SOTOMAYOR NOMINATION

She left her old life a long time ago

Your May 27 editorial seems to be based upon a dream, not a reality. Sonia Sotomayor has spent the last 36 years training at the elite East Coast Ivy League universities of Princeton and Yale, a short stint working at a prestigious New York law firm, a lifetime appointment to a federal district court, and then to another lifetime seat as a judge in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. She long ago lost her "roots" to the common folk.

Her only difference from the other liberal members of the Supreme Court is that she is of Puerto Rican descent. The rest of her story is Madison Avenue propaganda for the masses.

DAVID TEICHER, PLYMOUTH

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I am thrilled to hear that President Obama nominated a Latina to the Supreme Court. Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States and yet have been unrepresented. If Sonia Sotomayor gets appointed, Latinos will finally a powerful voice in American politics!

I hope Sotomayor does as much for the Latino community as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall did for the black community.

TRAVIS SMITH, EDEN PRAIRIE

OBAMA AT NOTRE DAME

Not all speech is welcomed

In the May 21 editorial regarding President Obama's visit to Notre Dame, the Star Tribune mentions "values that colleges and universities hold dear, such as free speech and informed critical thinking." I suppose you can't be blamed for not noticing how wrong that statement is since all of your opinions have complete freedom.

But if you wanted to point out the adverse morbidity and mortality of homosexual activity or question molecules-to-man evolution by random changes in DNA, you would realize that the political-correctness thought police and closed-club academic herd do not promote thinking outside the box.

ROSS S. OLSON, MINNEAPOLIS

MEMORIAL DAY

Airport gesture to vets doesn't go unnoticed

I would like to thank U.S. Customs at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for setting up a special line for American veterans from all wars and their families on Memorial Day. It was very much appreciated.

TOM MALKOVICH, GILBERT, MINN.

THE AUTO BAILOUT

Billions later, we're right where we started

After tens of billions of dollars spent to save GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy, these two companies have succumbed to what was inevitable at the beginning of the crisis. What have we as taxpayers gained as the result of spending these billions? We are now proud owners of two companies that will be permanent wards of the state that can only survive with continued taxpayer funding.

These companies have been so damaged that they will never be able to compete again in the consumer and financial marketplace.

A company can only survive if it produces products people want to buy. Will this happen with their new owners or will the final insult be that we will be forced to buy products from these companies in order to keep them viable?

WESLEY SUND, EDEN PRAIRIE

VETO OF BULLYING BILL

Future Republicans, start your harassment

Well, of course Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed the bullying bill. If junior high bullies can't get practice beating up on poor kids, foreign kids and kids perceived to be gay, how will they ever become right-wing politicians?

BEN WEISS, ST. PAUL