Letter: Thankfully, 'mundane' matters in our community

To the Editor:

In the letters to the editor in the R-E Feb. 16-17 edition, Richard Johnson berated the City Council for not tabling “the mundane to the end of it.” In Johnson’s view, the mundane apparently consists of

a) public recognition of citizens working together to build a home for those less fortunate;

b) public recognition of citizens saving the life of a prominent community member;

c) a citizen putting forth an idea to promote our community’s heritage;

d) a citizen putting forth an idea to educate and then utilize high school and technical college students for the betterment of our city.

All these positive points required some people to listen for 17 minutes. Following that were items relating to citywide issues and appointments, including a resolution for exploring programmatic efforts for providing safe routes for our school children.

In total, people had to listen to what is good about our community for 35 minutes before they could spend another hour and a half on a negative, divisive issue.

I, for one, am grateful to the council for giving time priority to recognize the positive elements of Red Wing. It was also a procedure that showed consideration to my husband, in the beginning stages of recovering from cardiac surgery, by allowing him to return home within a reasonable time period.

I am proud to be a member of the “mundane” and commend the City Council members for their professional, dignified and diplomatic approach to the later issue in what could have been a contentious meeting.

Linda McNairy

Red Wing

Tags: opinion, letters