11 October 2023
Time for a shake-up
If there ever was a time for a shake up in our political system it is now.
The Republican Party is in complete disarray. First time in modern day history a Speaker of the House is voted out. The former president is under indictment yet leading in the polls.
The Democratic Party supports a president who doesn’t seem to comprehend the disaster he created by his open border policy. His reckless pullout of our military in Afghanistan, leaving our elite military equipment to our enemies, was a catastrophe. Worse yet he abandoned our Afghan allies who supported us and are now being slaughtered.
What is needed in our country is an American party that brings us back to sensibility and our great potential. Haven’t we seen enough of this two-party narcissistic system who have proven they have lost their way?
G. Mertz, St. Paul
Choices available to all
A Bloomberg News article about a No Labels group mounting a third-party 2024 presidential ticket includes the Joe Biden statement — “The fact is we’re going to be very shortly a minority white European country.”
That statement prompts a mix of interpretations as to our country’s past, present and future. It is a reminder of America’s European influenced, Judeo-Christian underpinnings in combination with a Protestant ethic (one that stresses the virtue of hard work, thrift, and self-discipline.)
These cultural characteristics are now much less evident, coincident with rapidly changing government vs. private sector balances and political ideologies.
A potential interpretation of the Biden statement is that those who are other than of “white European” descendance represent a fundamental cultural change, and that their adaptation to America’s historical cultural factors might be in question. But such cultural factors are free choices and are available to all U.S. residents … and, ultimately, tend to translate into various forms of ownership and patriotism.
Patriotism is defined as a love for or devotion to one’s country.
Gene Delaune, New Brighton
Trump was right …
OK, now that I have your attention, hear me out. I’ve never been a fan of Trump but he’s absolutely right to make the border a serious issue that could ever change the culture and future of our country. The Democrats and president are more than happy to call anyone a racist who’s against unlimited immigration as long as it’s not in their own backyard like Martha’s Vineyard. Now they’re finding out the Black and Latino communities who are bearing the burden of their own policy have had enough, and they face a huge backlash in next year’s election.
The president who promised not to build another foot of border wall is building another 20 miles. This won’t do much without additional backup security but let’s never forget it was Joe Biden himself that said back in 2019 the migrants should surge the border and that’s exactly what they’re doing. The president who’s responsible for this continues to lie, deflect and blame everyone else and the corporate media continues to give him a pass.
Walter J Huemmer, St. Paul
Split the big pots in half
I just bought my Power Ball ticket for the drawing for an estimated jackpot of $1.4 billion That amount is almost unfathomable to me. I have a suggestion for the lottery and it probably would increase sales as your odds would appear to be better. The reality is the odds for each ticket are the same, you just have two chances at winning.
Pick a level, say $1 billion. When the pot hits that amount they cut it in half, back to $500 million, and announce they will draw two numbers. New purchases are split evenly between the two pots until the drawing. Your number is eligible to win either pot. If someone hits one of the jackpots, the remainder carries on to the next drawing.
If you look at the lottery history and set the pot split at $500 million, still a huge sum of money, we would see split pots quite often and there would even be the potential of a second split so there would be four numbers drawn. Can you imagine the frenzy created by one ticket purchase making you eligible for four chances at a pot?
OK, maybe I am getting carried away but the big numbers in the lottery jackpots have gotten to me. Maybe I should go buy another ticket. In the meantime the lottery folks need to take a serious look at this suggestion.
Rick Anderson, Forest Lake
A draft for college athletics?
University of Minnesota Gopher football fans and supporters of other high-profile sports teams at the University ought to heed reporter Andy Greder’s astute analysis of disturbing features of big-time college athletics, especially here at the University. His timely article last month centered on the lamentations of Gopher football coach P. J. Fleck regarding the paucity of financial support for his players under the Name Identity Likeness (NIL) rubric (“Fleck’s comments about NIL spark fear star RB Taylor could transfer,” Sept. 29).
The unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision two years ago in Alston v. NCAA, ushering opportunities for college athletes to cash in on their prowess and fame, especially in the major revenue-producing sports of football and basketball (and a bit of hockey here), has created a remarkably uneven playing field. As Fleck noted, the skewed landscape substantially disadvantages schools like the U that do not have well-resourced programs to lure and keep top-notch players here, which the coach fears is turning the school into a “Triple A ball club,” referring to the minor league baseball structure in which subsidiary teams groom players for the major league clubs.
The High Court decision, grounded on anti-trust reasoning, technically was correct. But the justices disregarded, were oblivious, didn’t appreciate, or didn’t care about the practical effects of their ruling. Combined with the portal practice that allows so-called student athletes to transfer between schools like on a bus line and the realignment of conferences that has schools overlooking the Pacific Ocean competing in the misnamed Atlantic Coast Conference has turned big-time college athletics into prototypes of professional athletics.
But these developments at least strip away the illusion that revenue-raising college athletes are amateurs more concerned with academics than athletics. The reality is that money talks, and when it does, college athletes walk to the most lucrative places and where they can best showcase their talents for what the sports crowd refers to as “the next level.”
Basically. NIL legitimizes paying star college athletes over the table in lieu of the past practice of shoveling emoluments to them under the table. But to do so, in order to retain some semblance of rectitude, the schools have to spend enormous time, effort, and funding to set up the subterfuge of “Collectives” like Minnesota’s struggling “Dinkytown Athletes” version to funnel money to their players.
The college sports infrastructure might be better off saving resources and just paying the athletes directly without the NIL nonsense. Better yet, it ought to institute a pro-like draft for the schools to divide up the talent, with some preferential treatment given to schools selecting players within their states or other nearby localities.
These steps might diminish much of the mystique and traditions of big-time college athletics, but that train has left the station, anyway. It also would align with the realities wrought by NIL and other features in the revamped landscape in which the U and its counterparts exist.
Marshall H. Tanick, Minneapolis
High school sports from now on
Until recently when a high school athlete received a college athletic schlorship, he or she got free tuition, books, room and meals. They also get free tutoring, better health care, better meals, elite health facilities, etc.
Apparently those things are not enough. Now with the new NIL rules players expect to be paid money — sometimes lots of money. If not, many young athletes will threaten to transfer. I was sickened be the article in the newspaper last month where the head football coach at Minnesota, P.J. Fleck, was begging for more NIL money for his kids so they don’t transfer.
These are 19- and 20-year-old kids. We have simply taught these young people greed.
I will now only be going to high school games where athletes play because they like the sport, and their teammates.
John Heller, North St. Paul
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