News & Articles

Senator Hauschild looks out for our interests

Recently,  I attended our local annual rural electric cooperative meeting. The purpose of the annual meeting is to gather together all of the member owners of the co-op to share important information about the status quo of our rural utility company. It is an open meeting with member owners encouraged to use the microphone and voice their concerns. What could have been an energizing, uplifting meeting, especially in light of the recent inflation reduction act provisions and financial support for transitioning to clean energy, unfortunately turned out to  be quite a disappointment. 

Many of the voices that were loudest in the room were in opposition to the necessary changes we need our rural cooperatives to make to move away from costly and dirty, fossil fuel-based energy sources to clean affordable energy. Clean energy sources are wind, solar, and hydro power with battery storage to back up for the times when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. I certainly wish that more voices had addressed the misinformation from the loud voices in the room. 

We feel very fortunate to live in a state that has been successful in passing the 100% Clean Electricity by 2040 law. This law will move us off of our current dependence on dirty fossil fuels to clean energy by the year 2040.  Using clean energy reduces pollution, creates jobs, improves health and is a cheaper source of energy than relying on fossil fuels.

WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THAT?

I want to thank our State Senator Grant Hauschild for his critical vote in passing the 100% by 2040 Clean Energy Bill.  Sen. Grant Hauschild is genuinely looking out for our best interests here in  District 3. I am grateful to have a man of his integrity and sincerity representing our district in the State legislature and doing what’s best for us. This historic bill would never have passed without Senator Hauschild.  Thank you Senator Hauschild for all that you do so well. You have just delivered!  

Lucy Grina, Two Harbors, Minnesota

Who is the liar?

On March 19, 2023 Michael Shellenberger, representing Twitter, appeared before the U.S. House, the Twitter File Hearing. Arguing against censorship, Shellenberger said “. . . the First Amendment protects our right to be wrong . . .”

Earlier on February 28, a House Roundtable examined Covid policy, describing both censorship and disinformation.  Doctor Martin Makary, a surgeon at John Hopkins testified Wuhan, as source of the coronavirus, had been dismissed as a lab leak conspiracy; and the “greatest perpetrator of misinformation the United States Government” . . .  .  

In Ed Raymond’s Column of April 6th, he wrote “Gary (Abernathy) are you telling me I must learn to tolerate the 30,000 lies Trump told in his four-year term as president when he actually has been lying since childhood.  As a teenager, he said he was the best shortstop in New York City!” 

Like Mr. Raymond, I would question the statement. There was no better shortstop? President Trump’s beliefs in words are metaphysical because they are beyond physics. 

I cannot disprove his teenage skill at baseball or determine whether or not he himself believes what he supposedly said, nor can I not give Raymond the benefit of doubt he was accurate and believed what he wrote concluding Trump is a liar.  

As to the 30,000 lies Trump is believed to have told, l will make a comparison.  Mr. Raymond has been writing for the READER for more than twenty years, and I would say has written more than 1000 columns in that time.  If he has made at least 30 statements of belief in each column, then that would be over 30,000 statements of beliefs.  If I use his implied definition of a lie for statements in which the veracity can be challenged, because it cannot be what one actually believes, or even if one does believe one’s self, the statements are still false if somebody else believes them to be false.  Thus, determined to be lying then in this case, the liar is Ed Raymond because one does not have to prove anything, for any statement can be dismissed as untrue.   If the United States Government used misinformation during the pandemic for censorship as did social media platforms like Twitter, individuals like President Trump and Ed Raymond are likely also to be believed spreading misinformation, and should be protected under the First Amendment without censorship.  

Mike Gellerman, Orienta, Wisconsin