Letters to the editor for Sunday, Dec. 30

Your Christmas Day story about the man giving a house he had fixed up to Habitat for Humanity was a real heart-warmer, an example of the Christmas spirit above and beyond anything that most people would ever consider doing. That man, Larry Hossfeld, should be nominated for sainthood.

DICK DUERRE, BLOOMINGTON

Before we all pull a muscle patting National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell on the back for providing NFL feeds to NBC and CBS for the Patriots/Giants game, let's reflect for a moment.

Every NFL team is subsidized by taxpayers in one way or another, be it their stadium or the infrastructure to support the stadium. The question becomes why shouldn't he provide feeds for all NFL games all the time? Unless of course the NFL is going to use the money its NFL channel rakes in to buy or build its own stadiums. Oh, I forgot; profits are so razor-thin that the league needs tax dollars to bail it out.

ALAN RICHTER, MINNEAPOLIS

The title "Minnesota's lioness of letters," used in the Dec. 22 headline noting Carol Bly's death, fits Bly, and I believe it would please her. The title "Minnesota's rare and beautiful gem" is equally fitting.

A writer, teacher and mentor, Carol had a sense of humor; she was, however, very serious. She set high standards for her students, instilling in us her strongly held conviction that, as writers, we must always seek the truth and be willing to speak the truth to power. Even in death, Carol's voice will not be silenced as her influence lives on.

SHARON R. SPARTZ, MINNEAPOLIS

A Dec. 20 letter writer bragged that she did the right thing by getting a "teaser-rate" mortgage, fixing up her credit and then refinancing for a fixed-rate mortgage. I am glad she was able to be so wise in her strategy.

However, she left out an important insight and a contributor to the current crisis: The housing market has tanked and houses are worth less than they were in prior years. Thus, we are not able to go through with our plan of refinancing, because no bank is going to give a loan for more than a house is currently worth. Silly me for not having been able to predict the future under the Bush administration.

AMY HILBURGER, OAKDALE

Not-so-friendly banker One problem leading many into unwise mortgages is a mistaken belief in the integrity of bankers. Many think that the banker is a professional, looking out for you as a financial adviser during the transaction. This often is not the case.

Consider two requirements to level the playing field:

• Post a sign behind the mortgage officer's desk reading: "I work on commission. Think of me as a used car salesman with a different product to sell."

• Enact a mandatory horse whipping for any banker who ever again uses the phrase, "You are wasting the equity in your house."

EDWARD STEGMAN, HASTINGS

Regarding a Dec. 23 letter, Minnesota didn't always have bad roads. When I started driving a truck 50 years ago, roads were good compared with Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

In the '60s I worked for a company that went to all 48 states. One trip to Texas, on the way home, we hit a snowstorm in northern Iowa at Junction 9 and 69 just north of Leland. We sat on the highway for 18 hours. Late in the afternoon, the highway department stopped and said the road was opened to the Minnesota line but didn't know from there on. We crossed the border and it didn't even look like there had been a storm.

That's how well Minnesota roads were maintained in those days. Let's get some money so the state can get those matching federal funds to fix Minnesota's roads. Maybe take the lottery funds back from the general fund that were supposed to go to the environment and put them to roads.

PAUL L. OLSON, ALBERT LEA, MINN.

To all who write that the current governor and his administration should not be held accountable for the state of the highways because decline started before his time, let me remind you of something. (It comes from the governor's page of his own website.)

Tim Pawlenty was a "ten-year member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, including four years as House Majority Leader" before being elected governor in 2002. This means that he has had 10 years in the house and five years as governor for a total of 15 years in a position where he could have made a difference. Shouldn't he have figured something out by now?

SANDRA CHRISTENSON,

BROOKLYN CENTER

Regarding Nick Coleman's Dec. 23 column, "As Minnesota turns 150, how will it face up to its original sin?": The greatest sin in all of this is letting the Indians open casinos with a tax-free-for-life deal.

No one can justify making one generation pay for another's mistakes, or sins, as Coleman calls them. I cry because the money a state-run casino would have generated may have prevented the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.

I know that what happened to the Indians in the past was very horrible, and that I can't take away from the suffering that they have endured.

SEAN M. CONWAY, HINCKLEY, MINN.

Tribal wars Every year or so Nick Coleman writes about the atrocious way the white men treated the Sioux Indians back in 1862. Looking back, with wisdom born of the event, I am sure our white leaders could have found a better way to handle this uprising.

However, to be fair, if Coleman is going to lay this annual guilt trip on me, he should point out that long before the white men came, the Indian tribes fought and killed each other over their territories, and to be fair, he might mention that frequently they cut the scalps off the losers.

DONALD. E. ENGEBRETSON, BLOOMINGTON