Readers Write for Sunday, Dec. 27

Polls keep showing Americans do want health care reform, yet the GOP continues to try to derail it.

It is obvious the party is only trying to stir up fodder for use in mid-term election ads against the Democrats and Republicans who don't toe the line exactly as party officials dictate it.

BECKY CARPENTER, MINNEAPOLIS

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If a lobbyist bribes a senator to change his vote, it is a crime. So what is it if the Senate majority leader bribes a fellow senator to change his vote?

Sen. Harry Reid gave Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska a 100 percent exemption for his state's increase in Medicaid costs associated with the Senate's health care bill. At least 46 other states will have to pick up the whole tab for Nebraska (there were three other states that required votes being bought by Reid). How can you have "equal justice under the law" when the law is not equally applied in each state and it was passed with a bribe?

DAN NYE, EDINA

Crossroads has worked tirelessly over the years on children's behalf. Crossroads was both supportive and professional in the adoption of our child; its officials were meticulous in knowing and implementing the legal aspects of the adoption, and worked closely with the country of birth and its legal process. In this season of "giving," why doesn't the reporter expand his focus to include stories about the many wonderful children who have been adopted by many wonderful parents?

BILL FORISHA, MINNEAPOLIS

I look forward to my Star Tribune each Sunday so I can find out what Nick Coleman is dead-set against. In his Dec. 20 column, it was building a new Vikings stadium "for Zygi Wilf." Never mind that millions of Vikings fans in the five-state area want the team to stay in Minnesota. Coleman cannot get beyond the fact that Zygi Wilf is a billionaire.

I can't help but think that the Twin Cities would look a lot like 1950s-era Moscow if we listened to voices like Coleman's over the years. Thankfully, there were individuals who found ways to ensure that destinations like the Guthrie, Target Field, TCF Bank Stadium and the Xcel Energy Center became reality. The Twin Cities are a better place to live because of them.

I fully understand that these are difficult economic times; however, there are creative ways to raise money for a stadium without affecting other, admittedly more important areas, such as education and social welfare. Not retaining the Vikings is a decision that the people of this state would regret for a long, long time.

As a Jew who loves Christmas because we celebrate Peace on Earth and Good Will to Man, I believe Garrison Keillor's Dec. 20 column has it wrong. He is narrowing the Christmas spirit to Christians who celebrate the birth of Christ. This is a democracy which celebrates the widest inclusion. That is our strength.

MARILYN GORLIN, GOLDEN VALLEY

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When I realized years ago that "White Christmas" was written by Irving Berlin, a Jew, I reasoned that Berlin was joining with those of my Catholic faith, and all other Christians, in honoring a holiday that had spread beyond our religious observance.

I guess if I were a Lutheran or a Catholic in small-town outstate Minnesota I could resent the fact that Garrison Keillor has made a fortune celebrating my lovable quaintness, even though he's a native of the Twin Cities seven-county mosquito-control district who was raised in a fundamentalist Christian family and turned Lutheran later.