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Letters to the Editor

We couldn’t do it without you

Melanie Gaebe, Bismarck During National Volunteer Week (April 16-22), the Alzheimer’s Association MN-ND is proud to honor local volunteers making a difference in the fight against Alzheimer’s and all other dementia. An estimated 6.7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s. Here in North Dakota,15,000 of our family members, friends and neighbors are living with Alzheimer’s and 19,000 people are their caregivers. We know that as the population of those 65 and older continues to grow, so will the number of North Dakotans with Alzheimer’s or other ...

Trump sounds like Democrat hustler

Ron Schmidt, Tolna Most of us have heard the phrase, “What goes around comes around.” Well, guess what? Donald Trump sounds just like an old Democrat hustler. He has taken one right out of the Democrat playbook. Trump is running ads about how mean old Ron DeSantis will cut Social Security and Medicare. Has voted three times to do so. Really! Since when was that possible? And horror of horrors, he wants to raise the retirement age to 70. Well, it’s about time. This Ponzi scheme can’t go on forever. Then again, if it is raised, less time to drink beer and go fishing. ...

ND is state of exclusion

Norton Lovold, Bismarck North Dakota’s one-party system is a system of exclusion. The 2023 session of North Dakota legislature has been so disheartening for us, the senior citizens who have prided ourselves for living in a “nice” and fair state. If you are poor, non-white, transgender or a woman who relies on appropriate health care to have a decent life, this legislature has decided that you do not deserve equal rights to theirs. Poor people do not deserve a quality education. Our legislature has decided to provide funding for private and for-profit schools rather than ...

Minor parties at disadvantage in ND

Richard Winger, San Francisco, Calif. In response to Ross Hausfeld’s good column about the North Dakota legislature, North Dakota is the only state that bans minor party candidates for the legislature from appearing on the November ballot. In every other state, minor party candidates for the legislature have appeared on the general election ballot at some time during the last six years. North Dakota requires that if a minor party wants to place a legislative candidate on the general election ballot, approximately 12% to 15% of all the primary voters must choose the minor ...

Legislature should reject closing pension plan

Earl Pomeroy, Grand Forks The legislature is in its final weeks and, as a former legislator -- way back when – I know they will inevitably face a number of very tough decisions. One way for them to ease the challenge is to avoid decisions which are highly questionable on merit and cost taxpayers a lot of money. Pretty obvious, right? One would hope so, but H.R. 1040, which would end the state’s longstanding pension program, is an example of a big spending bill producing little benefit to the workers who have earned the coverage. In a nutshell, the bill spends $5.3 Billion ...

Support access to Alzheimer’s treatment

Breanna Cowan, Minot More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia— and 15,000 live in North Dakota alone. Like many Americans, this devastating disease has touched my family multiple times, including taking the life of my grandmother, Clarice. My daughter shares her name even though Alzheimer’s stole my grandmother from us long before they could meet. Last month, I traveled from Minot to Washington, D.C. with the Alzheimer’s Association and other advocates across the country. We came together to address the unprecedented decision made by ...