Letter: Alliances are great legacy of victory in World War II
Having read extensively about World War II, I thought I knew all the countries that fought together as the Allies. A Google search showed me I was wrong. There were 13 countries, more than I expected. I am very proud of my father's service in that war and all of the Americans alongside whom he served.
But could we Americans alone have won that war alone? I think not. We were successful due to the combined efforts, contributions, skills, etc. of many countries. So why now do some of us so strongly espouse an America first and America alone mentality?
What do we gain by deporting foreign students studying in our universities? Many of them remain here after school, and we benefit from their expertise.
Are we better off inviting the leaders of other countries to visit the White House and then degrading them? Are we going to leave NATO and further isolate ourselves?
The relative peace we have experienced since World War II is due to the strength through collaboration that we have enjoyed. I'd rather have lots of friends on whom I can depend than lots of enemies. How about you?
Susan Leiby
Hamburg
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ancy Morse, who died May 3, relied on resilence, humility to carve a ground-breaking legal career
May 31—ROCHESTER — In the early stages of Ancy Morse's legal career, people had a hard time wrapping their heads around the concept of a woman attorney. On her first job, Morse walked into a conference room to meet with a client, who thought she was there to bring him coffee. When Morse explained to the elderly man that she was his attorney, the man was incredulous. "By God, now I've seen everything!" he said. Disbelief was the price Morse paid in forging a legal career that had few antecedents. In the early 1960s, Morse became the first female attorney to practice law in Olmsted County. In 1983, she became the first female district judge outside the Twin Cities area when she was appointed by then-Gov. Rudy Perpich. Morse died May 3, 2025, at the Homestead Senior Living Facility in Rochester after a battle with cancer, according to her obituary. During her 16-year tenure as judge, Morse presided over thousands of cases involving child custody battles, divorces, sex abuse cases and civil disputes. But the case with which she became inextricably linked was the 1989 trial involving David Brom, a 16-year-old Lourdes High School student who killed his parents, a younger brother and sister with an ax while they slept in their rural Rochester home. Morse sentenced the teen to three consecutive life prison terms, acknowledging to a packed courtroom the emotional agony and difficulty in overseeing such a fraught case. Calling the case "inexplicable and unfathomable," Morse struck an undercurrent of sympathy in her ruling, calling Brom a "seriously mentally ill boy, driven to despair by a pathetically sick and depressed mind." She felt the law had failed to keep pace with advances in psychiatry and later joined the defense in vainly seeking changes to the state standard governing mental illness defenses. In charting her way in a male-dominated field, Morse had to get used to the many double-takes she triggered in people who had never seen a woman attorney before. In law school at the University of Minnesota, Morse was one of six women, according to a July 16, 1973, Rochester Post Bulletin article. Her classes were populated with returning veterans from World War II on the GI bill. It could be a tough crowd. It was made all the more formidable and intimidating when the professor closed the door at the start of class and declared the day "Ladies Day," meaning only women would be allowed to answer questions "She told me there was never time for pettiness, just perseverance," said her son Mark Morse said. When she was admitted to the bar, it was Morse and 166 men who took the oath. A woman attorney just didn't compute for many at the time. Early in her career, Morse represented a woman in a divorce proceeding, but the judge mistook Morse as the woman seeking the divorce. When trying to serve legal papers on a party in the jail, the guards suspected her of being a girlfriend of one of the inmates and called her office to check, according to the book "Taking The Lead: Rochester Women in Public Policy," which devotes a chapter on Morse. Morse's dream of practicing law had taken root as a young girl growing up in International Falls. Her grandfather, Aad Tone, had been a pioneer lawyer in Koochiching County whom she would accompany on trips to the courthouse. Being raised in a small town, Morse was taught to fish and hunt. In school, she had free reign to participate in a wide variety of activities and pursuits. "...and a woman will lead them," yearbook staff from International Falls High School prophetically inscribed next to her name. Her mother, Esther Olson Tone, had aspired to be a lawyer, but those dreams were dashed when Esther's Scandinavian parents' savings were looted by a banker. So those ambitions were transferred to Morse. "Maybe, I just got tired of people saying, 'You'll never do it,'" Morse told one reporter. A profoundly formative chapter in her life was her selection as one of four senior Girl Scouts to represent the U.S. at an international conference. Morse joined the Girl Scouts in the third grade and remained active for decades. The conference she attended was held in Switzerland and changed her life. She no longer felt like she was from a small town. She felt that she belonged anywhere. "It emboldened her. It gave her a community of women to support and reassure and advocate for," said a daughter, Kelly Nowicki. As she pursued her legal education, Morse often found support in a small network of men, including her uncles and her future husband, Bob Morse. Both had attended grade school together. Bob Morse would stay after class to wash down the blackboards. But beyond earning some brownie points, Bob hoped to catch the eye of the teacher's blonde-haired daughter, Ancy. Bob attended the University of Minnesota along with Ancy, becoming a psychiatrist at Mayo Clinic. After working as a lawyer for many years, Morse was encouraged by her legal peers to apply for a judge vacancy. Mark Morse said his mom didn't expect to get the appointment, but thought it would be an opportunity to let Olmsted County know that "there is a female attorney in town." To her surprise, Perpich picked her. "She was often encouraged by others to do things that she didn't necessarily think she was ready for — or good enough for," Mark Morse said. "She was very humble that way." A lifelong Minnesota Vikings fan, Morse and her family were season ticket holders for many years. A favorite story Mark Morse likes to tell is how Mark and his wife attended a Vikings game and were seated behind his mom and dad. Morse didn't like the arrangement and proceeded to convince the 30 or so other attendees in her section to scoot two seats over, including two people at the end of the row to move back one row, so Mark and his wife could sit down next to her. "She was very confident in what she felt needed to happen and very capable of making it happen," Mark Morse said. Mark Morse said he never saw his mom betray any umbrage or resentment at the slights she encountered in her legal career. As she advanced in her career, she became a role model and support to other women professionals. "You hear a lot of people demand respect. She never did," Mark Morse said at her funeral. "Her approach was the Nike of women's rights; she just did it. And that humility, tied with performance, was an amazing message to others."
The Hill
30 minutes ago
- The Hill
Business leaders are reshaping Washington and delivering for taxpayers
President Trump's historic comeback victory included a mandate from the American people to reform the federal government. The inefficiencies of our broken bureaucracy are all too apparent to everyday Americans, and it was a big reason why they hired a new administration that specifically ran on fixing the system. Americans know the problems our government faces today are urgent and require immediate action. They have watched as the federal bureaucracy has exploded in size and as their tax dollars are wasted on frivolous spending. All of us realize that maintaining our current course is no longer sustainable. We are trillions of dollars in debt, and steadily approaching a point of no return. As Americans cut costs and work tirelessly to balance their own budgets after four years of economic uncertainty, they are now rightly demanding that the federal government do the same. But like the old cliche about the definition of insanity, there is no reason to think that the same processes and personnel who have spent decades in government bureaucracies will be able to reform themselves without some outside help. The status quo won't shake up the status quo. We need an infusion of new ideas, personnel and leadership in our capital city. Specifically, we need to lean on one of America's great strengths and resources: our incredibly successful, world-leading private sector. American businesses are second to none. We need to tap into the insights, methods and expertise of our business leaders and technical experts to turn the government around. Thankfully, President Trump and his administration are doing just that. A number of the president's cabinet secretaries are Washington outsiders who bring heavyweight private sector resumes to their new roles. The same goes for key subcabinet posts. For example, President Trump's nominee to run the federal Office of Personnel Management is a venture capitalist and tech executive with a quarter century of high-stakes business leadership under his belt. The most notable place where the president has brought in fresh energy and ideas from the private sector is the Department of Government Efficiency. Everybody knows about its leader, the hugely successful and outspoken entrepreneur Elon Musk. But a wealth of other top tech talent is working away behind the scenes, helping to find new efficiencies, examples of waste to cut and opportunities to update and upgrade how our government works. The team includes the sharp, young engineers who have attracted political and press attention, but it also includes veteran executives and marquee leaders who have answered the call to serve. Tom Krause, CEO of Cloud Software Group, is helping reform the Treasury Department's ancient payment processes. Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, is helping to digitize the tangled processes around federal retirements. All of us are lucky that such well-respected minds in business and management are helping refocus our government around stewarding funds wisely and getting results. This is a turnaround project like no other, and it needs all hands on deck. I had the privilege of serving on the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee during my tenure representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I saw firsthand the misuse of federal funds, the inefficiency of the bureaucracy and the blatant waste of taxpayer dollars. But making meaningful cuts in a smart, targeted way can be tricky business. We want to crack down on waste, fraud and overreach but preserve genuinely important programs that support hardworking families, encourage innovation in key fields like energy, national security and AI, and give taxpayers a strong return for their money. Separating the wheat from the chaff takes skilled analysis and strong, outcome-driven leadership. These are not virtues for which Washington is famous. Luckily, the business world has them in spades. Despite consternation from some in the media about bringing private-sector expertise into government, this is absolutely nothing new. High-profile businesspeople have served and advised presidential administrations of both parties, bringing their fresh perspectives to bear on problems that have stumped the permanent class inside Washington. President Obama brought General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt to lead an economic advisory board, along with entrusting the executive chairman of Alphabet, Eric Schmidt, to lead a major Pentagon innovation board. President Biden staffed his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology with a whole list of private sector leaders, including from tech giants Google, Microsoft and Nvidia. President Trump and DOGE are working to fix the broken systems our government relies on. They are absolutely right to call upon our country's deep well of human capital in the form of our top business leaders to do it. The American people have spoken, and they want significant and meaningful reform. A majority of Americans support DOGE's mission to increase accountability and enact long-lasting federal reforms. Already, thanks to DOGE's efforts, billions of dollars worth of savings have been found. But if we're actually going to redirect the slow-moving shipwreck of federal waste and budget deficits, these early efforts must only be the beginning. We need to keep drawing on outside perspectives and the business world's results-driven mindset to cut through the jungle of red tape and deliver meaningful results for Americans everywhere.
Engadget
an hour ago
- Engadget
A new Nebraska law wants to make social media less addictive for kids
Nebraska is the latest state to crack down on how kids can use social media. The state's governor, Jim Pillen, recently signed into law a package of bills aimed at restricting certain social media features that keep kids hooked on the platform. The final bill signed, called the Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, will require companies to offer time limits on usage, restrict certain categories of content and provide chronological feeds instead of algorithmic ones that promote infinite scrolling. The Age-Appropriate Online Design Code Act, also known as LB504, details that social media companies can only collect the minimum amount of personal data from younger users, and offers parents more tools to limit how their children use their accounts. Along with those restrictions, the law prohibits any ads related to gambling, alcohol, tobacco or drugs from reaching kids on social media. Alongside LB504, the signed package of bills includes LB140 that limits student use of smartphones in schools, LB383 that requires social media companies to verify the age of its users and require parental consent for creating accounts, and LB172 that creates criminal penalties for AI-generated pornography. "Collectively, all these bills have an incredible impact on helping our teachers and giving our schools the opportunity to teach our kids, instead of being disrupted in the classroom," Pillen said in a press release. "They also provide parents with the tools they need to protect our kids from big tech online companies and predators." The law is set to go into effect January 1, 2026, and any companies that violate these new regulations will face civil penalties. Nebraska is the latest state to restrict social media usage for minors, but Texas is also trying to pass a similar ban. With more efforts to regulate social media, NetChoice, an Internet advocacy organization whose members include Google, Meta and X, has voiced criticism of these states' efforts, arguing that they infringe on First Amendment rights and user privacy. In 2022, California signed a similar law meant to protect underage users, but it has since been in a legal battle following a lawsuit filed by NetChoice that claims a violation of free speech rights.
