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Birds of a feather flock together. I think I was finally vindicated in my June 2nd letter, “New Trend Alert: Bring Your Own To-Go Containers.” I’ve been bringing my own to-go containers for as long as I can remember. It makes sense. Why use it only once when it’s more convenient to use it twice?
There are no children to embarrass, only friends and relatives to embarrass when I take out my bags, boxes and cups.
The author makes another point about takeout containers: Consider that “millions of meals are thrown away every year across the country, uneaten.”
It speaks to our ignorance that we can order such large quantities, consume so little, and throw the rest away, without any thought to the thousands of workers who, through their truly backbreaking labor, harvest, can, freeze, slaughter, package, transport, test, cook, and deliver the food to our table.
Wasting food is an insult to them, and we can and must do better.
Mary Ellen Halverson, Hopkins
summer
Our children work in conditions we would never accept for ourselves.
Whew! Minneapolis has already been warm this summer, but as the saying goes, “It’s not the heat that’s the problem, it’s the humidity!” But you probably didn’t notice the heat and humidity because you weren’t about to take your final exams in a crammed classroom with no air circulation on the third floor of a 100-year-old building, with classroom temperatures reaching 90°F and sometimes 100°F. Because, like my daughter and thousands of other kids in Minneapolis Public Schools (and others), you’ll be in school until mid-June.
With the weather getting warmer and teachers and staff shortages, building old buildings with poor ventilation without HVAC (air conditioning or central heating) seems like an outdated practice. My kids report classroom temperatures ranging from 62 to 100 degrees. How are our kids going to be able to sit still and concentrate for seven hours a day, comfortably studying while competing with other students for grades and test scores?
A study published in the American Economic Journal in 2020 looked at test scores of 10 million students from 2001 to 2014 and found that for every degree the school was hotter in schools without air conditioning, students’ learning gains for that year decreased by 1%. Heat makes young people tired and makes it harder for them to concentrate. They also found that 73% of the negative effects on learning were offset by air conditioning. Are any of you taking a new job in a building without air conditioning? It’s time to take care of your kids.
Amelia Frank Meyer, Minneapolis
D-DAY Anniversary
Draw out “good feelings” from elsewhere
On June 2, DJ Tice suggested that “the anniversary of D-Day is a time to ask whether American civilization has peaked” (“Despite a Terrible War, They ‘Feel Good About the Country,'” Opinion Exchange). He is nostalgic for an earlier time when Americans “felt good about the country” despite the sometimes over-exaggerated carnage of World War II.
But bringing Gaza into the discussion of our war heroes seems a bit unnecessary: ”Yet today, with calm moral certainty, America is pressuring Israel to surrender total victory over an enemy sworn to destroy it.”
Theis quotes Eisenhower’s “total victory” in World War II, while the biblical Bibi Netanyahu calls it “Amalek” and the rest of the civilized world rightly calls it “genocide.”
And what has Israel done to the Palestinians since the 1940s other than treat them as an enemy that must be destroyed? Does Theis support Israel’s own attempt at a “final solution”?
Perhaps the best way to honor our fallen heroes is to have no “good feelings” about this country until it stops prioritizing endless wars and spending the majority of its “defense” budget on killing innocent civilians in countries that pose no threat to us.
William Bayer, St. Paul
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The lesson of Dresden and Tokyo is that massacring tens of thousands of civilians solely for the purpose of terrorizing them is never justified. It is depressing to see that Theis somehow learned the opposite lesson, for at the end of the article he criticizes those who urge Israel to “abandon the total victory over an enemy sworn to destroy Israel.” If “total victory” in Gaza means the starvation of the captive population, the gleeful destruction of humanitarian aid, and the bombing of refugee camps, and if all this is to be blurred as one regrettable “mistake” after another, then surely this is a farce of a moral crusade that must be stopped immediately. Those calling for a diplomatic solution to the Palestinian madness are determined to prevent Gaza from becoming another Dresden or another Tokyo. At this stage there is little left to be saved, but activists should not be blamed for scrambling to prevent more unnecessary deaths.
Stephen James Peterson of Irvine, California
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Regarding Theis’s comment, I completely agree that visiting the site of the Normandy landings was very moving. I was moved to tears to see the cliffs that so many young people willingly tried to scale, knowing that they would lose their lives if they tried. However, many historians disagree with Theis’s figure for those killed in the Dresden raids. Wikipedia gives 25,000, Britannica gives 25,000 to 35,000. It was the Nazi Minister of Propaganda who came up with the figure of 200,000 to make the Allies look ruthless (like the Nazis).
Mike LaValle, Rochester
Political hatred
Stop showing up to vote
There are growing complaints about the increasing noise, discord, extremism and division in our politics. Government agencies are increasingly filled with people who have little or no track record or any regard for real lawmaking. Government halls are increasingly becoming performance arenas for self-promotion and political trench warfare. What can be done?
One way to redirect the legislature towards law-making is to stop electing people whose main activities are protesting, publicly voicing, flaunting identities, posting on social media, stoking conspiracy theories and blaming. Such people are more relevant to our country as contributors to opinion shows, editorials and political/social activist groups.
To take a historical example, the distinction I made here is arguably the main reason why Thomas Jefferson was able to operate within the newly formed Constitutional government while Thomas Paine was not, yet both activists made very important contributions to the creation of our government.
George K. Atkins, Minneapolis
theater
Visit Guthrie and don’t stop there
A recent Star Tribune editorial about the Guthrie’s huge deficit was so-so for what it was worth (“The Guthrie is too great to deserve our support,” May 25). I think the committee would have been remiss in not celebrating smaller theaters like Artistry, Latte Da, Children’s, Mixed Blood, Stage, Theatre in the Round, and a host of other theater, dance, and community companies. These theaters are the lifeblood of the Guthrie, nurturing talent and helping it grow before it makes it to the big stage. All of these theaters have the same challenges, if not more, but they don’t have the endowment or financial support that the “Guthrie” has. My favorite local theater, the Artistry in Bloomington, is recovering from a major financial crisis. Shows are being well-received, and money, the lifeblood of any organization, is starting to flow again. Other theaters are no doubt in similar situations.
Yes! Support the Guthrie Theatre. The theatre is a big name in town, known nationally and drawing audiences from all over the country. But the Twin Cities can’t become known as “Theatre City” without the support of other theatres and businesses. Support our great local arts community and get out and see some theatre!
Collin Williams, Bloomington
The author is a theater stage carpenter.
