BRIDGE COLLAPSE

Action needed before more tragedies occur

The recent Washington State bridge collapse is another reminder of what we can expect with more frequency if we continue to neglect our aging infrastructure ("Agency reports progress on collapsed Wash. bridge," May 29). One of these days it will be another serious catastrophe that will take more lives and seriously injure large numbers of people. What will it take for our elected officials to pay closer attention to this huge domestic crisis? Do we have to wait for a titanic disaster before our elected officials respond with a meaningful and comprehensive program to repair or replace our crumbling roads and bridges?

DAVE SEMERAD, St. Paul
Invasive species

DNR must clean up launches to stop spread

The money spent by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on boating enforcement won't help to stop invasive species until boat launches are cleaned up. Everywhere I go, launch sites are choked with weeds. Launching your boat causes large amounts of weeds to end up all over the trailer. Short of lifting the boat off the trailer, there is really no practical way to get all the weeds off. Yet, if an inspector with a flashlight can spot a weed anywhere on your trailer, it's a fine. Clean up the launches, and then see if spreading of invasives slows or stops.

JOHN C. THOMAS, Oak Park Heights
SARA JANE OLSON

Championing another misguided cause

Sara Jane Olson — the name jumped out at me ("Ex-con Sara Jane Olson wants to help prisoners," May 26). Years ago, she joined the Symbionese Liberation Army, known for kidnapping heiress Patty Hearst. She was involved with bombs and bank heists. She says they were misguided. She still is. She equates cocaine and crack as social-status problems. The only similarity is cocaine can be addictive; crack is immediately addictive and nearly impossible to break away from. It has ruined lives of individuals and destroyed families. Someone I know was lucky: It only took him three times in jail to break the addiction. It also preys on minorities by getting kids involved with selling it to others who are hooked on it and no longer have their self-respect. It is an insidious drug that enriches greedy criminals at the cost of human lives. There is one thing that should be changed, though. Allow for parole in the federal court system so that we don't create more career criminals and at enormous taxpayer expense. Think harder, Sara, you may learn something.

WILLIAM DARUSMONT, Excelsior
SIBLING DUTY

Advice on how to help a disabled family member

All adults with disabled siblings should dig up the article "Sibling duty" (May 26). There are huge nuggets of information about how to deal with growing responsibility as well as how to enhance these often difficult relationships. It's too late for me (my sister died last year), but this article could be invaluable to many.

SUE KEARNS, Minneapolis
GUN VIOLENCE

Make legislation a Minnesota priority

Thanks for the editorial statements about the continuing need for legislation to prevent gun violence ("Setting priorities for the 2014 Legislature," May 26). One important step forward that the editorial didn't mention was that a bipartisan majority supported strengthening the background-check system by voting for $1 million funding to provide missing records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). In voting to improve NICS, these legislators have shown that they believe in background checks; now they must address the gaping holes of sales outside that system, including those over the Internet and at gun shows. In revisiting legislation to prevent gun violence, our legislators also have an important opportunity to limit the sale of military-grade weapons such as high-capacity magazines and assault weapons. These weapons of war don't belong in our communities.

JENNIE GREEN, Minneapolis
MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA

Competitive wages attract good musicians

In all the discussion about the Minnesota Orchestra labor dispute, the element that's missing is simply this: The orchestra must pay competitive wages to attract the best musicians. All orchestral musicians, whether veterans or newcomers, are keenly aware of the minimum salaries in the various orchestras, and they are not going to audition for an orchestra that pays substandard wages. Comparisons to college professors and those in other professions are meaningless. The Minnesota Orchestra has been able to attract world-class musicians because it has paid wages comparable to other ensembles in its wage class.

MERRIMON HIPPS JR., Eden Prairie
BLOOD ALCOHOL

A lower limit shouldn't bother some drivers

I don't understand why people are concerned about lowering the blood alcohol limit from 0.08 to 0.05. Surely if you are capable of operating a motor vehicle safely at or in excess of 0.05, you won't need to worry about being pulled over.

LAUREN CIECHANOWSKI, Minneapolis