Readers Write: Walz’s return, fluoride, Minnesota’s birthrate

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

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How stupid does Gov. Tim Walz think Minnesotans are? In his reincarnation fresh from a calamitous nationwide loss, he is trying to kiss and make up. In response to the piece “‘I’m not done fighting for Minnesota’” (Nov. 9), I can only say, yes, you are! Conservative Minnesotans will fight you every step of the way. Like your protégés in California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York, we are going to scrutinize your every fake pronouncement, your tired agenda and your love affair with socialism. You speak of not demonizing those who disagree with you, but you don’t realize that’s a cliché. By your own statement, you are clinging to the same old playbook of agenda items that resulted in your historic loss.

And now you come back after a 90-day sabbatical like nothing has changed? Realize that 1.5 million Minnesota voters have rejected your shtick. You participated in a campaign that ignored voters’ concerns and talked down to them. You compared conservative Minnesotans to devotees of Adolf Hitler and on Oct. 27, you equated Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden event with a Nazi sympathizer rally in 1939 held in the same arena. Your “knucklehead” comment is well earned.

You are perplexed as to how so many “fellow citizens — people Democrats have long fought to help — wound up choosing the path they did.” Apparently you can’t figure out that Minnesotans are tired of being lied to as they endure broken promises. The blue-collar middle class is fatigued beyond words trying to make ends meet while your party spent the $18 billion surplus, raised $10 billion in new taxes and grew Minnesota government by 40%! Your liaison with the environmentalists has turned the Iron Range “red” just like the ore that is responsible for a respectable economic lifestyle. And you speak of protecting unions? Also, let’s not forget about the nickel, helium and manganese that is in northern Minnesota in unbelievable quantities. How will you suppress that historic economic potential?

Across the nation your party is plotting to destroy the Trump agenda — which is backed by a massive national mandate. You will likely join in and dig your party’s political hole even deeper. You say you want to sit down with a coffee, Mountain Dew or a Coke and “just talk.” We are through talking. You have returned as the self-appointed gatekeeper of Minnesota — but we are changing the lock.

Joe Polunc, Waconia

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Maybe it’s the realization that we have as a country become a collection of people I don’t recognize or understand that has even the little things setting me off. The paper’s editorial Nov. 10 talks about Walz’s need to regroup as governor of our state after his short stint on the national stage as a vice presidential candidate (“Welcome back to Minnesota and reality, Governor”). He needs to reunite the state and represent all the people after one of the ugliest and most divisive campaigns in history. And our governor, shame on him, is called out because he called Trump “weird,” which apparently offended the other side. Really? That’s all you could come up with? Might I remind you of just a few of the demeaning, appalling and racist names hurled at Vice President Kamala Harris by the man in the red hat at his rallies? But I can’t, because oh, that’s right, this is a family newspaper. Give me a break.

Marta Fahrenz, Bloomington

I hope the Star Tribune was flooded with letters from dentists and public health professionals on the opinion piece it ran Nov. 10 regarding fluoride (“Fluoride: It’s in the water — and in the news,” Strib Voices). Fluoride has been one of the most successful public health implementations. It is well known that the fluoride ion is incorporated into/or absorbed into the hydroxyapatite layer as the enamel is forming and helps makes the enamel resistant to acid. It has been widely studied to put the exact amount in that helps the most without being toxic. While fluoride in toothpaste provides a topical benefit, fluoride in water systems is the most beneficial because it is incorporated into the enamel. Without it, there will be many children with rampant decay. Anything in toxic doses is poisonous — look under your kitchen sink. I would also argue that many parents don’t realize the benefits that they got since it was implemented into water systems and many have never had or have very few cavities and have no idea what it would be like to have your child have a mouthful. Why do politicians yap about things they know nothing about?

Cheryl Symonik, Shoreview

The writer is a dental hygienist.

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I’ve come to abhor the media’s use of the word “misinformation,” and would love for it to be banned. But the commentary “Fluoride: It’s in the water — and in the news” should surely be labeled as such. Written by an “author” who claims to be an authority on fluoride because he ran the machine that added fluoride to the city water. The article is alarmist and devoid of facts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists the adverse effects of fluoride as fluorosis. A cosmetic problem. Nearly everything in excess can be bad. Too much water or Tylenol can be fatal. Public health is always benefit vs. reward.

In my career as a dentist for 41 years, I spent most of my time restoring the dentitions of those born before fluoride was added to the water. When someone younger was found to have many cavities it was because there was no fluoride in their home water. Topical fluoride is no substitute for systemic fluoride. They are different modalities.

Most people could not afford the quality treatment needed to replace their teeth lost due to the lack of fluoride. Our country cannot afford to deal with the dental need that will result, and we will not have enough dentists to treat them. And please understand, dentures are not an equal substitute.

For five years, I volunteered as a dentist for mission work in rural Guatemala with my church. They did not have fluoride in the water and I spent all day, every day, removing the teeth destroyed by caries. Those on the trip who observed this would always ask: “How can we prevent this?” With fluoride, was the only answer.

Paul Arnesen, White Bear Lake

The writer is a retired dentist.

The idea that a declining birth rate is somehow alarming is ridiculous (“Minnesota grapples with a dearth of births,” Nov. 10). Providing incentives and encouragement for people to have more children, as mentioned in the article, is ludicrous. The article also did not offer opinions from the people and organizations who feel that a declining birth rate is a good thing. Instead, a huge headline about “the dearth of births” and an alarmist chart of “declining births in Minnesota.”

Overpopulation is possibly the greatest crisis we now face. It impacts everything: environmental stability, quality of life, housing prices, the high cost of food and the ability of people to live peacefully together. It’s extremely shortsighted to advocate a higher birth rate just to have enough young worker bees to pay for the (current) higher proportion of elderly people.

Eventually, things will even out, and there will be more of a balance in the population. In the meantime, we can fill the funding gap by having wealthier people pay their fair share into Social Security. But just because our parents had way too many children (the baby boom) doesn’t mean we should follow in those unwise and dangerous footsteps.

Kelly Piette, Duluth

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I read the Nov. 10 article “Minnesota grapples with a dearth of births.” I didn’t realize that Minnesota had a concerning decline of births. According to the article there were only 61,715 children born in 2023, which is a 16% decline from the peak of 73,735 births in 2007. That’s a decrease of 12,010 children. It is expected that there will be even fewer children born in 2024.

I had an idea. I looked at the Minnesota Department of Health Induced Abortions in Minnesota January-December 2022: Report to the Legislature — the latest report available. On page 8 of that report, I see that 12,175 preborn babies were aborted in Minnesota during 2022. Only 10,166 of those abortions were performed on women from Minnesota. If even those 10,166 babies had been allowed to live instead of being aborted, we wouldn’t have a dearth of births.

Donna Peterson, Hutchinson, Minn.