To the Albert Lea school board.

We know the school board has been squarely in the limelight of public scrutiny regarding the calendar proposal it has been mulling, but, regardless of which side people are on, the members of the board deserve kudos for having the willingness to postpone their major decision for two additional weeks. Clearly, there was more to consider. And Superintendent Mike Funk should be credited with having the wisdom at the meeting last Monday to suggest waiting.

We are glad an open-microphone public forum was held that allowed all sides to share their views in front of everybody. Two minutes per person was reasonable. Thirty-five minutes was plenty before the points began repeating. Input — a First Amendment right called freedom of petition — is not always pretty. It’s not always easy. But it is democracy, and that’s how the system our Founding Fathers set up works. They wanted ideas aired and concerns shared.

We also want to remind all parties that whatever decision is made, it’s not final. Minnesota Commissioner of Education Brenda Cassellius would need to approve a waiver from the state law that says classes must start after Labor Day.

 

To House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The Democrats had the opportunity to name the highest-ranking enlisted man ever to serve in Congress as that party’s ranking members on the Veterans Affairs Committee going into the 2015 session. Instead, they appointed a lawyer, as if Congress doesn’t already have too many lawyers running the place (but not going anywhere) as it is. We hold no particular ill will against Rep. Corrine Brown of Florida — after all, she did have seniority — but the military knowledge of Minnesota’s Tim Walz would have benefitted the committee leadership. Pelosi, who as minority leader makes the appointments, could have selected experience over seniority. Let’s hope in two years the Democrats get this corrected.

 

To complaints about President Obama using executive authority.

Like it or not and disagree with Obama or not on immigration, Congress and the Constitution grant to the president broad executive powers.

In 1986, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed into law a bill offering amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. The following year, Reagan used executive power to expand it to 100,000 more people. What’s more, he used his power to provide relief to 200,000 exiles from Nicaragua. George H.W. Bush used executive power to protect 1.5 million undocumented spouses and children from deportation. For some reason, Obama, a Demcorat, is receiving much more fury than those two Republican presidents.

But it also is true that Republicans have gravitated on the issue from the side of business leaders who sought low-cost labor in the 1980s and 1990s to the side of a fair share of Americans who, to put it roundly, dislike the quagmire the country is in when it comes to making and enforcing rules and laws on immigration. And, of course, America is just a more polarized place in the 2010s than when Reagan and the elder Bush held the Oval Office.

Regardless, Congress — whose job it is to make laws (the president only signs or vetoes them) — has had plenty of time to come up with comprehensive immigration reform. It hasn’t. Like him or not, voters must at least appreciate a leader for taking a stand and leading, rather than wallowing in the noncommittal murky landscape most politicians drown in when it comes to the issue of immigration. At least Obama offers something tangible.