Letters: July 4 event was great, Rounds has forgotten cattle producers, the last legitimate election

My wife and I attended the Fourth of July celebration at Wylie Park this past Sunday. Our praise goes out to so many.

Jerry Letcher, director of the municipal band, did a fantastic job of organizing music for all to enjoy, and the members of the band were outstanding. The two young ladies that had solos were absolutely terrific. The talent that these young adults have is magnificent. Hats off to the Parks Department for all their hard work setting up for the event.

This is a yearly event for people of Aberdeen and the surrounding area to attend and enjoy. To top off the evening was a fireworks display that was top of the line. I don't know who the sponsors were that had a hand in putting up such a great array of fireworks, but you are very much appreciated. Please let the public know who is generous enough to help with the expense of this great observance of our Independence Day. It warms the heart that a community such as ours puts on such a display that all can enjoy.

Last but not least were the law enforcement personnel that helped with traffic control after the event was over.

A big thank you to you all.

Mike Olsen, Aberdeen

Noem steps up

South Dakota is sending National Guard troops to the Mexico border.

The Biden administration has reinstituted "catch and release," and ended the "remain in Mexico" policy for those applying for asylum. When finally acknowledging the crises, Biden appointed Kamala Harris to fix it. She was AWOL for months. Lately, she finally showed up for work, but after landing in El Paso, Texas, headed north, away from the border. Nevertheless, a Texas sheriff got in her face and told her he needed more body bags. This administration is behaving like the liberal governments of Washington and Oregon when they ordered police, fire and ambulance services to abandon the citizens targeted by rioting and looting.

Kristi Noem is one of several  governors stepping up to answer calls from Texas and Arizona for states to send resources to their Mexican borders under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. Florida, Nebraska and Iowa are sending law enforcement officers. Arkansas is also sending National Guard troops.

Noem’s statement: “We should not be making our own communities less safe by sending our police or Highway Patrol to fix a long-term problem President Biden’s administration seems unable or unwilling to solve. My message to Texas is this: help is on the way.”

Enough fentanyl was seized at the border to kill 229 million Americans. This fentanyl, cocaine, meth and heroin are not staying in the desert. It is on its way to the communities our grandchildren live. 

When the Trump administration ended, the U.S. was deporting more people than were illegally coming into the country. Early on under Biden, the number of people illegally coming into the country is six times the crisis level as set by the Obama team.

Oscar Wenholm, Clark

Rounds has forgotten South Dakota cattle producers

A month ago, Sen. John Thune said that the Senate was going to have hearings on the price of beef because it seemed that the beef packers were making way too much money compared to what the cattle feeders were making. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa held those hearings.

Two years ago, before the pandemic, I noticed on national agriculture shows that the beef packers were making $500 per head on the cattle they slaughtered. Packers seemed to be acting illegally as an oligopoly to fix the prices. This is very hard to prove because if they do deals with a handshake, there is no paper trail to prove it. Since then, their profits have varied from $400 to $500 per head. 

At the end of the hearings Sen. Mike Rounds stated that his concern was that we need to keep the beef packers in business. No one would leave a business that is so extremely profitable. But with the drought drying up the South Dakota hay crop and the corn price much higher than the three years before, the cost of producing a steer has gone way up. The beef producers need their fair share of the money. The fact that Sen. Rounds has forgotten the South Dakota cattlemen just might put his friends in the beef packing industry out of business from a lack of cattle in the future. The Midwest needs people in Congress who understand agriculture from the farmer's point of view and not just from giant agribusiness companies’ point of view.

Roger L. Elgersma, Pipesont, Minn.

The last legitimate election

The Republican Party has made sure that 2020 hosted the last legitimate national election the USA will ever have. They know they can't win in fair competition so they've rigged the swing states in ways that guarantee only Trump lackeys can win. In other words, the old Soviet system of government will be given a huge boost when they re-take the House and Senate in 2022 and will be permanently locked in place when they re-take the presidency in 2024.

In their entire history, Russians have never lived in a democracy. The people of the United States, however, have enjoyed something quite close to democracy for the past 232 years. Therein lies a major difference between them and us. How will our politically dispossessed majority react to the destruction of the rights granted us in the Constitution? Anybody's guess; it's going to be interesting.

Terry Painter, Rapid City