Readers Write for Saturday, Dec. 5

Recently on a tour of Minnesota, owner Zygi Wilf referred to the Vikings as the fans' team. Why not truly make it the fans' team by selling 49 percent of the ownership of the team to the public?

A Vikings IPO for 49 percent of its Forbes estimated value would conservatively bring in $409 million. In past the figure of the NFL/ Wilf contribution would be around $250 million. Considering that the new stadium on the Metrodome site would cost about $853 million, about $200 million would still be needed. If the Vikings borrow the remainder from the state, they could own the new stadium outright and have a much stronger revenue stream for the future, not to mention the morale booster the public ownership will bring to the fan base.

IAN STADE, MINNEAPOLIS

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As a person living with disability, I have to ask my representative payee if I will go without this month if I buy a treat.

The Vikings fans, who eat whatever they want, can buy all sorts of Christmas presents, can work and get promotions, who don't get their paychecks and have to give half of it back because they made too much, never mind how much their housing costs are, have to ask their representative payee for a treat, too. Those payees say that they really would like to build a new stadium, but what about the huge deficit?

The poor of Minnesota say please don't build a new stadium on our already shrunken backs!

The legal team representing Tom Petters wants us all to think about the good their client did -- contributing generously to charities.

Does this mean they are proposing that we should all steal from others and give a small percentage of what we steal to charities?

GORDON JORGENSON,

NORTHFIELD, MINN.

My research indicates that Minnesota ranks 21st in state population, just after its neighbor, Wisconsin, and just before the geographically large and diverse state of Colorado.

Minnesotans love government, as evidenced by the plethora of municipalities and city governments in our metropolitan area. In today's world of budgetary deficits but better communications via the Internet, etc., I suggest that it is high time we greatly reduced the size of our Legislature. After that is done, I suggest we take a hard look at consolidating city governments in the metro area.

JEROME S. RICE, PRESCOTT, WIS.;

MINNEAPOLIS LAWYER

Doesn't anyone understand that the majority of the $1 trillion "cost of war" over the past decade was spent here in the United States?

The money spent on trucks, uniforms, MREs, bottled water, munitions, uniforms, contracts with Halliburton, etc., was all expended in the United States. That "stimulus" supported millions of domestic jobs. (It may also led to the unsupportable financial bubble.)

THOMAS HOFFMANN, EDINA

The writer of the "Why I Hunt" article (Opinion Exchange, Nov. 29) claims that "hunting is better for wildlife than not to hunt at all." His sole evidence for this involves bears in China. Here in North America, we have a record of hunting some species, such as the buffalo and wolf, to the brink of extinction. A small remnant of their original numbers remains only because hunting of these animals was stopped.

Like other hunters, the writer likes to believe he is engaging in a struggle that is a part of nature. Where is the struggle in driving hundreds of miles in an SUV, climbing up to a stand in a tree and waiting for an animal to walk by so you can kill it with a big rifle? This is no more a part of nature than a bright orange jacket is a part of a forest.

When indigenous people hunted, they indeed were a part of nature and its struggles. They looked near their homes for meat they needed to feed their families. They took no more than they could use. They were interested in survival, not a "thought-provoking" challenge.

In modern times, we live by agriculture and the cattle industry. Going out for a few weekends a year to kill a wild animal you could easily survive without hardly makes someone more attuned to nature.

BILL CUTLER, STILLWATER

As a commercial pilot and flight instructor, and a former charter pilot, I agree with Karen Workman's Nov. 29 column, "The corporate jet is not evil. It's practical." I know firsthand how powerful a tool an airplane can be in the furtherance of a business.

I am also a playwright, and as such, am a critic of the written word. A common mistake in Workman's article was noted: a mistake I have seen in several bestselling novels as well. Unless your name is Erik the Bike Man, you probably do not "peddle" your bicycle. The word is "pedal."

A purportedly funny bumper sticker about town says, "Don't honk, I'm peddling as fast as I can." My vision, whenever I see this sticker is, "Hurry! Buy Now! Time is wasting!"