Letters to the editor for Friday, May 16

Katherine Kersten missed the point in her May 14 column, "Who will get the last word on Pledge of Allegiance in junior high?" Those at Valley Forge, on Omaha Beach and in the Battle of the Bulge fought for our freedom -- freedom to make choices and freedom to learn and grow. How sad to think that their valiant efforts for this wonderful country would be reduced to a set of behavioral rules.

Could we please aspire to a deeper understanding and practice of patriotism beyond standing at specific times and wearing lapel pins?

PATSY MOGUSH, MINNEAPOLIS

Tasteless, yet protected A May 13 letter writer referred to people in the military service as "mindless robots." I, and I'm sure all other veterans and people in active service, find this offensive, untrue and in poor taste. Without a U.S. military force to protect his right of free speech, the writer probably wouldn't have the guts to make such a statement. Apology accepted.

TED CLIKEMAN, ROCHESTER

The rise in gas prices didn't happen overnight -- it is largely a result of our energy policies for the past few decades. For U.S. Rep. John Kline to blame Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats over the past 16 months (Opinion Exchange, May 10) is positively absurd. The Republicans controlled both houses and the presidency between 2000 and 2006, a time when it should have been straightforward to set an effective energy (or any) policy.

Kline neglects to explain that, because oil is priced in U.S. dollars and the dollar has seen a 25 to 30 percent devaluation over the past year or so, the United States is picking up that 25 to 30 percent in increased gas prices. And why has the value of the dollar fallen? Could it be because we are borrowing the money to pay for a war while we are giving tax breaks to the richest Americans and giving subsidies to big oil?

I have voted primarily Republican for the past 30 years. But when I read the drivel espoused by Kline, I start to open my mind to any alternative. We don't need congressmen to spend time blaming their counterparts for failed policy; we need them to one day understand that they need to work together and do something for America.

KARL KARST, WOODBURY

Immigration drives it In his May 13 Counterpoint, "Appetite for energy from any source, at any price, can't last," Dave Durenberger merely echoes the well worn status quo script: It gets us nowhere. More drilling, etc. won't help. Indeed, it is a false hope.

Interestingly, the article says food prices are rising. But he and we can't seem to grasp that population growth and overpopulation is the food and energy problem. In five of the last seven years there have been bumper crops, yet today carryover food stocks are at all-time lows. The Malthusian Scenario is unfolding before our eyes.

The massive immigration-driven U.S. population has increased roughly 125 million since Durenberger began his Senate career. It is the reason for all increases in U.S. energy consumption.

DELL ERIKSSON, BROOKLYN CENTER

Fedwa Wazwaz (Counterpoint, May 9) laments the establishment of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, America's only reliable ally in that region and the only Middle Eastern country allowing freedom of religion, press and association for all its citizens.

It is apparently much easier to smash Israeli success and torture history than accept responsibility for Palestinian terror and rejection of 60-plus years of opportunities for peace and coexistence.

The tragic irony of Wazwaz's enmity toward Israel is that instead of trying to wipe Israel off the map, the Palestinian people could have developed their own free society. The United Nations partitioned the land in 1947, prior to Israel's establishment, in order to create two states, an Arab state and a Jewish state.

The Arab world and the Palestinians refused to share and instead sought to nullify the U.N. partition decision through force of arms. The outnumbered and outgunned Jews defeated their combined foes.

News flash to Wazwaz: Israel is 60 and its legitimacy and right to exist are inviolable. The only "catastrophe" facing the Palestinians is their insistence on destroying rather than building. Instead of misting on Israel's 60th birthday parade, imagine if Palestinians had chosen peace over war. Maybe both Israelis and Palestinians would be celebrating 60 years of independence and freedom.

It's not too late. A Palestinian hand outstretched for genuine peace, mutual recognition and coexistence will be met by a similarly outstretched Israeli hand. It's been that way for over six decades. It's long past the time for Wazwaz, Hamas and Palestinians to redirect their energies from hating Israel to building a free, independent and peaceful Palestinian future.

STEVE SILBERFARB, PROVIDENCE, R.I.

A $370 million dollar subsidy for the Mall of America?

It is said that government in service to the poor is called a nanny state. It can now be said that government in service to the wealthy is called a butler state. If ever we needed a constitutional amendment banning welfare checks to successful elite capitalists it is now!