Readers write (July 11): Top earners, democracy, religion, social responsibility

At a time when the middle and working classes find it harder and harder to even tread water, while their bosses are becoming wealthier and wealthier by comparison, I found the July 8 article "Top earners cool to paying more" deeply depressing.

When through the benefits of their wealth those who hold the power and make the rules become more and more divorced from the struggles of those who depend on them, that's a dangerous road for our country.

From both pragmatic and moral standpoints, the wealth needs to be shared. If businesses won't do that through truly livable wages, then it should at least happen through taxing supersized salaries.

Greed has always been around, but it's taken awhile for it to be cultivated into the open as a positive value. So now you have people who won't be content with a half-million-dollar job at home when they can move elsewhere to take the same job but pay lower taxes.

Ouch! Part of political and business leadership is to continually cultivate a vision for community, shared responsibility and the sort of compassionate society in which we all thrive best.

JOEL WARNE, PLYMOUTH

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But, I, too, voted for my representative, who won in my Senate district by a lot more votes than the Senator from the letter writer's district. And I also voted for Gov. Mark Dayton, who won the whole state.

Do I now get more representation than the writer? Of course not, because that is not how representative democracy works. It works when all of our elected representatives take their diverse ideas to the Capitol, talk to each other during the legislative session and agree on some compromise that satisfies everyone a little, but none entirely.

ANNE QUINCY, MINNEAPOLIS

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Thank you, Minneapolis! To celebrate our daughter's 50th birthday, three generations of Milwaukee Brewers fans in our family traveled to Minneapolis recently -- our first visit ever. We stayed in the downtown area. I have never seen a city so clean, nor met so many helpful and pleasant people.

We love your new stadium, and we, too, cheer for the Twins when they are playing any other team. A birthday -- and a weekend -- to treasure forever!

MARLENE BUECHEL, VERONA, WIS.

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The attempt of four well-meaning parents to intrude into ACLU's lawsuit against the TiZa charter school based upon their (mis)interpretation of the First Amendment ("TiZA parents rebuffed in by U.S. appeals court," July 8) saddens me because it fails to understand an underlying and important legal principle of an open society -- namely, that all citizens, religious and secular, are protected from the misuse of their tax dollars to fund sectarian instruction whose very nature is exclusionist, not inclusionist.

As a Christian, I applaud parental concern to provide spiritual guidance for their children in a society with many contrary and conflicting values. But the place for this is the home, the temple and voluntary associations, not the school.

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Eric Wieffering's July 3 column ("Putting a friendly face on capitalism") suggests that many corporate social responsibility reports have become "catch-all marketing umbrellas" and, as such, have lost their meaning. Wieffering then cites Altria Group's inclusion in Corporate Responsibility magazine's 100 best corporate citizens as an example.

The magazine's rankings are based on corporate transparency and accountability. Altria and its companies seek to actively participate in resolving societal concerns relevant to their businesses and have taken significant steps to support efforts to prevent underage tobacco use and communicate openly about the health effects of their products. These efforts are described in detail in Altria's new Corporate Responsibility Report found on altria.com.

Tobacco products have been a source of considerable controversy over the years. It is our hope that our companies' efforts, including support for FDA regulation of tobacco products, will help resolve some of this controversy.

As our report shows, whether it's reducing our companies' environmental impact or reducing underage tobacco use, there is more work to be done. While we make progress, we think it's important to provide details about these efforts.

JENNIFER L. HUNTER, RICHMOND, VA.