The work to understand our common humanity

I wish to comment on the well written letter from JoAnn Blatchley of the St  Paul-Nagasaki Sister City Committee. I found myself reflecting on my 40-year experience at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center as a therapist to World War II veterans in the Mental Health Section. I believe there are very few of us (veterans or therapists) left. When one reads news articles from that wartime period it is always in terms of “Japs or Nips” often followed by picture cartoons of Japanese with ugly faces, buck teeth and bayonets. There was  seldom a sense of humanity. It would  have been very difficult to describe their humanity when one considers their history in China, Korea, the Phillipines or any other  location they invaded. Just this last week i shared my experiences of American POWs of the Japanese with a group i meet with regularly and their belief that they would all expect to die at the hands of the Japanese, but their main hope was to have a “peaceful death” and, for instance, did not want to be burned to death.

There are so many ethical, racial and moral questions. In the past my family hosted two groups of Japanese students who spent part of their summer at St. Kate’s, and i think we all found this rewarding.

My unanswered question is not did the Japanese “deserve” the bombing, but rather, with the history we now have, “could we have ended the war without an even greater loss of life without the A bomb?” Just months before the end of the War, almost the entire garrison of 22,000 Japanese on Iwo Jima refused to surrender and went to their deaths presumably still of the belief that their Emperor was some type of god. That belief is very hard to change.

So it is reassuring to learn that there are groups in both countries that work for peace and common understanding of our humanity.

Mike Greeman, Woodbury

 

Pants on fire

In Sunday’s Pioneer Press there appeared an editorial from the Las Vegas Review Journal repeating certain Republican talking points about the effort led by Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration to jumpstart the creation of EV charging stations across the country. The assertion is that billions have been spent on a handful of charging stations. A quick internet search puts the lie to this fable: The money was allocated to the states, which were in the process of creating the stations. The effort was just getting started, and the money expenditures were just beginning. The assertion of bureaucratic waste and inefficiency is a pants-on-fire lie. The readers of the Pioneer Press deserve better from Minnesota’s oldest newspaper.

James Watson, Maplewood

 

Build it, then deal with the problems

Nothing refutes Mohammad Hosseini’s demand for “ethics” and regulations on AI to protect “children, neurodivergent individuals and minorities” than the first paragraph of the EV charger debacle article on the facing page of the paper. It reports that $7.5 billion (yes billion) dollars were spent to build 68 EV chargers. All because of the progressive woke nonsense demanded by the infrastructure act.

Mr. Hosseini would require that we build a whole web of regulations and “ethics” protections around the development of AI. They would do nothing but impede or even strangle the development of AI. Let’s build world-class AI, then see what problems develop and what actions need to be taken to protect people.

William Conway, Vadnais Heights

 

Wrong state

Utah State Senate President Stuart Adams prompted a change in the age-of-consent law after one of his relatives was charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl. It appears Jeffry Epstein and his circle of friends’ only mistake was operating in the wrong state.

Joe Danko, North St. Paul

 

Bite the bullet on Social Security

George Will’s take on what could happen to Social Security and its ramifications to our economy is what could happen if Social Security is not fixed now. To fix it we have to do many things, a few being raise the age of retirement, raise the amount that the employer and employee contribute. Raise the cap on income that is not now subject to Social Security payments. Means-test benefits. If you have an income over $200,000 per year in retirement you do not need it. Except for spouses, if you have not paid in you get nothing back.

This of course will make everyone angry as it will have an impact on everyone. But lawmakers and citizens should bite the bullet and do what needs to be done.

Tom Bates, St. Paul

 

Give in to a war criminal?

President Donald Trump will meet with invader, child stealer and Ukrainian civilian infrastructure destroyer Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15. He will explore Putin’s willingness for a ceasefire that leads to an end to the war in Ukraine. Pres. Trump has hinted that there will have to be an exchange of land for peace to happen.

Is this the best that America, the defender of freedom against imperial aggression, can do? Is America willing to give in to a war criminal? Is America willing to run from the fight for Ukraine’s democratic freedom? I hope not. If we do, America will look like a chastened puppy for getting in the way of Putin’s plan to rebuild the Russian empire. Pres. Trump likes to play tough, except when he comes up against a real bully. I hope this meeting does not become a replay of Pres. Trump’s meeting with Putin in Iceland in 2018.

Grant Abbott, St. Paul

 

Who would trust such an agreement?

Who would trust any agreement made by Vladimir Putin and President Trump? They don’t honor their agreements with other countries. These two have already reneged on the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances that guaranteed Ukrainian borders and sovereignty. Yet Trump is trying to distract us from his past escapades with convicted sex criminal Epstein by bringing his pal Putin to Alaska to negotiate a “Peace Plan” for Ukraine. Putin is a convicted war criminal from his war on Ukraine, and by international law he should be arrested when he lands in the U.S. But instead, Trump will celebrate him in Alaska.

We all want peace in Ukraine, but there will be no lasting peace unless there is justice for Ukraine from the criminal behavior of Russia. Rather than justice, Trump appears to want a stoppage of the war and is willing to sell out Ukrainian sovereignty over its territory.  A comprehensive peace plan would include Ukraine and the European Union in the negotiations.  Instead, wanna-be Emperor Trump is meeting with his corruption mentor to carve up Ukraine.  Back in 2016, Trump worked through his campaign manager Paul Manafort (since convicted of eight felonies relating to tax and bank fraud) and a Putin operative discussing a corrupt plan to establish “peace” in Ukraine by awarding the Donbas region in Ukraine to Russia for helping Trump win the election. Now in his second term, Trump can help Putin win this region.

What the world needs is a peace process that brings justice to Ukraine.

Chris and Sue Lyons, St. Paul

 

A path to authoritarianism

The Trump administration is taking our nation down a path to authoritarianism. He is federalizing the police force in Washington, D.C., when violent crime is down 26 percent since 2023.  He will be kowtowing to Vladimir Putin in his meeting in Alaska, throwing Ukraine under the bus. Shades of Neville Chamberlain. He has made permanent tax breaks to billionaires like himself. In imposing tariffs averaging 19 percent on other nations, he usurps the power of Congress and will be fueling inflation and increasing the cost of consumer goods for our middle class.

Arthur E. Higinbotham, Northfield

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The ‘real threat to democracy’

A recent letter writer in the Sunday paper thinks Americans should be outraged by the “real threat to democracy” revealed by “recently declassified documents” which he claims prove that “Obama officials” and other Democrats, like Sen. (former Representative) Adam Schiff, created a “false narrative that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.”

I would have thought that the “real threat to democracy” was Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election by spreading the Big Lie that it was stolen from him, by trying to coerce state election officials to change the vote counts, by developing slates of fake electors to be substituted for the real ones and then by organizing an insurrectionist mob to storm the U.S. Capitol to prevent the certification of the 2020 election results by Congress.

Or I might have thought the“real threat to democracy” is Trump’s present attempts to interfere with the 2026 election by having Texas and other states gerrymander their Congressional districts to guarantee Republican control of Congress for the next three years, if not forever. Or practically every other action taken by Trump since becoming president on Jan. 20.

But ironically, it turns out that the “recently classified documents” which this letter cites are themselves “fake documents and false narratives” that are being propagated by “high level officials in the FBI and CIA”, now under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard is using her current “high public office” platform to propagate a new Big Lie that President Obama was part of a “treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government.” The goal of this alleged conspiracy, according to Gabbard, “was to subvert the will of the American people and enact what was essentially a years-long coup.”

That’s Gabbard’s opinion in her press release which she claims is supported by a “Russian Hoax” memo and a “Report” consisting of 114 pages of mostly redacted assorted memos, emails and other writings from 2016-2018. While this “Report” does generally concern the issue of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, it is nothing more than hearsay and opinions by government employees about what others are writing and their assessments of these writings.

I found that FactCheck.org conducted its own analysis of Gabbard’s inflammatory claims on July 23, 2025, concluding that Gabbard is “misleading”, that she “distorts the facts” and “relies on a nonexistent contradiction in the 2017 intelligence report.”
Despite its worthlessness as actual evidence admissible to prove any conspiracy, Gabbard’s press release, the “Russian Hoax Memo” and the 114-page “Report” have tremendous value as MAGA propaganda to feed baseless MAGA conspiracy theories and rally the base but also to deflect public attention from the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The “real threat to democracy” is the eagerness of Trump and his lackeys to use false propaganda to divide the American public, undermine the American public’s support for democracy and establish himself as dictator controlling one-party rule.

Jon Erik Kingstad, Oakdale

Today is Saturday, Aug. 16, the 228th day of 2025. There are 137 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug. 16, 2014, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, where police and protesters repeatedly clashed in the week since a Black 18-year-old, Michael Brown, was shot to death by a white police officer.

Also on this date:

In 1777, American forces won the Battle of Bennington in what was considered a turning point of the Revolutionary War.

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In 1812, Detroit fell to British and Native American forces in the War of 1812.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 86, which prohibited the states of the Union from engaging in commercial trade with states that were in rebellion — i.e., the Confederacy.

In 1896, gold was discovered in Canada’s Yukon Territory, sparking the “Klondike Fever” that would draw tens of thousands to the region in search of fortune.

In 1948, baseball legend Babe Ruth died in New York at age 53.

In 1954, the first issue of “Sports Illustrated” was released.

In 1962, the Beatles fired their original drummer, Pete Best, replacing him with Ringo Starr.

In 1977, Elvis Presley died at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 42; forty-one years later, in 2018, singer Aretha Franklin, known as the “Queen of Soul,” died in Detroit at the age of 76.

In 1978, James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., told a Capitol Hill hearing he did not commit the crime, saying he’d been set up by a mysterious man called “Raoul.”

In 1987, people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the “Harmonic Convergence,” which heralded what believers called the start of a new, purer age of humankind.

In 2020, lightning sparked the August Complex wildfire in California. More than 1,600 square miles — greater than the size of Rhode Island — would burn over the following three months.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Julie Newmar is 92.
Film director Bruce Beresford is 85.
Actor Bob Balaban is 80.
Ballerina Suzanne Farrell is 80.
Actor Lesley Ann Warren is 79.
Actor Reginald VelJohnson is 73.
Singer/author/TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford is 72.
Singer J.T. Taylor (Kool and the Gang) is 72.
Movie director James Cameron is 71.
Singer/actor Madonna is 67.
Actor Angela Bassett is 67.
Actor Timothy Hutton is 65.
Actor Steve Carell (kuh-REHL’) is 63.
Country musician Emily Strayer (The Chicks) is 53.
Actor/filmmaker Taika Waititi is 50.
Singer Vanessa Carlton is 45.
Country singer Dan Smyers (Dan & Shay) is 38.
Actor Rumer Willis is 37.
U.S. Olympic gold medal swimmer Caeleb Dressel is 29.
Tennis player Jannik Sinner is 24.

The Tigers made a lot of contact against spot starter Pierson Ohls on Friday. The young right-hander faced 16 batters, and 15 put the ball in play. Worse, seven of them scored.

Colt Keith and Gleyber Torres started the night with singles, and an error by second baseman Luke Keaschall — on a potential double-play ball — opened the floodgates early in Detroit’s 7-0 victory in front of 27,282 at Target Field.

The Twins, who managed only two hits against four Tigers pitchers, have lost the first two of this four-game series against the American League Central leaders and five of their past seven overall, falling 14 games behind the Tigers.

Ohls (0-3) was charged with seven runs on eight hits and a pair of walks in 2⅓ innings, but only three of those runs were earned because Keaschall’s error on a sharp grounder by Kerry Carpenter loaded the bases with no outs, and all three runners wound up scoring on RBI singles by Dillon Dingler, Zach McKinstry and Javier Baez.

Pierson Ohl #62 of the Minnesota Twins pitches against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of the game at Target Field on Aug. 15, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

That put the Twins into a 5-0 hole that they never threatened to climb out of, limited to just two hits — one an infield grounder by Keaschall — in six innings by Tigers starter Charlie Morton (8-10).

Morton walked three, hit a batter and struck out five as the Tigers won for the sixth time in eight games.

José Ureña, who started the last time he and Ohls piggy-backed a start, followed with six scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and fanned three.

Keaschall drew walks in the first and third innings, advancing the third base in the third when Matt Wallner was hit in the left knee by a Morton pitch and Brooks Lee reached on a fielder’s choice. But Royce Lewis was out on a pop foul, and Edouard Julien grounded out 1-3 to end the small threat.

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“If the United States is to deter a nuclear attack,” then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said in a 1967 speech in San Francisco, “it must possess an actual and a credible assured-destruction capability.”

McNamara was elucidating a long-established defense concept known as “mutually assured destruction,” meaning that if one side has the ability to destroy its enemy but knows that it cannot do so without being destroyed itself, and that its enemy can and will act to do precisely that, stability is the result.

Something like that argument is being applied to gerrymandering, which is applying nuclear-level destruction to American democracy at both state and federal levels. And it is proliferating.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom used the phrase “fight fire with fire” when he said he planned to work with the California legislature and congressional representatives on a plan that would temporarily set aside California’s independent redistricting commission. The aim is to draw a map that would offset any gains the GOP makes in Texas, where President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott are trying to force a gerrymandered, mid-decade congressional map through the Texas legislature with the aim of maintaining Republican control of the U.S. House.

That action in Texas, of course, explains why Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was holding a news conference this month with Texas Democrats who had fled the Lone Star State to try to prevent, well, their own mutually assured destruction. After other Texans in exile made their way to New York City for a separate news conference, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said that “if Republicans are willing to rewrite these rules to give themselves an advantage, then they’re leaving us no choice, we must do the same.”

Closer to home, Pritzker assailed what was happening in Texas as a “corrupt” act, likely to “silence millions of voters,” with nary a sense of irony, as if his own party was squeaky clean on the matter in Illinois, which is hardly the case.

Illinois Republicans, or what is left of them, roared at the hypocrisy, given that the Illinois version of gerrymandering, as egregiously implemented in 2021, has effectively disempowered Republicans, and thus Republican voters, to the point that very few of them even see a point in running for office in Illinois districts anymore, beyond the safe Republican islands. That’s despite 44% of Illinoisans voting for Trump in 2024.

The problem with applying the language of assured mutual destruction is that democracy does not die in a nuclear flash, to be avoided at all costs. It dies progressively, eaten away by incremental loss of trust.

We’ve railed against gerrymandering on both state and federal levels before, of course, and not just to lament the cowardice on gerrymandering displayed by the Illinois Supreme Court, as well the U.S. Supreme Court’s lamentable 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause that removed federal courts as a crucial check on partisan gerrymandering. At the time, Chief Justice John Roberts clearly recognized the threat gerrymandering posed to democracy, but the 5-4 court majority he led ruled that the only lawful remedies were political, as distinct from federal judicial intervention.

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Already that decision has not aged well.

We’re back on the topic today to say that the events of the last few days only have deepened our conviction that gerrymandering is a real and present threat to American democracy that must be stopped before yet more damage is done. We also are here to say that phrases like “fire with fire” and “all’s fair in love and war” are nothing more than lazy, partisan thinking, tempting as they may be to utter.

This isn’t about one side laying down its arms, or refusing to do so. It’s about building a structure with bipartisan buy-in so both are able to do so at once. We like to believe that could still be done in America.

— The Chicago Tribune