Netlets for Sunday, Dec. 30

I'm writing this after having arrived home safely from a trip to the in-laws in Apple Valley for Christmas Day.

I thought it important to give a big thank you to all the snowplow drivers who left their families and friends early to make our roads safer to travel. We saw many plow drivers along our way. Thank you for all your good work all winter long and especially on days when you'd rather be home with your family!

CINDY SHERMAN, RAMSEY

The way Pawlenty designed it Regarding the Dec. 23 article "Where was the MnDOT chief?": When Gov. Tim Pawlenty declared that Carol Molnau could be both lieutenant governor and transportation commissioner, he defined the commissioner's job as part-time. So it should hardly be surprising that she only works at it part-time.

JOHN SHERMAN, MOORHEAD, MINN.

Surviving spouse is punished by Social Security Thanks, Santa. I read your letter published Christmas Day to the readers of the Star Tribune, sent through one of your helpers -- Shawn Philips of Champlin.

You asked for our help this year by us being more open to listening and walking with those in pain. I have listened to many who are similar to the lady you met who is losing her home because her husband died. In losing her husband she lost his income and thereby her home. Unfortunately, Santa, that is exactly what the Social Security program is forcing on those losing a spouse.

Santa, our lawmakers don't seem to want to listen as you have suggested to the pain of so many especially of those on Social Security. They want to lower benefits and change the cost of living scheme so those on Social Security are forced in to even further despair and poverty. Santa, please put in our lawmakers' stockings a plan for Social Security that will assure that "joint" Social Security benefits be maintained as long as either spouse is living. Thanks, Santa. And "to all a good year."

GORDON R. PETERSON, BLOOMINGTON

Maybe the sinful activity belongs to the parent In the name of family harmony and with approval of Archbishop John C. Neinstedt himself (Readers Write, Dec. 22), we as parents are expected to "urge the [child] to reconsider his/her activity" and "pray for his/her conversion," but not "reject his person" if the "activity" is joining an evangelical church after being raised a Catholic, or something the church considers really immoral such as having a homosexual relationship.

But what if the "activity" is failure of parents (with help from church teachings) to accept their children for who they are and were meant to be? This failure has far more damaging consequences for society because children whose parents fail to accept them for who they are struggle their entire lives with guilt and confusion instead of forging ahead and living up to their true potential.

Why is it called "radical honesty and moral integrity" to expect your children to comply to a list of standards of behavior that were defined as "moral" thousands of years ago? I believe this is the problem with most religions today: The "activities" that are defined as immoral by the churches -- homosexual relationships between two caring adults -- aren't nearly as mean or as destructive to our society as the "activities" used to "convert" or "save" the "sinners."

The 42nd Street helpers A Little Miracle on 42nd Street (or at least an everyday act of kindness?) occurred for me on, of all things, Christmas Eve.

I'd gotten word that a friend, who lives alone, had spent the day horribly sick in bed with the flu, so I dashed off in my van with elixirs of saltines, 7-Up, juice and soup, having just made it through the market before its early closing (lucky me). I sped along 42nd Street when, at Portland, the light turned yellow and I braked -- and hit ice, hurtling toward four southbound lanes of heavy traffic. I aimed for the snowbank to my right, and hit it with an explosively powdery, thudding crunch.

I was impossibly stuck, hopelessly mired up to the belly of the van in heavy snow, wedged in with ice chunks. I could not move an inch.

In very short order, cars began to pull over and people emerged with shovels and shoulders to push: a woman with two teenage girls, then a man with a younger man, likely his son, then two men in pick-up trucks. It took all of us 20 minutes to clear enough snow from under the van until one pick-up, with a spare tire to cushion my bumper, was finally able to throttle my van free from the snow pile.

I don't know any of their names, and no doubt they were all in just as much hurry as I was on this Christmas Eve, yet these people all stopped without even being flagged down.

People very often forget that tragedy can happen anywhere, but we are all at our best in the little, kind ways we reach out, stop, and help each other.

And for what it's worth, I should add that this neighborhood in south Minneapolis is not my own, the people who stopped had a range of apparent wealth, and we were all of diverse races.

To those anonymous people, thank you so much. I could not have gotten out of that mess without your generous help. Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to you all, Minneapolis!