City leadership cares for a few loud voices, China relationship needs to change: Your letters
Your letters to the editor for March 19:
Sustainability plan gutted by mayor’s office
Sioux Falls residents should be deeply concerned about an attempt by city leadership to undermine a consensus-driven public process to draft a sustainability plan for Sioux Falls.
In Spring 2022, the Sioux Falls Sustainability and Climate Action Plan that had been crafted over 18 months with input from hundreds of residents was pulled from City Council consideration, citing complaints by the energy utilities and homebuilding industry. This plan would have been a significant update from the City’s current plan, a holdover from 2012. Within days, the City elected to re-start the process, convening a 30-member steering committee of community groups, healthcare professionals, educators, affordable housing experts, and business leaders - with ample representation from the utilities and homebuilders - to draft a revised plan representative of “a broader group of stakeholders.”
With the great leadership of the Sioux Falls Office of Sustainability, these citizens met for countless hours, coming together in good faith to collaboratively draft a plan that reflected community priorities. Through a consensus-based process and renewed efforts to gather public input, they put together a draft implementation plan sent to the committee in December that would have addressed issues important to Sioux Falls residents, including water quality, walkability and accessible transit, and rising energy costs.
But that effort has been subverted by city leadership, this time by the Mayor’s Office, with the decision made behind closed doors to replace the committee’s draft plan with an anemic “framework” devoid of concrete actions.
The Mayor’s new policy advisor, which had not been a part of the monthslong process, says the new “framework” was created in response to concerns from “people” and “the public,” without disclosing sources. She said the “framework” is meant to remove hard goals and allow time to gather facts and explore potential actions.
In other words, after two lengthy planning processes on sustainability spanning multiple years, the city is only now poised to consider how it wants to respond to critical issues for our city’s development - issues that hundreds of community members have already weighed in on. A 2021 survey found that 88% of Sioux Falls residents were either “concerned” or “very concerned” about sustainability and environmental issues, and that 92% thought it was “important” or “very important” for Sioux Falls to address sustainability and environmental issues.
Let’s be clear: city leadership has shown that they only care about the few loud voices who want to kick the can down the road. By replacing the Sustainable Sioux Falls Plan with a shoddy “framework,” the administration that once committed to grow Sioux Falls through “consensus and transparency” has chosen to override consensus for purposes of apparent political expediency.
− Arlene Brandt-Jenson, Administrative Coordinator, SoDak 350, President, League of Women Voters - Sioux Falls
Drilling,mining resistance hardening
The F3 proposal to drill up to 39 sites each of which could have multiple holes, in an area nearly surrounded by numerous dwellings should be rejected outright as totally inappropriate. If “economic” gold or other minerals is found in a large orebody, the next step is a large mine right in basically seven neighborhoods! The time for this sort of development in the Black Hills has come and gone. Multiple use of the forest: yes - wood, water, wildlife, grazing, recreation, but large mine in this location - No.The level of resistance to this project is very high right now and is hardening rapidly. My earnest request to F3 is to spend the $4 to $8 million on exploration elsewhere. This location is going to be a long and expensive fight if you pursue it.− Rob McWhorter, Custer
More:How did China's lost balloon end up floating by South Dakota?
It is time to change our relationship with China
China is not a friend of the United States of America. It is past time we change our approach to them. Do the following:1. Eliminate student and work visa's.2. Strictly control the movement of embassy and United Nations staff.3. Equal trade. Each quarter trade value must be equal or the next quarter the trade value will be adjusted to meet that goal.4. Allow a five-year window for all China property, business or assets in the US to be liquidated.5. Collect on the loan made in 1942 of $5 hundred million. The loan is 81 years past due and at a 5% compounded interest they now owe us around $27-28 trillion dollars which would be just short of $5 trillion covering our national debt.6. Further penalize corporations who conduct business with China.
− Jerry LeClair, Sioux Falls
It's time to destigmatize addiction
I am writing today to express the need to destigmatize substance addiction. Addiction is a complex disease that harms many. A lot of substance addiction comes from misuse, which can come from a need to cope due to unmet needs. If overall improved health is our goal, we must collectively work towards total de-stigmatization of drug use.
Many of us have grown up with general information that cautions us against using drugs. Public schools handed us simplified and impractical teaching- "Drugs are bad." We are taught about many side effects of using drugs, but we do not get the whole story. Without the full story of why people may choose to use drugs, society often mistakes the action of substance use with the user's morality.
More:Commercial fishing regulations should be tightened: Your letters
We often celebrate people after they have made it through the adverse experiences, but is there potential to help them through it quicker by celebrating, loving, and accepting them even when they're going through the worst of it? Many of us have been told to think about what it might be like to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes," but we are missing the point. When thinking about how someone else lives their life, we think about what we would or wouldn't do in someone else's situation. It is essential to remember that we can never get an accurate prediction of how we could live someone else's life because we have no way of experiencing it ourselves. It is impossible to reason then that we have any insight into someone else's struggle with drug addiction.
As a society, we have been allowed to turn our backs on those who need it the most; community support is necessary to create an environment safe for addiction-impacted persons. If someone is looking to challenge their existing ideas around substance addiction, locally, we have Face It Together, which provides "personalized, non-judgemental peer coaching for those impacted by addiction, including loved ones." Another resource is the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) which has resources for family members to help them navigate their relationships with a loved one with a substance addiction. Addressing community needs is a great way to get in front of the issue- what do we need collectively to feel safe and supported? Looking deeper into these unmet needs is a prevention method we can all use to fight against substance addiction and will help us understand each other's humanity.
−Serene Reinholz, Sioux Falls
A faux crackerbarrel
On Saturday, Lawrence County voters were treated to a faux crackerbarrel sponsored by Representative Scott Odenbach.Rather than invite his two other District 31 legislative colleagues to join him, he chose to have two props, Representative Liz May and Senator Ryan Maher; they contributed little. Along with a draconian moderator the audience was treated to a choreographed preview of Odenbach's 2024 reelection campaign theme - a run-down of the failed bills he wrote or to which he added his name as a co-sponsor.Odenbach pointed out that each bill (drag shows, school vouchers, COVID-19 vaxx mandates, and his cherished Center for American Exceptionalism) all failed to pass due to 1) lobbyists; 2) other Republican legislators; or 3) a combination of the two.When a question arose about tax cuts and the three competing methods in Pierre for delivering them, we learned nothing about Odenbach’s stand on this most vital kitchen table issue.Perhaps Representative Fitzgerald (whom Odenbach directly attacked) and Senator Deibert will band together and host their own Legislative Update to give us the unvarnished truth we need and deserve.
− Ron Moeller, Lead
More:Open letter to TenHaken says Sioux Falls' sustainability plan stripped of any 'meaningful' goals
How to submit a letter to the editor:
Letters need to be no more than about 300 words, and will need to include first and last name, address, city and title. Addresses won’t be publicized, of course, but it’s a way for us to make sure those who submit a letter are who they say they are.
Letters will run on Sundays in print and online as we receive them. There may be moments, however, when we don't have any as we work to solicit interest and actively rebuild this part of our coverage for readers.
You can submit those to News Director Shelly Conlon by emailing sconlon@argusleader.com or submit them through our online form here, which also is sent directly to the news director.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: City leadership cares for a few loud voices, China relationship needs to change: Your letters
