There’s more than one way to make work work

I read Jenny Alvermann’s column (“Confessions of a former remote worker,” Feb. 9) and I was once again puzzled at the insistence that going into the office is key to “strong relationships, promotes clear communication, and creates opportunities for professional growth.” My experience is quite different.

I have worked remotely for 21 years. I will grant that my roles in that span (project manager and program manager in IT infrastructure and software spaces) have lent themselves more to remote work than in-person collaboration. However, my career has progressed nicely in that same span. In fact, my previous and current roles were advertised as 100% remote.

I am an extreme introvert who, it is claimed, “holds meetings for a living.” There is a certain amount of truth to that, but doing my job surrounded by dozens or hundreds of coworkers would wear me out daily in a way that extroverts do not understand.

I engage fully with my colleagues throughout our entire hierarchy and with my counterparts at customers and vendors, all without setting foot in an on-site office or conference room.

There are jobs that cannot be 100% remote and there are people who cannot thrive in a fully remote situation. However, one’s success should never depend on one’s willingness to endure a rush-hour drive to and from work just to be surrounded by coworkers.

Steve Kopischke, Cottage Grove

I even like Taylor Swift, but …

It was another Super Bowl and another great win for Kansas City. I really like Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, because his father was a pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. I even like Taylor Swift.

But I do not like the Kansas City football team for two reasons. First they beat the Vikings in the Super Bowl, but the second and worst is that they still have a racist nickname, have arrowheads on their helmets, uniforms, and their fans yell American Indian war chants. It is a slam to our Indigenous People. It needs to be changed, like the Washington football and Cleveland baseball teams did. The Atlanta baseball team also must change their nickname.

Gary Thompson, St. Paul

Rich guy gets a pass

The 2024 Super Bowl was a fun game to watch, until one event. As a past educator, I worked tirelessly to end bullying. Imagine my dismay when Travis Kelce, a strong, fierce man, shoved and yelled at an older man — his coach, Andy Reid — enough to make Andy close his eyes and wobble off-balance. Worse, the next day Kelce offered jokes about it, as did Reid. But how could Reid take on Kelce? After all, Kelce is profit for the NFL and himself, in part because of his relationship with Taylor Swift and endorsements.

When society allows people of money and power to escape accountability for acts of bullying, violence, threats, intimidation and lies, we all suffer. Currently politicians and people of wealth and power are often given passes for behavior that we wouldn’t want our children to copy. What if Andy Reid was your father? How would you feel about Kelce then?

Geoffrey Saign, St. Paul

Nothing?

While there is endless debate about what should be done about it, no one can deny that we have a problem with gun violence in our country. With upward of 40,000 deaths/year attributed to firearms, with easy access to weapons of war, with gun ownership totaling 125 guns for every 100 of our citizens, and with mass shootings becoming all-too regular events in our news cycles it is clear that reasonable people and their leaders need to thoughtfully consider what means we have to address this issue.

That is why I find it reprehensible that citizen Donald Trump, in addressing last week’s meeting of the NRA, would find it cause for celebration to say, “In my four years as president, nothing happened … we did nothing.” (Cut to the scene of Nero fiddling while Rome burned.) It is one thing to fail, but quite another to boast about it, and just another reason among many to reject his current bid for power.

John W. Wheeler, Maplewood

There’s no ‘free’ care

A DFL legislator will introduce a bill to ban hospitals from adding interest to delinquent bills. Furthermore, the new law, if passed, would mandate that hospitals provide “free” care for those who cannot pay. Wow. This sounds great.

The DFL solution for unaffordable hospital care, it seems, is to force providers to do the same or more but for less money, as they do with Medicare and Medicaid patients. There is no “free” care or “reduced rate” care, in reality.

The shortfall in hospital revenue is cost-shifted to those of us with private health insurance, or who must pay our own way — or a combination of those two (high deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses).

Neither the DFL nor the GOP are providing solutions that reduce the cost of care for everyone, while maintaining quality of care and access to it. Those solutions exist, but Big Health does not like them.

Dave Racer, Woodbury

Hated too long by too many

I appreciated the article about Egyptian officials saying no to Palestinians. I will say, up front, my allegiance is to Israel because Jewish people have been in my life since the beginning (I am 75 years old). What upsets me about the current war is that at no time have the people in Gaza or their supporters around the world condemned Hamas out loud. Nor have the Palestinians in Gaza turned in the terrorists that belong to Hamas; nor have they offered to aid the Jewish military in digging out the tunnels to help cripple Hamas and perhaps find the innocent Israeli civilians who were kidnapped.

The Palestinian people are surrounded with Arab nations and yet, as Egypt has clearly stated, they are not being encouraged to move into safe places in those countries. Egypt was brave enough to admit they do not want the radical, terrorist Hamas and its followers to bring their beliefs and actions into Egypt. For decades, Israel has been surrounded by people who would prefer all Jewish people be eliminated from the face of the Earth. On Oct. 7, Israel was invaded, their citizens were killed, raped and taken as hostages. I do not like/admire/respect Netanyahu, but my heart and prayers are with the Jewish people who for too long have been hated by too many.

Nancy Lanthier Carroll, Roseville

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