Letters to the editor for Monday, April 14

TWINS CONCESSIONS

Why not a MN vendor?

I find it disconcerting that the Minnesota Twins have awarded the concession contract for its new ballpark to a company based in Buffalo, N.Y. (Star Tribune, April 9).

With a good portion of the new stadium being financed with tax-based dollars, shouldn't the taxpayers of this state expect that the concessions contract would be awarded to a Minnesota company?

SCOTT VICKERS, WEST ST. PAUL

Pursuing Teen shoppers

And their aging parents

As if kids weren't being manipulated by marketing enough, Piper Jaffray is using them to court their baby-boomer parents (and their parents' retirement funds) under the guise of "career day" ("Meet the retail arbiters," April 9 Business).

Why would Piper Jaffray be interested in these teenagers' opinions? After all, most teens have grown up on a diet of Gap, Hollister and American Eagle. Seventeen billion dollars a year is spent convincing kids that their worth is based on what they look like, what they wear and where they buy it.

When Piper Jaffray sends them to the mall, the teen researchers' minds have already been made up for them.

It's more likely that Piper Jaffray is banking on enthusiastic kids to go home and tell their parents all about their day at school. And when it's time for those parents to invest their retirement dollars, perhaps they will remember.

That's how marketing works.

LISA M. RAY, MINNEAPOLIS

CENTRAL CORRIDOR

Guv's irresponsible veto

I question Gov. Tim Pawlenty's assertion that his veto of light-rail funding is fiscally responsible.

Minnesota will lose $455 million in federal matching grants that could be leveraged with a $70 million long-term loan at today's rock-bottom interest rates. Most of this money would be spent locally between now and 2014, generating jobs and state tax revenue.

RICHARD ADAIR, MINNEAPOLIS

An April 11 letter writer is the first to really identify the real reason for the governor's recent line-item vetoes: The DFL-controlled Legislature totally ignored two items in the Pawlenty administration's submission -- namely, the new Minnesota Veterans Home and the new state park in Vermilion.

The only realistic course of action left to our governor was the line-item veto. As I learned in business many years ago, one needs to figuratively take a 2 x 4 between another's eyes to get their attention if they continue to ignore you. The line item veto was such a 2 x 4.

I suggest the DFL-controlled Legislature, the St. Paul DFL mayor and City Council and Minneapolis mayor stop their whining. They can, instead, focus on a supplemental bonding bill that includes the Minnesota Veterans Home and the new state park in Vermilion as well as the Central Corridor light-rail transit line (which I personally do not support), and our governor will sign the supplemental bonding bill.

MIKE DOWNING, WHITE BEAR LAKE

EARLY RETIREMENT

It's well-earned

In response to Andrew L. Yarrow's April 7 column "Early retirement is an act of selfishness": I bet that Yarrow, professor at American University, has tenure. I bet that he decides how many classes to teach per year. Somehow, I bet he manages more than two weeks off annually.

I've worked in the highly touted but lowly paid field of human services for the past 30-plus years. Add to that years of community volunteering. I do not have the benefits of tenure, or sabbaticals or choosing just how much work I want to do. Mr. Yarrow, come age 65, I am taking that retirement with no regrets. This isn't selfishness, this is deferred compensation.

DIANE W. CARR, NEW HOPE;

ONCOLOGY SOCIAL WORKER

GLOBAL WARMING

Beware health effects

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is right to draw attention to the health impacts of global warming (news article, April 10). According to the World Health Organization, global warming is already claiming an estimated 150,000 lives each year. As temperatures continue to increase, so will illnesses and deaths from heat waves, air pollution, the spread of infectious diseases and extreme weather.

In the Twin Cities global warming threatens to cause more frequent and severe heat waves, which will increase the number of people, especially the elderly and the poor, who suffer from heat stress and stroke.

To protect future generations from the worst effects of global warming, Congress must act to reduce global warming pollution from cars, coal-fired power plants and other sources, while jump-starting the transition to a clean energy economy.

This spring, the Senate is slated to consider the Climate Security Act. Sen. Amy Klobuchar should continue supporting strengthening this global warming bill so that it cuts pollution at the pace that the science says is necessary -- reducing emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 -- and invests in the clean energy economy rather than lavishing billions on polluting industries.

MONIQUE SULLIVAN,

MINNESOTA FIELD ORGANIZER,

ENVIRONMENT AMERICA, MINNEAPOLIS

COPS AND STUN GUNS

They know how it feels

This is in response to the April 10 letter writer who suggests that Tasers be "tested" on the makers and users of this device.

My brother graduated from the Alexandria Technical College Law Enforcement program.

In the second year of training they were Tasered, pepper-sprayed and handcuffed during separate sessions to show what it feels like so they don't run around randomly "assaulting" people with their equipment.

These devices are being tested on their users!

MICHELLE NIMBACH, CLARISSA, MINN.

HOW PRESIDENTS GOVERN

This time, take note

It seems that George Will hasn't made connections between the troubles we're in as a nation and the governing style of our current president.

In his column on Sen. John McCain (Opinion Exchange, April 6), Will cited McCain's belief that whatever his instincts tell him is honorable must be so and those who disagree must be dishonorable.

This, said Will, doesn't matter much "as long as it is kept separate from governing."

How on earth does that happen, Mr. Will?

Consider President Bush, whose governing style seems to be based on, rather than separated from, an unquestioning belief that he is right and those who disagree are against what is right. And look where that has gotten us.

SUSAN THOMPSON, OTTERTAIL, MINN.