Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Oct. 23

STATE VETERANS HOME

Thank you, Governor

Thank you for the Oct. 21 editorial "A 21st-century vision for care of veterans." As a veteran I believe it was right on the mark.

Our veteran community owes a great deal of thanks to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, his Long Term Care Advisory Commission and the Legislature for the serious attention that has been brought to focus on the plight of our veterans homes in Minnesota.

RICHARD ZIERDT, Lino Lakes

FORECLOSURE CRISIS

Moratorium would help

The Oct. 20 editorial "Should Minneapolis freeze foreclosures?" recognized the enormity of the problem that has led to a record-high number of foreclosures. However, the conclusion that "a temporary moratorium is not the answer" has me scratching my head. Not the answer for whom?

Lumping traumatized family homebuyers with mortgage-flipping speculators might let the mayor off the hook, but does not promote the "breathing space" necessary to save the families.

PETER MOLENAAR, MINNEAPOLIS;

CHAIRMAN, MINNESOTA ACORN

POSSIBLE NWA MERGER

Unanswered question

There have been a couple of recent articles in the Star Tribune about a possible Northwest Airlines merger with Delta but neither have mentioned or speculated about what would happen to the NWA corporate headquarters.

Would it move to Atlanta if merged with Delta? NWA is one of Minnesota's largest employers. Moving to another city would mean the loss not only of a lot of jobs but of the prestige of having a major corporation based here in the Twin Cities.

BOB THAMAN, MINNETONKA

A GAS-TAX HIKE

Money is already there

Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman and Rep. James Oberstar left out some information when they were supporting a gas-tax increase ("A penny-wise, pound-foolish government," Oct. 12).

Why don't they tell us about the billions taken out of the transportation budget for light rail and bike trails? Why should my gas tax dollars go to these projects and not to roads and bridges? The money is already there for roads and bridges, it just gets spent on pork projects.

Instead of increasing taxes, let's hold our government accountable for the money it already has.

JEFF VARNESS, BIG LAKE, MINN.

THE 515 LAWS

First-hand experience

Most Minnesotans would agree that we shouldn't discriminate against Minnesota families. Unfortunately, as John Sullivan described in his Oct. 15 commentary, there are at least 515 Minnesota laws that do that every day. I learned that firsthand.

My partner and I had developed and updated legal paperwork at all stages of our relationship -- our commitment ceremony, the birth of our daughter and after my partner was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Still, our relationship was considered legitimate only when it benefited the hospital financially; in order to calculate our eligibility for financial assistance to help pay for my partner's stay in a hospice residence, the hospital wanted to combine our incomes.

After Eric died, the medical examiner and the cremation society dismissed my instructions and the legal paperwork we signed, and required Eric's parents to consent that they had no objections to Eric's wishes and personally waived their legal rights to make decisions on Eric's behalf.

After Eric's death, we had to change our house and auto insurance since it was offered by USAA and it was Eric's service in the military made our family eligible. Neither the state attorney general nor the Minnesota insurance commissioner were able to assist me in trying to retain the coverage.

This was the most vulnerable moment of my family's life. Yet my partner's wishes -- our wishes -- meant nothing.

I doubt I would have had to endure anything similar if I had lost my wife instead of my partner.

TIM REARDON, GOLDEN VALLEY

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Making a statement

In his Oct. 20 commentary, Charles Krauthammer calls Nancy Pelosi's support of the Armenian genocide resolution a stunt whose purpose is either to undermine the Bush administration's war policy or to make liberals feel "morally clean."

Nothing can be further from the truth. For over a decade supporters of the Armenian genocide resolution both inside and outside of Congress have tried to secure its passage. Speaker Pelosi's participation in this movement is not at all unusual.

Nor is the timing of the resolution bad. The Turkish Penal Code makes it a crime in Turkey to assert the genocide happened. Last winter, an Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, was killed for criticizing Turkey's denial of the genocide.

Instead, the Armenian genocide resolution sends an important message to the survivors and their descendants that the world recognizes their suffering. To call this domestic politics is insulting.

ROBERT KAHN, MINNEAPOLIS

Krauthammer is right

By way of explaining the strange antics of Nancy Pelosi and her confederates in the House -- the ill-timed focus on an atrocity that occurred nearly a century ago -- Charles Krauthammer advises that when considering "any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning."

I would argue that to choose words like "stupidity" and "incompetence" in connection with these fools is to vastly overrate them.

JOHN G. HUBBELL, MINNETONKA

GOPHERS FOOTBALL

Get out of the Big Ten

My uncle, a University of Minnesota alum, said many years ago it was time for the Gophers football team to drop out of the Big Ten and play in the MIAC. After its loss to North Dakota State Saturday, there can be no doubt as to the wisdom of that proposal.

It just seems impractical to try to compete on a Division I level when the state produces so few players capable of doing so. Of the seven or eight Division I players the state does produce per year, most usually opt to play for traditional, established football powers.

Maybe now it's time to concentrate on the state's real strength -- academics. Maybe it's time to take the funding from the proposed new football stadium and put it into, say, a stem-cell or cancer research facility. Or if you must compete athletically, concentrate in an area where local talent does have a chance to excel on a national level -- in hockey.

TOM OBERT, ALEXANDRIA, MINN.