LETTER to the Editor

An Open Letter to the School Board

I am the mother of a 6 year old boy who is going into first grade. His Kindergarten experience? Much like many other kids, was miserable. When I ask him why? He tells me because he couldn’t see. Why did he have such a hard time seeing? Because he wears glasses.

As parents we are tasked with coaching our children through their fears. We teach them there are no monsters under their bed or lurking in the closet, yet here we are telling them we must cover their face or they might die from this invisible virus that has a 99.992 % survival rate, especially in children.

Does my family believe this virus is real? Absolutely. As I write this letter, my husband is currently suffering from Covid which last week kept him hospitalized. The tragedy and long term affects of the disease on adults is devestating, It still has a 99.9% survival rate. The science shows undeniably, that masking children is not only ineffective in preventing disease, but detrimental to their mental health, and physical health.

I urge you, as a school board – let us make the decisions for our children. If you want to send your child to school in a mask, you should to it. But lets not forget, we are the captains of our own ship, and its our decision to decide to parent in the best way we know how. The choice should lie in families, not in the government and not in the school board.

Brittney Speedling

You probably won’t print this!

To the editor: You probably will not print this editorial, as it would be a repeat story of “Chickens in Hastings”, which got you in a lot of hot water. It is about local government meeting by Zoom, under tight deadlines with a mandate to dole out billions of dollars, as quickly as possible. What could go wrong?

As cities were proclaimed the front lines of COVID-19 relief, the Feds did what they do best — hand out tons of money to make it better. Some $84 billion in federal pandemic funding from the CARES Act fell into the laps of mayors, city managers and councilors across Minnesota last year.

The timeline for distributing the windfall was short and cities were restricted, initially, in how they could spend it. Common sense measures like tax cuts to help homeowners were off the table from the start. So was offsetting city losses due to the pandemic, such as revenue from shuttered driver’s license centers.

Fast forward. City council were comfortable talking about streets, curbs, and gutters, not handout hundred of thousand of dollars to businesses and families.” said one local elected official, not Hastings, MN.

The pressure to rush dollars out the front door and potential for reckless spending, le many Minnesota cities caused them, to to decline CARES funding, all together, but not Hastings, MN, As a taxpayer, I would have felt it would be wasteful spending of taxpayer money. It isn’t free money, it’s taxpayer money.

Even though I am a 100% disabled Veteran, of which I have “Special Classification”, do I need it to say “Thank You for Your Service, to our Nation, State, County and Communities. I think not. For more information on the project, contact Matthew Parent, Project Manger at: matthew. [email protected], (952)-8917271, or Mary Jackson, Senior Planner at: [email protected] (952) 8917039 Still Serving Top Sergeant Markuson.