Letters to the editor for March 5, 2009

Regarding the discussions about whether the Minneapolis Park Board should remain a separate entity: Isn't there a possibility that hasn't been presented? Why not put the Park Board under the umbrella of the Three Rivers Park District, which is highly successful and well-administered? Among other advantages, it would recognize that Minneapolis parks are used by county as well as city residents.

We've done it with the libraries. Why not with the parks?

NANCY NEWMAN, MINNEAPOLIS

I'd like to respond to the March 3 letter "Obama forces doctors into moral quandary." I have evidence -- my own eyes -- to challenge your statement. I trained in a Catholic hospital where people came for help with birth control issues. Catholic doctors always had the freedom to say that they couldn't supply what these patients were asking for.

But the public hospital didn't have such restrictions, and patients could seek the help they needed.

If you have religious beliefs, why would you seek employment at a place where you might be forced to deal with such issues? I wonder if people who do aren't trying to create an issue!

Birth control is necessary and should be available to anyone who feels the need for it.

GOLDEN VALLEY

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I'm an emergency medical technician (EMT), and, like most people, look for any way to make my job a bit easier. So I am all for this idea of professionals such as pharmacists being able to decide not to prescribe birth control pills because of religious beliefs. Taken to its ultimate end, this means I get to refuse a fair number of patients.

As a mainline Protestant, I have disagreements with Catholics, Jews and Muslims. No treatment for them. I can ignore the couple who lives together without being married. The gay patient? Be serious! And don't bother calling 911 if you're (gasp) agnostic or atheist; I'm certainly not showing up.

Yes, my job would be easier, but it wouldn't be the job I was educated for and was hired to do. And how silly would I look trying to be that kind of "professional"?

Our governor is a one-trick pony: tax cuts. The federal dollars have left our budget "only" $4.57 billion short, and future years will be without those federal dollars. The Minnesota tax cuts were obviously wrong and clearly not sustainable. Tightening our state's belt and the governor compromising on tax cuts are both absolutely necessary.

LEN SCHAKEL, LAKELAND

It's laudable that Hennepin County is working toward a green goal (Star Tribune, Feb. 25), but at what cost? The solar roof being installed on the county media facility costs $900,000, producing an annual cost saving of $15,000. At this rate the investment will take 60 years to pay back the initial cost.

Solar panels may produce sexy PR, but they don't make good business sense. I suggest the county look closer at conservation measures that can produce a practicable return in investment and don't send more U.S. dollars to China.

GARY CARLSON, COON RAPIDS

Talking tough and criticizing all of the above may play well to the ignorant masses, but in reality it serves no purpose but to anger those who the economy depends on to prosper.

Like it or not, big money drives the U.S. economy. If Obama insists on alienating that demographic, they'll simply take their ball and go home, leaving the rest of society a first-hand view of the very Depression the president loves to warn about.

KARL KLASSNER, LAKEVILLE

In his Feb. 26 counterpoint ("Why taxing top incomes is not folly"), Wayne Cox advances two canards often deployed by those seeking higher taxes on "the wealthy."

The first notion is that people in lower-income brackets pay a higher percentage of their income in some form of taxes than "the wealthy" do. This might be true, but this view neglects the fact that because these individuals make too little to pay income taxes, they only pay taxes on discretionary purchases (e.g., sales taxes on nonnecessities). The rate someone chooses to pay in taxes should never be used to justify what ought to be taken by force from others by the government.

A serious discussion is needed with regard to government spending and taxation, not to mention the appropriate role of government in the lives of individuals. With arguments such as his, Cox and his allies add nothing to that discussion.

KYLE CHRISTENSEN, FARMINGTON

For liberals to claim that Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly represent the Republican Party (Letter of the Day, March 3) would be like conservatives claiming that Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews represent the Democratic Party.

DOUG CLEMENS, BLOOMINGTON

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Using the same logic makes Michael Moore the face of the Democratic Party.

Locally for me, newly elected state Rep. Keith Downey, state Sen. Geoff Michel, newly elected U.S. Rep. Erik Paulson and Gov. Tim Pawlenty are the proud faces of the GOP. Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan couldn't be prouder.

FRANK JOHNSON, EDINA

Legislators, you folks have time to get the job done! Quit screwing around! No pay for overtime! We don't have the money!