I realize that bearing the responsibility of the welfare of the citizens of the state of Minnesota is significant, yet Gov. Walz and the Minnesota Department of Health have a dismal batting average when it comes to projecting and administrating the Covid response.
On March 25, in his stay-at-home announcement, Gov. Walz spoke of 74,000 dying.
In April, the “team” projected a total 12-month fatality rate of 22,000. Model version 3.0 released on May 13 projected total 12-month Minnesota fatalities of 29,000. All of this, it seems, reminiscent of “Pin the tail on the donkey.”
Yes, with more testing we are discovering far more people who carry the virus — yet many are asymptomatic, and the number of people who require hospitalization — and, more importantly, the number of Covid-related deaths — are significantly down.
Yet Gov. Walz and his administration continue to strangle our Minnesota commerce, trade and private lives. There are many families, businesses, and corporations that will never recover.
Gov. Walz should — as has been repeated ad nauseam – follow the science, better yet, follow the actual statistics — free Minnesota and her citizens.
Chad Crow, Woodbury
Protecting woods and waters in Woodbury
One of the reasons so many people move to Woodbury is our parks and open spaces. Back when the Valley Creek Park was purchased by the city, protecting this land was the priority. The property was purchased through a Metro Greenway Grant from the Minnesota DNR to “provide opportunities for corridors for wildlife movement and ecological connections between natural areas” and the Land and Water Legacy Grant, “Through the Land and Water Legacy Program, the county works with landowners and organizations to purchase land to keep in natural condition.” Nowhere is the Miller barn mentioned as a reason to purchase this property (“Is this barn worth saving,” July 13).
When the property was purchased the argument given for using tax payer dollars to purchase this property was about protecting this parcel from development. What the parks department and the heritage society has laid out in its plans is a highly developed park. At the time of purchase the city argued this: “Protecting this parcel from development is critical to maintaining the Valley Creek Trout Stream as one of the last few viable trout streams within the Metropolitan Area.”
If the city decides to keep the Miller barn and move forward with the current concept plan it will be clearing and removing vegetation, dredging, grading, excavating, transporting and filling land as well as paving and adding additional impervious surface cover.
All the wildlife that lives on this property will be affected. Currently there are deer, frogs, turtles, snakes, pheasants, turkey, woodpeckers, great horned owls, hawks, coyote, red tailed fox, and these are just a few of the animals I have seen myself.
Very little of Woodbury remains as it existed prior to settlement. As a result of human activities such as farming and development, most of Woodbury’s native vegetation has been altered or replaced. Important native vegetation still exists in the Valley Creek Park; its native prairie, oak savanna and wetland are home to some of the rarest native plant communities in Minnesota.
Maintaining the natural ecosystem in the Valley Creek Park should be the city’s priority. Taking the focus away from protecting the land’s natural resources and instead building a barn and a 75-car parking lot and multiple paved trails and a park as large as Madison Place strips Valley Creek Park of all of its value to current and future generations. The Miller barn should be thoughtfully removed and instead the city should create a park and trail system where all of Woodbury can enjoy the wonders of nature for years to come.
Megan Samuel, Woodbury
Our past bears on our present
It’s quite the coincidence that not long before George Floyd’s death my wife had passed on to me her copy of Melvin Whitfield Carter Jr.’s autobiography, “Diesel Heart.” My wife is an avid reader and sometimes passes books on to me that she thinks I will enjoy. I did read the book and feel it has a lot to say to all of us today.
In this turbulent time, where police departments are being scrutinized and we hear one side talking about a few “bad apples,” and the other side saying defund the police, it was extraordinary to read a black officer’s account of his 28 years with the St. Paul Police Department. Now I know his time as a cop (1976-2005), was a different era, but given the continued frequency of race-related events involving the police today, I think this book must still be relevant. I end here with several quotes, which only scratch the surface of what the whole book delivers. Quotes that hopefully can help illuminate where police and community leaders can focus their attention as they work to improve our police departments:
“The police workplace proved to be hostile, vicious, racist and violent. More amazing was how badly cops treated each other.” (p. 180)
“Besides, for a Black officer, ‘proving himself’ meant acting like a white officer while policing Blacks — in effect, prioritizing blue loyalty over his humanity and betraying his Black identity. Since I never would have chosen police work had it not been for the community-driven, class-action lawsuit, I was always aware that I, more than anyone else, had a debt to repay. Deep community hadn’t gone through all that long hard work for me to come on and cosign the traditional insensitive okeydoke! My task was to help curve the arc of justice for change.” (p.184)
“A hard-nosed Black cop was the last thing Black folks needed.” (p. 191)
“As a one-man squad, I could only count on backup when about three certain whte officers were on shift. Some guys called for backup at parking meter violations. But I’d get dispatched to violent domestics, some of the most dangerous calls we had, and be all alone.” (p. 194)
“Meanwhile, my personnel file overflowed with thank-you letters from citizens…. (T)he department … quit putting them in my file. I was told thank-you letters fit in the category of ‘public relations’ instead of true police work.” (p.217)
“Connecting with a citizen’s humanity was my thing, but even beyond virtue, it was also a survival tactic. … The flip side was I couldn’t allow a fellow African American to attempt to manipulate me with the term Brother.” (p. 225)
“Come to find out, policing white people is infinitely easier than policing Blacks. White people believe in the law and trust the police because both always work on their behalf. Blacks have always had an entirely different experience. They have never had the protection guaranteed by the Constitution, never enjoyed the presumption of innocence, never trusted the police.” (p. 226)
“It was ironic that many of the citizens whom cops labeled ‘a–holes’ had been my dear friends for years.” (p. 227)
Jim Stevens, St. Paul
