I was happy to see a milking parlor featured on the front page ("State's dairy farmers brace for prices to sour," Dec. 29), because we see and read so little about the animals, people and places providing our food.

I was surprised to read that I, a consumer, will "benefit" from the anticipated hardship of Minnesota's dairy farmers. The article's tired boilerplate economic language immediately pitted farmers against consumers, when in truth we rely upon each other. Our 4.5-gallon-per-week family stands to save a full (drumroll, please) $7.16 per month if prices go back down to November 2013 levels. Try as I might, I can't see how a $7.16 savings for me justifies the economic uncertainty, cost-cutting, and culling of animals and employees that will become necessary on Minnesota dairy farms.

One final calculation: At our current "high" prices, farmers receive $2.07 for every $3.86 gallon of milk sold. At the article's projected 2015 prices, farmers will receive $1.51 a gallon. Because I hope to continue eating into the foreseeable future, it would "benefit" me as a consumer to provide adequate pay to the farmers who feed me.

Kirsten Bansen Weigle, St. Michael, Minn.
HWY. 212 SHOOTING

Public has a right to see the full video

The Hwy. 212 incident was a tragic event for both the officers involved and the two individuals who lost their lives ("Hwy. 212 shooting detailed," Dec. 24). I am troubled by the decision to have the video of this incident redacted. The justification is a state statute allowing the redaction of material "clearly offensive to common sensibilities." I believe the public's right to know far outweighs potentially offending someone's sensibilities.

The public grants authority to law enforcement to use deadly force under certain circumstances. Law enforcement officers are trusted with many critical powers, but nothing as serious as the taking of a human life. Consequently, it is an action requiring the most complete, open and thorough review. The materials related to understanding these types of incidents should always be made available to the public. The people who grant this authority have an overarching right to be included in the oversight.

Because of the redacted video in this incident, the public was only allowed to see part of the truth. Speculation and rumor can only be eliminated by releasing the full video.

Pat Hinderscheid, Mendota Heights
IMMIGRATION

Dec. 27 commentaries were quite a pair

With no apparent attempt at irony, Chrystia Freeland lauds the success of Canada's multicultural experience by noting that French- and English-speaking members of the country's Parliament have difficulty communicating with each other. Readers of her Dec. 27 commentary ("Follow Canada's example of living in a multicultural, bilingual world") might also be less sanguine about Canada's (and America's) multicultural future if she had informed them that a 1995 referendum on independence for French-speaking Quebec brought Canada to within a hair's breadth of splitting into two separate nations.

Peter D. Abarbanel, Apple Valley

• • •

Ron Hayduk ("The right of noncitizen residents to vote is the suffrage issue of our time," Dec. 27) thinks that we should allow all noncitizens to vote. That would allow illegal immigrants to vote for policies that favor them over U.S. citizens!

He points out that "no taxation without representation" was the rallying cry for the American Revolution. That is true. The patriots who used that phrase were English citizens who paid taxes to England and expected to be represented in Parliament. They weren't people who came into the country illegally and expected to vote.

The policies of the United States should be developed with the welfare of U.S. citizens in mind. The way to ensure that is to continue the policy that one must be a U.S. citizen to vote. People who are interested enough in this country to want to participate politically should become U.S. citizens.

James Brandt, New Brighton
MONEY IN POLITICS

It's the amount, not just who spends it

After reading the Dec. 30 letter "Money in politics: Where it goes just might surprise you," my thought was: Why are we so concerned with what party outspent the other when the real problem is the outrageous amount of money spent on elections?

Without going into deep fact-checking, the figure given for spending by the two major parties, $34 billion and more, in an off-year election no less, is ludicrous.

Let's just allow each party some "rational amount "of equitable public funding.

As for the nearly continuous political TV ads, let's limit them to three months before the election.

Aren't we all frazzled by the incessant bombardment?

Richard Segers, Savage
HOME HEALTH CARE

Consider those in the monetary middle

The recent articles regarding home care workers have been enlightening ("Unchecked Care," Dec. 14 and 28). But there is one side of it that is never shown. I was a caregiver for my husband for nine years — 24/7. It was a challenge. What many people don't understand is that one must have significant assets or money flow, or be completely destitute, in order to access any home health care. Those in the middle of these two spheres do the best they can. It would be interesting to read of those stories as well — of those not wealthy enough to hire caregiving help, but not destitute enough to get it through Medicaid. That group is the biggest that exists — and there is no law, no requirement, no anything that will help any of them.

Sandra Hagglund, South Haven, Minn.
WOMEN IN SPORTS

Star Tribune's laurels should include them

As a longtime advocate of Title IX and equal opportunity for all, I was disappointed to read that the Star Tribune has picked yet another man (Mike Grant) to be "sportsperson of the year" (Dec. 25).

According to the accompanying chart of past winners, since 1998 the newspaper has honored 17 people or teams with this award — 13 times to men and only four times to women.

Is this the message that the Star Tribune wishes to send to its readers — and to our young people?

Please pay more attention to female athletes. They deserve it.

Betty Folliard, Minneapolis

The writer is president of the Women Leadership Coalition as well as a consultant and a former state representative.