Lessons can be learned from polio era

A newly elected GOP Congressman died last December at age 41 because he caught the COVID virus before a vaccine was available. His widow was recently on TV saying she would have given anything if he could have had the shot.

I recall my dad saying the same thing about me nearly 70 years ago. I was stricken with polio six months before the Salk vaccine was available. I spent more than three months in a Duluth hospital and have had to deal with the after-effects all my life. People then were grateful when a vaccine had been developed to halt the crippling and sometimes deadly disease.

Back then, there was no internet spewing misinformation or crackpot hosts on conservative TV and radio downplaying the seriousness of the disease. People did not foolishly listen to bogus advice of career-promoting politicians over the advice of medical experts as many are now doing.

People then used common sense. Most everyone got vaccinated and the dreaded polio was soon a thing of the past. It’s too bad that common sense is in such short supply today and now the COVID pandemic needlessly continues to affect the lives of everyone.

Roger Lindelof
Glenwood City, Wisconsin
    
Look away, Look away, MAGA Land!

Do you want to live in a world where global warming, Covid-19 and racism don’t exist? That’s easy – just join the Grand Old Pity Party. Then you can live in a world run by a satanic cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles igniting forest fires with Jewish space lasers. Domestic terrorists attempting to overturn an election will be freedom loving patriots, and, as was the case in Orwell’s 1984, ignorance will be strength. A corrupt TV huckster will personify all that is good and true, and traitorous Confederate generals will be idolized. “Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton / Old times there are not forgotten.” Look away! Look away! Look away! MAGA Land!

David A Sorensen
Duluth

Thanks for the reality

The Reader has provided much needed doses of reality and information for me the last three years since I moved to the beautiful, precious Northland.

The Sept. 2, 2021 edition is especially relevant and riveting. The THINK article by Sally Jewell and Ted Roosevelt IV should be read by everyone in Minnesota. I really missed the paper when you didn’t publish earlier in the pandemic. (Editor’s note: we never stopped publishing, but for a brief time did move to a biweekly publication.)

One change since then has disappointed me. I always looked forward to the six sudoku puzzles each week. Now there is only one which is not rated for difficulty and is too simple. I wish you could go back to the other resource, and if not available, find a new one for more puzzles which are rated for difficulty levels.

Thank you for your perseverance and dedication during difficult times.

Betsy Andersen
Marcell, Itasca County

9-11

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of what we call “9-11.” There’ll be lots of talk and speeches, much of it childishly naive and simple. Many ask, “Are we safer now than we were then?”

Most will say “yes,” and talk about al-Qaeda gone, internal repressions we installed, military and such. But a problem created al-Qaeda. If we destroy al-Qaeda without correcting the problem, won’t some other enemy arise to get us in a different way?

Children are known to succumb to greed before they learn the complexity of life and understand greed is self-harming. Look around us today. Half of us – 48% – were immersed in selfishness or greed. We elected a president not long ago, so childish he thought being president meant having a large military parade to honor himself. The insurrection we went through on Jan. 6, 2021, illustrates all this. 

A similar insurrection was attempted in 1932, not just in Germany, Italy, and Japan, but here. GW Bush’s grandpa, Republican Sen. Prescott Bush, was involved in the attempt to violently overthrow us. We were saved by one loyal U.S. Marine Corps General, Smedley Butler. (Look it up.)

Greed has been breeding within us like mold spreading through a loaf of bread. We’re divided now. Who benefits from that division? They are the ones who’ll feed that mold.

We have yet to answer, or even ask (and listen to!) why did al-Qaeda (mostly Saudi Arabia) attack us on 9-11?  Always ask “why?”

Like a marriage going bad, it won’t get better until we practice introspection, looking within ourselves to see if and how we contribute to the problems. We are married to the world, and there’s no way to simply get out of that marriage. We have to fix it or suffer.  And it’s not simply our partner’s fault.

A. Martin
Merrifield, Minnesota

“BBB”
 
Most of you recognize the acronym of BBB as the Better  Business Bureau. There is now a new definition for BBB – Bozo Biden Blunder. The worse military disaster in Afghanistan can be blamed on only one person Biden! Now he and other Democrats blame Trump? The “buck stops” at Biden.

Biden’s approval rating is now down to about 40% at the time of this writing and will certainly go lower as more brave soldiers die due to Biden’s incompetence! This did not need to happen. Trump had an excellent exit plan, with getting Americans, supporting Afghans, SIV’s and others evacuated prior to pulling out troops. I truly hope that the impeachment steps happen soon and if not then the 25th Amendment must be invoked! Biden must be removed before he does more damage! I could make a very long list of all the damage he has already done (boarder crisis, inflation, uncontrolled spending, increase of taxes for everyone, etc.) but you all should know the damage!

One of the last questions for those who voted for Biden/Harris. Do you now regret your vote? If not, then you will be known as the Democratic Pied Piper Lemmings! You will continue to follow the Pied Piper right off the cliff!

 Chuck Bracken
Cannon Falls, Minnesota

Send your letters to the editor of Reader Weekly at P.O. Box 16122, Duluth MN 55816 or info@readerduluth.com.