Letters to the Editor

A letter in response to the newspaper article on cannabis.

After reading your article about new can­nabis law in Minnesota, I thought I should inform you and your readers of the federal implications of cannabis in the United States.

Any United States citizen of legal age may purchase a firearm from licensed dealers or from another citizen. If you wish to purchase a firearm from a dealer, you must fill out an ATF 4473 Firearms Transaction Record form and the dealer will contact the FBI for a NICS background check to complete the process. This form has numerous questions which must be answered by YES or NO truthfully.

In Section 21, Question f the question reads as follows:

“Are you an unlawful user or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, nar­cotic drug or any other controlled substance? Warning: The possession of marijuana re­mains unlawful under federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decrimi­nalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state you reside.”

If purchasing a firearm from a dealer and are using or possessing marijuana and answer NO to Question f, you are committing a fel­ony for falsifying a federal document. If you don’t believe you will get caught, just look how even the son of the President of the Unit­ed State was found guilty of falsifying infor­mation on the ATF Form 4473. This is a seri­ous offense.

I just thought of Paul Harvey and wanted to share with you and your readers the “Rest of the Story” about using marijuana in Min­nesota.

James Vannet

For the past several weeks the Lake and Cook County Republicans have placed ads in the NSJ pointing out all the ways they differ from Dem­ocrats. I’ve taken exception to some of these claims, but in the interest of keeping my blood pressure in check, I’ve let them go. This latest ad [Aug. 9, 2024] however is re­ally beyond the pale and mer­its a response.

The authors claim that for the past 3 years they have seen Joe Biden’s “senility”. Hm­mmm, when was that exactly? Could it have been when he passed the $1.2 trillion bipar­tisan infrastructure package? Yes, that does sound pretty demented, doesn’t it? Or may­be it was when he invested $ 369 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act to address the devastating effects of climate change. Changes that are be­coming all too evident even to the most ardent climate change deniers. Then again, it might have been when he cut child poverty in half through his American Rescue plan, or when he capped prescrip­tion drug prices at $ 2000 per year for seniors on Medicare through the Inflation Reduc­tion Act. Yes indeed, that all sounds a little off the rails. Good grief!

I do find it weird that while they claim to have seen Biden’s “senility”, they have somehow managed to over­look Trump’s 31 felony con­victions, or was it 34? How does that work exactly? You don’t like the guilty verdict found by 12 jurors who were chosen by both the prosecut­ing and defense attorneys, so you decide it was unfair? Who knew it was that easy? I also find it weird that while they’re calling Biden “senile” they say nothing about Trump’s end­less, incoherent word salads. I don’t know, maybe they’re all just fluent in gibberish.

And then it’s their claim that Biden stole the election, in spite of the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Ev­idence I might add that was provided by both Democrat and Republican election offi­cials. Again, you don’t like the truth?, easy peasy, just deny it. It’s a no lose proposition, and a very dangerous one. And you say Biden is senile… isn’t that just weird?

Katherine Nelson
Finland, MN

Letter to the Editor

So with all the talk about de­mocracy what does that mean? It is said to mean, rule by the people, an example being, any system of government in which people vote their elect­ed representatives in.

There are many people stating that electing Donald Trump will be the end of de­mocracy however, he has been voted to represent the voters in a specific party. He worked and convinced the majority that he should be the leader of a party. Now he will stand be­fore all.

Isn’t it funny how now that President Biden has stepped down there has been no de­mocracy in electing a new per­son to lead another party. Ka­mala Harris has not received one vote from the people of her party. Not when running for president back in 2019 and not now as she has taken the presumptive democratic nom­inee in the presidential cam­paign. Being assigned by party leaders is not being voted in by the people. Not being vet­ted or interviewed or asking for Biden’s delegates is demo­cratic. Just raising money and claiming to be official doesn’t make it so. I find it funny that so many have just forgotten all the words and disgust they stated about democracy yet can’t see how their actions are so in our faces and no apology or acknowledgment of it.

Not only that Kamala has flip flopped on the majority of her previous policies. Why? Because she knows they are so liberal that she can’t win with them. I think the only one she didn’t flip on was abortion or as she says “women’s repro­ductive rights”. Fracking and off shore drilling, Medicare for all, no private insurance, being Boarder Czar, getting rid of ICE, banning and buying back guns. There are many videos of her making these statements herself but unfortunately since the press is in lockstep with her they will not hold her feet to the fire. She also insulted one of our biggest and loyal al­lies in the world while meeting with Netanyahu. If she turned this quickly on her positions who’s to say if she wins she won’t turn back just as quick­ly? Will the real Kamala please stand up?

So stand up for democracy no matter who the candidate or party is. They need to have their feet put to the fire and ex­plain who they are, what their position is and why. Don’t be fooled and don’t give up it’s the only way for real democ­racy to survive. Fight, fight fight!

Concerned
Noreen Carlson
Silver Bay