In 1981, the state disrespected the rights of wetland landowners

From Earl Hauge, Glenwood

I should have stood up and said “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.  We must not do this.”  That was back in 1981 when I was the State Representative from this area and the Legislature was voting to pass the first Wetland Protection Act.  There was a lot of concern in Minnesota at that time because many of the original wetlands in our state had been drained to create good farm land.  Environmentalists were desperate to stop the drainage immediately because wetlands are an important state resource.  

In our haste to address this problem, the state made a grievous error.  Our state has always been sensitive to respecting everyone’s human rights.  But in our hurry to remedy this problem, the legislature disrespected the rights of wetland owners and passed the first Wetland Protection Act.  That law stole the property rights of all wetland owners.  Few people were aware of what the legislature had done, and since it only affects one out of every 30 people, there was very little opposition.  

There was also very little enforcement during the first 10 years.  Then as the enforcement tightened, and the wetland landowners became aware of how they had been fleeced, 10 years earlier, they felt hopeless.  It was another case of Big Government disrespecting the rights of we the people and there is nothing we thought we could do about it.   

We in the legislature should have followed the course the Federal Government was taking at that time.  The Federal Government was in the process of identifying important wetlands, contacting the wetland owners, and negotiating with them to purchases their drainage rights.  We could have followed that procedure, instead of underhandedly and stealthy taking away their ownership rights.  Currently it costs a wetland owner $100,000 for each acre they buy back. 

Paul Anderson has been our State Representative for 14 years.  He has never introduced legislation to reverse this steal.  Tory Westrom has been our State Senator for 10 years and has never introduced legislation to restore our rights.  Re-electing them is not going to bring about change.  

Respecting each person’s human rights is at the core of who Edie Barrett and Kari Dorry are. They are two compassionate people with the courage to stand up and say NO when laws are unfair to any person.  Edie and Kari are our two Democratic candidates running against Paul Anderson and Tory Westrom to become our State Representative in District 12A and State Senator in District 12.   

I want to point out that few people ever want to make changes to their wetlands.  Filling wetlands is extremely expensive and most owners are proud and happy to have wetlands on their property just as they are.  It is just that, it is not right, that the State of Minnesota stole their rights.  

 

Wrong for Minnesota…

From Jerry Larson, Glenwood

The issue  is Gov. Tim Walz tying Minnesota to California car standards.

Why?

1. Geography–Minnesota is not hemmed in by mountains.

2. Accountability–CARB (California Air Resource Board) is a 16-member non-elected board.

3. Government overreach–Policies of this magnitude should be made by our Minnesota Legislature.

4. Sourcing materials–Minnesota should not mandate key components be manufactured with raw material mostly coming from China.

5. Minnesota mining–Gov. Walz is against mining our own Minnesota resources.

6. Unintended consequences–The power grid could not handle the demand without brown-outs.

7 Mileage range–Very limited especialy if using heater or air conditioner.

8. Disposal–Recycling of bateries is not yet perfected.

9. Cost–Taxpayers’ dollars should not be used as incentives for a handpicked industry.

10. Double speak– Gov. Walz claims he is for biofuels and yet wants to eliminate combustion engines.

We need to correct this wrong by voting for Scott Jensen for Governor.

 

A multi-topic response…

From Inga Mae Urke, Starbuck

 I need to respond to the recent letter about the use of cat litter boxes in schools.  I had not heard about this crazy thing until very recently.  Since the writer was only “quite sure” her relatives who are students would have mentioned this if it was true, should she not rather have confirmed that before writing about it?   How about the requirement of fact checking before something is printed?  I haven’t heard any squawking about boys being allowed to use the girls’ restrooms and I personally think that is a horrible and a dangerous thing!  Also,  as to accusations about Scott Jensen that he doesn’t care about education that is just not true and I just heard him tonight state his concern about education.   It appears that Democrats don’t have anything good on their records that they can campaign on so they  criticize him instead.  Since he was accused of repeating that litter box claim, of far greater importance to me,  and should be to everyone else in my opinion, is Scott Jensen’s stand against abortion! It sickens me every time I hear those Democrat candidate women demanding that they get “their rights” to have abortions!  Do they ever think about the RIGHTS of those millions of defenseless babies that have already been killed?? These women have several choices of birth control to avoid any pregnancy and if all else fails, a sure-fire solution is for them to simply stay away from men then!!  But those poor babies have NO choices!!  We’re supposed to be a Christian nation – we certainly have enough churches – so I must ask how a Christian can vote to elect folks demanding rights to kill babies!  I am confident they all know the 5th Commandment – “Thou shalt not kill”.  If someone had asked their mother if she wanted an abortion when she learned she was pregnant, would THEY have wanted her to have that abortion?  If the 60 million babies aborted so far had been permitted to live, would we have this critical situation of nursing facilities all over being unable to hire personnel to fill critically needed positions?

I think we need to look at the critical situation our country is currently in with threats of nuclear war, outrageous gas prices,  millions of  illegal immigrants flooding into our country and a president who wants them to have the right to vote!!!  How crazy can it get?  He needs to rather be concerned about all the illegal drugs they bring in and the lives that have been lost because these illegals have murdered people, we need to get people to understand that we CANNOT defund Police and allow BLM groups to burn  down buildings while they are doing absolutely NOTHING to help Black people!  We desperately need to defend Israel, quit spending outrageous sums of money, and Democrats need to stop spreading lies about Republican candidates.  I have tried everything to verify if this crazy thing with cat litter boxes is true of Minnewaska Schools but with school closed for MEA I cannot contact them.  I want to make my point that I am CONFIDENT that Dr. Scot Jensen would not spread rumors unless he knew they were true.