Letters to the editor for Tuesday, May 6, 2008

MALL SUBSIDY

See the big picture

Star Tribune columnist James Lileks doesn't get it ("Stores galore! But what of MOA parking ramp?", April 24). The state's role in authorizing the expansion of Mall of America has little to do with a parking ramp. People don't get on a plane in Europe to come visit a parking ramp in Minnesota.

The public contribution for public parking infrastructure allows the full private investment in the project to go forward, making the attraction something people from all over the world will continue to want to come and see.

The reality is that projects of this magnitude don't happen without some public involvement. Nearly every significant project in the past 20 years was made possible by a similar combination of public and private investment, including the Guthrie Theater, the Minneapolis Convention Center, Cabela's, the Blaine National Sports Center and the list goes on.

Lileks states that the mall is basically building a house and asking the state to pay for its floors. I say if that house employs 14,000 Minnesotans, generates millions in tax revenue and attracts cash-carrying tourists to our state, then we might want to consider throwing in the drapes too.

DAVID YBARRA II, BROOKLYN PARK;

BUSINESS MANAGER, MINNEAPOLIS BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL

'grand theft auto iv'

It's just a game

Congratulations to Katherine Kersten on the editing job she did in her Sunday column on "Grand Theft Auto IV." She quoted one viewer of the game as saying, "[T]eenage boys of America," wrote one reviewer, "... you can still kill and maim and plunder and screw until your heart is full," but now "the violence is no longer cartoonish."

It would have been nice if she had printed the quote in its entirety. "Yes, concerned teenage boys of America, if your parents are irresponsible enough to let you get your hands on this, you can still kill and maim and plunder and screw until your heart is full. But there's a difference this time: The violence is no longer cartoonish. Shoot an innocent bystander, and you see his face contort in agony. He'll clutch at the wound and begin to stagger away, desperately seeking safety. After just scratching the surface of the game -- I played for part of a day; it could take 60 hours to complete the whole thing -- I felt unnerved. What makes Grand Theft Auto IV so compelling is that, unlike so many video games, it made me reflect on all of the disturbing things I had done."

It's so much easier to strip out the complexities and view everything as black and white, huh?

By the way, I'm a 32-year-old father of two with a happy marriage and great kids and I play Grand Theft Auto. My kids are thriving in school and are some of the most well-behaved you can find. My wife and I are celebrating 11 years of marriage bliss this year and still going strong. It's ridiculous to think just because I commit violent acts in a video game, it degrades my moral character or that I will do something violent in real life.

JOSHUA NICHOLS, NEW HOPE

GAS TAX HOLIDAY

How about year-long?

Usually, the argument that it's only $.26 a day or it's only $1.83 a week is made by liberals when they are about to incrementally raise our taxes. We the taxpayers will not notice the loss of such small change from our pockets.

Now, they are using the same argument to dismiss the proposed gas tax holiday. The savings will be so insignificant that we will not notice any benefit.

If the savings will be so insignificant as to not make a difference for taxpayers, then surely the government will not miss the lost revenue. Let's reduce the federal gas tax permanently. I'll bet we'll notice then.

LOWELL JOHNSON, BLOOMINGTON

MILES BANNED FROM CHURCH

Ignoring the real torture

In his May 2 column, Nick Coleman wrote about the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis disinviting Dr. Steven Miles from giving an anti-torture speech in a church because of Miles' pro-choice stance.

So Miles is against torturing our sworn enemies -- even to save the lives of untold innocents -- but thinks nothing of the torture suffered daily by thousands of innocent human babies within their mothers' wombs.

Miles said, "Torture causes women to abort at a horrendous rate, and people who have been tortured are much more likely to commit suicide." This is true. It is also true that the torture of abortion is a never-ending torture for the mothers, fathers and others involved.

That is why abortion opponents say, "Abortion -- one dead, one (at least) wounded."

Miles was right when he said, "America is becoming a torturing society." Why did he exclude the torture and death of our tiniest and most innocent human beings?

He'd be welcome in any Catholic Church if he accepted this whole truth. You cannot be Catholic and be pro-choice.

BARBARA JOHNSTON, ST LOUIS PARK

The Catholic Church's theological teaching that abortion harms life is fine with me. But I am terribly concerned about the church's political teachings on abortion. On Sunday it disallowed Dr. Steve Miles, who happens to be an advocate for safe, legal abortion, from speaking about torture at St. Joan of Arc Church.

The facts are clear. Abortions happen everywhere, both where it is illegal and where it is legal. Where it is illegal some studies show that it occurs more often. As the church can't stop abortion from happening, the political choice for the church is to either be on the political side of safe, legal abortions and to minimize them, or to be on the political side of dangerous, illegal abortions and to have more of them. Unfortunately, the church is on the side that is more harmful to life.

PAUL ROZYCKI, MINNEAPOLIS