Letters to the editor for April 8, 2009

For more than 6,000 years, marriage has been between one male and one female! That has been a bedrock of family and civil society, under which civilization has flourished and has seen contentment.

Now for the sake of a minuscule segment of society, we are going to throw all of this out the window?

WILLIAM EATON, BROOKLYN PARK

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It was wonderful to unfold the Star Tribune on Saturday and see a beautiful family from Iowa on the front page. The joy they were experiencing at that exciting moment filled my heart with emotion. Precious families like theirs exist in every state in this country. There are families with two moms or two dads raising beautiful children everywhere. We must decide if we are going to treat them with equality and justice for all. Iowa will now be a state that truly lives our American ideals.

RANDI REITAN, EDEN PRAIRIE

I agree with Archbishop John Nienstedt's position on the invitation by Notre Dame to the president to speak at the university. President Obama's positions on embryonic stem-cell research, abortion, contraception and the Freedom of Choice Act are contrary to all that is Catholic.

RALPH STRABLEY, COON RAPIDS

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So why am I not surprised? St. Joan of Arc, St. Stephens, Holy Angels Academy and now Notre Dame. Archbishop Nienstedt has fit the image of the conservative in priest's garb.

Why isn't the hierarchy talking about the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick? This is where the heart of Jesus lay. To be so narrow-minded and "one-issue" focused is beyond my comprehension.

MARY LU JACKSON, BLOOMINGTON

She has made a very calculated decision that, in these uncertain and challenging times for our country, she can gain power by appealing to the basest fears and hatreds in a jittery populace. It is tragically ironic that, on the same day the Star Tribune published its puff piece on Bachmann giving "passionate voice to conservative alarm," it also reported the unspeakable news that an "armed and dangerous" gunman in Pittsburgh ambushed and killed three police officers before killing himself. A friend he called during the siege reported that the gunman was afraid of Obama's (nonexistent) plan to take away his guns and his rights.

Guess what? The right-wing myth that Obama is going to take away people's guns is a creation of the same right-wing myth machine that pedals the "one world currency" canard.

It is a testament to the state of the Republican Party in Minnesota in 2009 that this type of irresponsible rhetoric is coming out of one of its leaders.

PATRICIA BLOODGOOD, MINNEAPOLIS

So President Obama states that we are not at war with Islam. A small reminder to our commander in chief: Some of the most heinous crimes perpetrated against humanity -- 9/11, the Bali nightclub bombings, the Madrid train massacre and the London Underground devastation -- were committed by followers of Islam.

PAUL A. TRILL, GLENWOOD, MINN.

The Tuesday letter writer who asks lower-income smokers to remember who imposed the higher cigarette taxes should be informed that the extra money will go to pay for the health insurance of another 4 million children under S-CHIP -- perhaps even the children of some of those same lower-income people. Perhaps even the letter writer's children.