News & Articles

Vote with your conscience
When I was a young girl, my parents taught me that making fun of others and their physical traits was not a kind thing and it was cruel if you laughed at a handicap or disabled person. That is why when I first saw Trump mocking a handicap man, I was appalled and disgusted. I couldn’t believe my eyes. How could a grown man that was given so much to him by his father not given a conscience? But what made me more surprised was the crowd that stood in front of him was clapping and laughing in response to his ill-mannered display. The worst of them was being activated by a bully and they fell into a dream for the last eight years. I’m writing this letter to shake those folks out of their daze. Eight years is long enough to follow a bully, your mom and dad would be shocked at you. Many of you claim to be religious but Jesus said, “what you have done to the least of us, you have done to me”. WAKE UP! 

Politics can be a nasty business, but you don’t have to follow that lead. Hatred, bullying, revenge, and violence have never accomplished anything good. We are over 2000 years past the life of the King of Peace, but our actions don’t show the peace that was taught. Voting for Trump will elevate him to king due to the recent Supreme Court ruling. I thought the ten commandments spoke of “No Kings before Me”. WAKE UP! Jesus, himself, will not be coming back in the form of a king. That was never his way. He may have already come back in the form of a young Palestinian girl who was shot by an unkind, unconscienced bully. 

Let’s ALL wake up to being kind and empathetic to the least of us. Let’s make our parents proud of us, again. Please, this November vote with a conscience.
Barb Tacyshyn-Roth
Moose Lake, Minnesota

Keep Trump a private citizen
The right wing Supreme Court has ruled that the president is above the law, making it unlikely that Trump will ever face justice. He will never win the popular vote, but due to our archaic Electoral College system, a few thousand voters in a few swing states could reinstate a criminal psychopath to the presidency. This time the Heritage Foundation is ready for him to hit the ground running with their fascistic Project 2025 agenda. When democracies die it can happen in a hurry and we are now on the precipice. Only a massive Democratic turnout at the polls in November can assure that Trump remains a private citizen. 
David A Sorensen
Duluth, Minnesota

Thanked or cursed?
People call this place where we live “God’s Country.” The lush green forests, clear deep waters of Lake Superior, and the perfectly blue sky in the summer are exceptionally beautiful. My favorite outdoor activities are gardening perennials and vegetables, walking down a dirt road through the forest with my dogs, and sitting on the beach looking for Lake Superior agates. Amazingly, I was able to be on the beach every month this past winter for the first time. As great as that sounds it didn’t feel right. I wonder as the Native Americans, in another 7 generations, will this Lake Superior area show that we cared and that we were responsible for our actions? In other words, will our generation be thanked or cursed? 

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world by surface area. It is also one of the fastest warming lakes in the world, warming 1 degree per decade since 1980. Average wind speeds have been increasing 5 percent each decade since 1980. And Superior has been pounded by three 500-year and one 1,000-year storm events in the past eight years.   

Please take five minutes and go to https://climatehero.me and calculate your carbon footprint and then see what you can do to make a difference. Sometimes it seems futile, but if we all work together with hope and action, future generations will be able to continue to call the Lake Superior area “God’s Country” too. 
Mary Meierotto 
Bayfield, Wisconsin

Wolves, Mr. Peabody, Bigfoot and flu
Now that we have the insane wolf hunting stopped, what about adopting a sane policy regarding the unnecessary bear hunting season? [Next year, deer hunting.]
... And while we’re at it we might take notice of the beauty of our woods and lakes and rivers while they’re still here, because don’t look now, but Mr. Peabody’s big trucks are hauling it away, every day. Logging should be limited at the very least. It is not right for some to become rich by destroying a natural resource that rightly belongs to all of us.

Speaking of the woods ... the woods are the home of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, all around us. I know it’s true and so do many of our friends and neighbors. They are not apes, animals. They are some sort of human, and their home is the woods, the woods we are destroying every day.
… Also, before I run out of time here, which I probably already have, the pandemic was not real. It was the flu. They lied to you. They injected you with poison. Don’t let them tell you heart attacks and stroke are common for all ages. They are not. It was the flu, re-branded. The media was complicit, NPR, KFAN … the whole outlaw bunch. And people are NOW dying by the millions. The emergency rooms, back then, were not packed, they lied. The real pandemic is now, because of the virus. That is the truth. They won’t tell you that. They can’t, their jobs depend on lying.
Mike Palecek
Minneapolis, Minnesota

OMG
The past couple of weeks have been very difficult in America and will be historical for many reasons. Prior to Biden dropping out of the Presidential race on July 21st, I had several ideas for my August letter. The news has “breaking” stories every day so I could easily write weekly, not monthly.
I will start with the attempted assassination of Trump. The Secret Service failed big time and I am happy Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned! She looked and sounded like a fool on July 22nd oversight congressional questioning of Cheatle. The very crazy comments by the left (next time take target practice so you won’t miss) are not what I call building “unity.” The day after the assassination attempt on July 13th Biden gave a speech about “unity” which did not last 24 hours from the radical left. BTW, it was only 5 days prior to July 13th Biden gave a speech at a donor fundraiser and he said.........”it is time to put Trump on a bullseye”. This gave a green light to the brainwashed 20-year old crazy to shoot!

Now, for VP Harris who is a clone of Biden. All of Biden’s failed policies (too many to list) are also Harris policies but worse! Border czar? What a joke. Speaking of jokes, all of our enemies are laughing at America and much worse, planning on destroying America. The Director of the FBI, Christopher Wray, stated all major terrorists groups are now in the United States. A vote for Kamala is a vote for WWIII.
Chuck Bracken
Cannon Falls, Minnesota

Choose carfeully
According to FactCheck.org’s most recent assessment of Biden’s numbers, Bidenomics has had many positive effects. 
The economy added 15.7 million jobs, including 6.3 jobs more than before the pandemic. The employment rate dropped and stayed lower than during Trump’s administration. Biden’s economy keeps improving—growing by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter— doubling its growth since the 1st Quarter!
There’s been a 9.1% decrease in murders in large US cities from 2020 to 2023. and more than 200 cities are having fewer crimes this year.
The number of uninsured has decreased by 6.6 million.
Corporate profits rose by 36%.
 Now there’s half a million less Food stamp recipients.
Under Biden, crude oil production actually increased—by 15.3%
Apprehensions of those illegally crossing at our southern borders were up by 273% during the last 12 months in June, yet Trumpers claiminf that Biden allowed millions of rapists and murderers to cross our supposedly, “open borders?” More refugees have been admitted than under Trump. But, Refugees are legal asylum seekers, not illegal immigrants.

The S&P’s numbers rose by 62.9%.
Grocery prices are still high because of labor shortages caused by Trump’s mismanagement of the pandemic, along with our failed supply chain. Biden’s administration is cracking down on exploitative practices that keep food costs high i.e. large companies that keep their prices the same, eliminating free market competition!

About the price of oil and gas; there’s little any President can do except tap our reserves, which has already been done. And, even though our oil production has increased, it won’t affect US Markets, because the price of oil is set by global markets, (largely determined by OPEC, investors, and geopolitical events).

Previously inflation rose sharply, sending the consumer price index to record highs. However, recently inflation has been 3% for the 12 months ending in June, compared to its previous 3.3%, according to the U.S. Labor Department and it should stay low for the remainder of this year.”
Yet Trumpers keep claiming that Biden “is ruining our country?” 
Real weekly earnings are 2.3% less than they were at the beginning of Biden’s term, but that only amounts to 2.3 cents out of each dollar bill! So are we willing to elect a demagogic bully and, legally untouchable king—who will destroy to des our Democracy? Do we want a king who’ll do everything he can to enhance his own power with the help of the Supreme Court? Tear a dollar into 100 equal pieces, then remove 2 and one third of them. Is the difference enough to justify electing a power hungry Autocrat?

Choose carefully when you vote!!
Peter W. Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin