Tikkanen, Minnetonka
The writer is founder of Kids At Risk Action.
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In his Feb. 10 opinion piece, Tice lamented that children were returned to parents too quickly because child protection favors family preservation over safety.
The topic is far more nuanced than that. Family preservation reduces trauma and contributes to child well-being; it should be a priority. However, Minnesota removes children from their parents at one of the highest rates in the country — as of 2019, Minnesota was sixth out of 50 states. Even after controlling for poverty and other risk factors, Black children in Minnesota are more likely than white to have substantiated cases and be removed from their homes. Minnesota has one of the nation's highest racial disproportionality rates for children in foster care. (Read "Torn Apart" by Dorothy Roberts for more on why this is problematic.)
Foster care isn't always a safe refuge. The report Tice referenced includes the story of young Layla Jackson, who was killed in foster care. Layla was Black and American Indian, just 17 months old. Layla was placed with white foster parents — despite indicators that the foster father was openly racist. Layla was abused and killed by her foster father.
When children are removed inappropriately, there is lasting impact — particularly on communities of color. When children are removed for good cause, foster parents are not always safe caregivers.
The system has its failures, but overcorrection does nothing to serve Minnesota families. The correct response to these tragedies is a methodical review of what went wrong — not to punish, through fear, other families tangled up in the system by scaring judges and decisionmakers into delaying reunification.
Ultimately, child protection, not unlike policing, represents a system that wields incredible power over the futures of children and families. Like policing, it requires nuanced and equitable practices.
Julia Durst, Minneapolis
The writer is an attorney who represents parents in child protection cases.
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I am writing to inform both the editors and readers of the Star Tribune about an important issue that Minnesota faces. African American children are removed from their home at a rate 3.1- 5.8 times higher than their white counterparts. Clear research shows this is because of bias in the CPS system rather than actual difference in abuse statistics.
The African American Family Preservation Act seeks to fix this prominent issue by implementing efforts into the CPS system that would prevent unnecessary removal of children from their parent's custody, and better help African American children who have already been unnecessarily taken out. The act also seeks to revise the rules regarding visitation rights to be more lenient, increase the amount of time allowed to file an appeal, and would require CPS to consider the child's family members as potential guardians before simply moving them to state custody.
The Star Tribune has much influence in Minnesota, and I believe, with enough awareness of this problem and with this act, we can come together to reconcile this injustice that the Black community in Minnesota faces.
Juston Eddy, St. Paul
NEW PUBLISHER
Encouraged by the selection
As a longtime subscriber, I am excited by the hiring of Steve Grove and the knowledge and experience he will bring to the role of publisher ("Steve Grove is named Star Tribune publisher," front page, Feb. 15). I hope he can be a bridge to his former employer, Google, and other companies that profit from the content produced by the Star Tribune and other news organizations. The tech giants are struggling to combat disinformation in social media; one of the best ways is to financially compensate the organizations who perform professional and responsible newsgathering and reporting.
Barb Kucera, St. Paul
Counterpoint: Parents of color can make good decisions about their children's education
It's easier than you think to get scammed
