Wow! Are Jane Bauer and I reading the same newspaper? She talks about a recent letter to the editor attacking Joshua Heintzeman. Was she talking about Connie Lyscio's letter wishing that John Ward, who did so much for education here in the Brainerd area, had been invited to the award ceremony in which our six elementary schools were honored with the national Blue Ribbon Award? If that's the letter Ms. Bauer is referring to, I want to assure her that having Mr. Ward at that ceremony wouldn't have in any way damaged Heintzeman or his children, who do not attend the public schools. Ms. Lyscio's letter did not attack the children, nor did it attack Rep. Heintzeman.
I don't know if Rep. Ward was invited to the ceremony or not, but I'm sure he recognizes that this is Rep. Heintzeman's time to govern and Rep. Heintzeman's time to support the needs of 10A's students and all the rest of its citizens. In fact, we all want to support Rep. Heintzeman and help him represent all of us in St. Paul. The election is over. Rep. Ward is moving on with his life with the same grace and humility with which he operated as our representative for the past eight years.
Let's encourage Rep. Heintzeman to work for all of us. There are many issues on the table: taxing decisions that raise up the middle class and keep our economy growing; transportation decisions that provide more than a Band Aid and address the delayed infrastructure projects; and election reforms that put elections back in the hands of the voters, rather than the special interest groups that have been influencing our elections. I totally support Ms. Bauer's request to eliminate "political hackery." Let's work together to keep our state moving forward.
Beth Passi
Baxter
