What ‘gut connections’?

Common decency demands we treat those whose days are numbered with respect and an additional measure of kindness. The news of President Biden’s prostate cancer is serious, and deserves similar consideration from all of us.

I’ve often reflected about the litmus we apply to people who have occupied a significant place in history — particularly when they have participated in or created policies that have affected a nation in too many negative ways. As we apply this to a person who is dying or well on their way, do we ignore their major faults and transgressions, focusing only on the good they may have accomplished?

Thomas Friedman’s May 20 column says Biden has an “unbreakable gut connection” to the world. Of what gut connection(s) — that ever advanced America’s standing — is he speaking?

At the risk of kicking a sick man while he’s down, I can’t think of legislation or administrative policy that Senator, Vice, or President Biden introduced or applied that was a meaningful success.

Honoring my earlier commitment to avoid negative comments targeting those are dying, I will simply say that history has recorded numerous examples of President Biden’s critical failures. I’m unable to find any legitimate successes that carry Joe Biden’s fingerprints.

— Chad Crow, Hudson

Playing to his vanity

President Trump’s image of himself in Pope’s clothing was just a tease. He really wants to be a Middle Eastern sheikh. Soon we will see AI images of him in fancy robes and headdress walking up the stairs to his new Air Force One Palace. The Qatari leaders will be glad to have him. Trump has already shown that he is corrupt enough to be like them.

Make no mistake, this gift is a blatant bribe to influence the US president. The Qataris are playing to Trump’s enormous vanity.

What about America First? If Trump wanted a new Air Force One, he could have hired Americans (Boeing) to build it and make it as fancy as he wanted. But he chose Qatar First. And he didn’t even put a tariff on it.

Sheikh Trump can now live it up in extravagant luxury on the Palace in the Sky while millions of our poor are kicked off of their Medicaid health care and SNAP benefits.

— Chris Lyons, St. Paul

A prayer for Memorial Day

As a nation we are about to observe our 157th Memorial Day. The first was May 30, 1868, to honor the war dead and decorate their graves with flowers. We had just endured a horrible civil war.

This weekend my wife and I will go to Fort Snelling National Cemetery to visit the graves of my father and stepfather, World War II veterans. The dead have spoken, but we the living must remind ourselves and others that our Constitution has been preserved, protected and defended at great cost in human service and blood.

We now have a Commander in Chief, reelected by the American people, who demonstrated flagrant disregard for our Constitution by attempting, with the help of senators and congressmen, to overturn a presidential election. These attempts by fraud and mob violence to thwart the Constitution were thankfully stopped by those loyal to their oath of office.

I have often planned to visit Washington to attend the Memorial Day Observance, but for me the Capital has lost its allure, those who broke down doors and shattered windows have been rewarded with pardons, and Lady Liberty has for now extinguished her torch in New York Bay. I resolved this Memorial Day to stay home and read the Constitution as a prayer.

— William Cody, Rosemount

Send the far left packing

Does the liberal left seem to think that “illegal” is just another pesky interference in their effort to buy voters? If something or someone is illegal, why else would they put so much effort into trying to ignore that? As a Minnesota-born person working and living here my whole life, it is disgusting to see the money spent on illegals. Even more alarming is the “outrage” of several Democratic officials in defending giving our hard-earned dollars to people here illegally.

I used to be proud to be a Minnesotan, but I can’t continue to ignore the money pit our Democratic left Legislature is intent on taxing us to fill.

It’s high time to send these far-left Democratic politicians packing.

— Dick Telke, Maplewood