Netlets for Thursday, Jan. 10

Your Jan. 4 editorial and Nick Coleman's Jan. 10 column lament the failure of organizations to contribute massive sums of money for celebration of Minnesota's 150th birthday. I am surprised you would expect anything else.

In 1958 Minnesotans were still proud of their state and their heritage. Fifty years later we have been inundated with pseudo-intellectual revisionism whose primary objective has been to denigrate the history of the state and to soil the memory of the pioneers and soldiers who fought and won the Indian wars and developed the state we enjoy today.

Coleman's recent observations about Minnesota's "original sin" of hanging Indians in Mankato as punishment for the indiscriminate slaughter of hundreds of settlers is another dreary attempt to solicit breast beating and groveling for forgiveness for events no on alive today participated in.

Count me out of any birthday celebration for the state; I'm not going to be wearing sackcloth and ashes next May.

JOHN D. SENS, EDEN PRAIRIE

Next time, ask a climate expert As a resident of Minnesota I am proud that we are making every attempt to become the leader in combating climate change and welcome the efforts of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Will Steger to bring visibility to these critical issues.

What pains me, however, is the related comments by "Ely wilderness outfitter" Steve Piragis linking the tree damage from a massive blow-down storm in the BWCA several years go with "climate change" (Star Tribune, Jan. 5).

JIM FOERSTER, BLOOMINGTON; METEOROLOGIST

Here's how to stop those uncontrolled tax increases During 2007 our taxing agencies all said they were happy to slightly reduce tax rates on our home. They neglected to mention that the appraised value of our home increased by over 15 percent (in a year when house values dropped substantially), resulting in a tax increase of 12.5 percent. Does anyone expect these appraised values to decrease in the next few years and reduce our taxes?

This implies that homeowners' taxes are based more on appraised value than on a well thought-out budget. Our elected officials apparently cannot resist spending money that is presented to them when the appraised value of our homes increase.

Fixed-income taxpayers are in danger of being taxed out of their homes with the magnitude of the tax increases seen this year. Increases in evaluation are of no value to homeowners who have no intention of selling their homes, yet their taxes are increased substantially.

How do we put a stop to these uncontrolled tax increases? The first way is to not vote for officials who take their responsibilities so lightly. Better yet, vote for someone who proposes a system to cap increases in real estate taxes. The system used by the state of Florida is a good example of such a system where their tax increases are limited to the rate of inflation or 3 percent, whichever is smaller.

G.A. PATTISON, MINNETRISTA

When the imagination is underdeveloped Huzzah for teachers like Christine Brunkhorst ("Why I assigned reading over the holiday break," Jan. 5) who realize the importance of stimulating imagination in their students.

In his thought-provoking, "Evolution's End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence," Joseph Chilton Pearce makes it abundantly clear that imagination is the basis of thought. How, after all, can one have new thoughts without it?

Pearce cited neurological studies demonstrating that watching TV activates only the most rudimentary brain processes and does not set down new neuron paths in the brain, whereas reading requires the reader to imagine the action, and each story lays down new brain pathways, the building blocks of future thought and imagination.

It may well be that the increasing outbreaks of violence in our society have to do with people who are unable to imagine alternative ways of achieving their goals. They see only one solution, and when it is blocked, they lash out in fury.

The year in sports and values Talk about an indictment of what is wrong with professional sports (and incidentally, our values in general). We begin the football season with a $500,000 fine to New England's Brian Belichick for cheating, and end by rewarding him with Coach of the Year honors for not losing (Sports, Jan. 4). What a great message to all those aspiring young coaches to be.