Letters to the editor for Saturday, Oct. 20

TRIBE'S DONATION TO 'U'

A drop in the bucket

Congratulations to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community again on its generous gift to the Gophers football stadium.

If one thinks this through -- with the tribe making between $600 million and $1 billion a year and contributing $21 million a year on average, the tribe contributes at best 3 percent of its untaxed income each year total to its select causes.

Compare that with the average citizen who pays income taxes, real estate taxes, sales taxes, fees, licenses, etc., that the casino and tribe are exempt from. In my case, these taxes and fees easily add up to 50 percent or more of my income.

Who among us would not trade the right to donate 3 percent of our income (plus free PR and advertising) in exchange for paying nothing to the government?

When one looks at these kind of figures, one has to think that it's time to open up a state-run, regulated, taxpaying casino. Our roads, our schools and our overburdened taxpayers would all benefit. Perhaps it's time we let the taxpayers of Minnesota vote on this.

LYNN JAKUBIK, RICHFIELD

SHORTAGE OF TEACHERS

Lack of respect, too

I am the kind of person who schools want to recruit for teaching high school -- advanced technical degree, 25 years of industry experience, a love of teaching and financially secure so I have some flexibility in my career choices.

Two years ago I seriously considered teaching high school. There were three factors that turned me away from that choice: licensing, pay and abusive parents.

Even though I have a Ph.D. and am qualified to teach at the college level, getting licensed to teach high school would have required me to return to college for two years, full time, at a cost up to $20,000.

Pay? I live in the Orono School District, one of the better-paying districts in the state. If I qualified for the top pay scale (which was not likely), adjusted for inflation and summer vacation I would have been earning roughly the same salary that I had been earning in 1990.

Lastly, I have worked as a high school coach. While most parents are great, there are a few who are highly abusive and suck inordinate amounts of time and energy.

Given that overall picture, is the shortage of teachers any surprise? The corollary is this: The next time you encounter an outstanding teacher, be generous with your thanks and appreciation -- he or she is sacrificing a great deal so that your kid can get a good education.

DAVID GARDINER, MAPLE PLAIN

NO OVERRIDE OF SCHIP VETO

Shameful vote

It is a terrible state of affairs when those mostly Republican representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives -- those who enjoy Cadillac health coverage while serving -- are allowed to vote down the SCHIP bill. This bill would have afforded many, many young Americans the most basic of their needs.

With more than 43 million of Americans without medical insurance and many more only a major sickness away from losing everything, this bill was good policy.

BOB BRERETON, ST. PAUL

A slippery slope

The failed veto override of the SCHIP expansion is the best news I've heard in a long time. The SCHIP bill was nothing but a pandering platform for the liberals (and some spineless so-called conservatives) that would have surely been the slippery slope to socialized health care down the road.

Thank you, Reps. Michele Bachmann and John Kline, for sticking to your guns and listening to your constituents -- not the polls.

TINA MATTSON, ZIMMERMAN

'KING LEAR' AT THE GUTHRIE

A different McKellen

Perhaps those who were shocked by the Guthrie Theater's production of Shakespeare's "King Lear" were expecting to see "Gandalf" or "Magneto" on stage.

Oh, darn, instead they got a world-class performance by a truly brilliant actor -- Sir Ian McKellen.

BONNI K. BORAN, MINNEAPOLIS

COVERING SARKOZY

A bashing by the media

When Nicolas Sarkozy replaced Jacques Chirac as president of France, there resulted a "French defection" by America's mainstream media. Chirac was a reliable basher of everything American. Sarkozy is an unapologetic admirer of America.

The Star Tribune trumpeting of a Sarkozy bad day in the Oct. 19 paper illustrates the mainstream media's drumming of Sarkozy -- until he is no longer president of France.

GENE DELAUNE, NEW BRIGHTON

PRAISING POHLAD

He's undeserving of it

The Oct. 17 editorial "Credit Carl Pohlad for final stadium push" starts "For more than a decade, the Minnesota Twins and owner Carl Pohlad have faced one significant hurdle after another in their efforts to build a new stadium."

It should have read "For more than a decade, the Minnesota Twins and owner Carl Pohlad have faced one significant hurdle after another in their efforts to have the taxpayers of Hennepin County build them new stadium."

PETER GOELZER, MINNEAPOLIS

Supersized docks

A reasonable solution

There is a simple, market-based solution to the problem of large docks extending over public waters (Star Tribune, Oct. 13).

The state should institute a "public waters user fee." The fee would be based on the square footage of the dock extending over public waters -- the larger the dock, the higher the fee. The fee would be analogous to boat fees. The money collected from a "public waters users fee" would be dedicated to funding improving water quality.

Docks over public waters are essentially converting a public asset to private use. It is fair and equitable that the dock owners should pay the citizens of Minnesota, who are the public water owners, for the privilege of that use.

WILLIAM WESTERDAHL, EDINA