Netlets for Sunday, May 11

The Great Commuter Challenge on Monday is a good way to focus on alternative transportation modes -- a race between Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak on a bike, the Star Tribune's Road Guy in a car and Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter on foot and transit.

They will race from Merriam Park in St. Paul to the Central Library in downtown Minneapolis, and the publicity says "The outcome is certain keep you on the edge of your seat!"

Isn't it a shame that when they get to the Central Library, they will find it closed, as it is every Monday? What an embarrassing bit of publicity for Minneapolis and Hennepin County.

JULIA WALLACE, MINNEAPOLIS

Minnesota: We don't love winners

The headline "Together We Ride" (Opinion Exchange, May 4) caught my eye enough for me to actually read Jennifer Imsande's article due to my interest in bicycling. I was bemused when, halfway through the column, reasons for and advantages of riding a paceline were construed into why we should vote for Democrats and support her liberal ideal society.

Imsande fails to realize that, even in the team-oriented sport of cycling, there are winners and losers. Just ask Lance Armstrong and Minnesota's own, Greg LeMond.

Ideally, a cycling team works feverishly to get the team "leader" across the finish line first, often expending its members much like stages of a rocket. Hmmm. Not everyone is a winner here. In fact, some don't even make it to the finish line.

Does Imsande ever wonder why major corporations, small businesses, and in general, people with capital/money are leaving the state? It's because in Minnesota, winners are no longer allowed. We are all doomed to different degrees of mediocrity based on the failures of those around us. Even scarier is the fact that her position as a university educator so easily enables her to push her views on her students. More taxes, please!

R. LASKY, STILLWATER

Don't confuse God and country

A May 4 letter writer wonders if Barack Obama has a spine if he "couldn't take a stand for America in his church and allowed his pastor to defame his country." I would like to remind the writer that church members go to church to worship God, not country.

The church has no business promoting the nation any more than it should promote one political candidate over another. Patriotism is not a test of faith for Christians. Jesus was not an American any more than Moses was an Israeli. People of faith can be patriotic, but we make a serious mistake if we think God and country are in any way the same.

THE REV. JAN LINN, LAKEVILLE

Her last Kentucky Derby

My grandfather, a white-collar Damon Runyon character, spent his leisure time visiting the tracks up and down the East Coast. On Derby Day, we all watched the race, and my mother had her annual consultation with Grandpa's bookie. I took riding lessons and collected Breyer horses. My husband and I got engaged at a steeplechase race.

So, the world of the thoroughbred is not unfamiliar to me. At the track, we'd admire them in the paddock and marvel at them in the stretch. The horses were our sports heroes. We wept over Ruffian, celebrated Secretariat and followed the story of Barbaro.

On Saturday, May 3, home alone, I toasted the ghosts of my mother and grandfather and settled down to sing along and watch the race. Big Brown was scarcely past the finish when the TV cameras showed us the horse ambulances that pulled up to surround Eight Belles and shield her death from our eyes.

I watched the replays and saw something else, albeit with an admittedly untrained eye. I shut off the TV and thought. It is our obsession with the race that has bred this questionable balance of the will to run, the thundering weight of muscle and four thin legs. We're taken it too far, and the animals are literally breaking under the burden of our greed.

It's a magnificent spectacle, in person or on TV. But I am done with horse racing.

MARY-HOLLIS ROSS, MINNETONKA

In Minnesota, Reading First is a success

As the administrator of the only nonpublic school privileged to be one the 24 participating in round two of the Minnesota Reading First program from 2005-2008, I can attest to the fact that Reading First has resulted in dramatic improvement in our students' reading comprehension skills and scores.

What the May 2 Star Tribune article did not make clear was the fact that each state had the opportunity to develop and implement its own model for Reading First, and Minnesota wisely chose to have its program developed and directed by Dr. Barbara Taylor, a nationally recognized reading researcher from the University of Minnesota. As a result, the Minnesota model was rigorous, research-based and data-driven. Minnesota can, in fact, demonstrate that there has been a statistically significant increase in student comprehension scores at its Reading First schools as compared to demographically similar non-Reading First schools.

I can also attest to the fact that there has been an extremely high degree of accountability in the Minnesota program. Minnesota Department of Education personnel scrutinized all budgets and spending in order to ensure that funds were used appropriately. At no time was there a hint of "corruption" in the program, nor were we ever steered toward certain favored programs or products.

Education policy and funding need to be based on research and reason, not on politics or partisanship. It would be a grave disservice to the children who need it the most (those in poverty, English language learners, students of color, etc.) if this program is discontinued due to bureaucratic misconduct or partisan wrangling, as they will, once again, be the ones who lose out on the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

HELEN DAHLMAN, PRESIDENT, RISEN CHRIST SCHOOL, MINNEAPOLIS