Letters to the editor for Monday, Dec.3

Public libraries fight to survive, while private owners of sports teams threaten to leave town, much as a petulant child tests the love of her parents by threatening to run away from home. We are fortunate that the love shown to our communities by our public libraries is strong enough to withstand the neglect and ingratitude displayed toward them. Public libraries have been and will remain the anchors of our communities. The fickle nature of the professional sports industry ensures no such guarantee of commitment.

Voters have been clear about their wishes. The Minneapolis Public Library Referendum of 2000 passed overwhelmingly with a 67 percent majority, while the 1999 St. Paul stadium referendum was resoundingly defeated with 58 percent of the vote. Results from a Minneapolis Public Library survey regarding its 2007-2009 budget reveal that nearly 80 percent of respondents favored a property tax increase to fund libraries. Perhaps the most tenacious obstacle libraries face is the refusal of politicians to act on the needs and desires of their constituents.

Tax dollars spent on libraries generate a higher return on investment than public monies wasted on corporate welfare. It is poor public policy to invest heavily in a nonessential industry that returns so little to its community. Our elected officials should instead be investing our money in indispensable library services that have demonstrated enduring societal benefits. Put into perspective, funding public libraries is not only a sensible economic investment; it is, clearly, our best bargain.

SHANDALEE NOVAK, MINNEAPOLIS

Kudos to Michael Osterholm for forthrightly stating that irradiation is the solution to the problem of E. Coli in ground beef (Opinion Exchange, Nov. 24). Despite major efforts by industry and government regulators to control this deadly bug, the problem persists with new recalls reported almost every week.

Recalls have bankrupted several firms. Outbreaks decrease sales and yield a bitter harvest of lawsuits against producers, distributors, grocers and restaurants. One might think that the food industry would embrace irradiation to solely preserve their financial health.

The bigger question, though, is how many more children must end up on kidney dialysis or die before ground beef is routinely irradiated.

MINNESOTA STATE EPIDEMIOLOGIST, 2000-2006

"Should shooting arrows in back yards be legal?" (Nov. 27) brought to mind Luanne Ryan. She was an archer at Riverside Community College in Riverside, Calif., in the '70s. She spent much of her time at RCC shooting, hoping to qualify for the Olympics. She spent some of her time shooting arrows in our adjoining driveway -- a driveway between two houses and two single bedroom cottages further back. We were cautious when she was practicing, all of us friends living in that compound on Larchwood.

Annie Lou qualified for the Olympic Team. Two of us from Austin, Minn., and her brother drove to Montreal where Annie Lou captured a gold medal. She couldn't have done it without that "backyard" driveway.

ROBERT VILT, AUSTIN, MINN.

The Nov. 28 article on child care is telling us that too many children are not ready for kindergarten and day-care providers must be introduced to ways of teaching the children in their care. I agree that children should not be watching TV, as their activity of the day. They must have a nurturing environment, comfortable and happy, where each child knows he or she is wanted and respected. Each child must always have access by phone or in person, ideally, to a parent no matter what. There needs to be enough day-care nurturers to rock children before and after naps, and have good meals and snacks at the ready. After the complete nurturing is taken care of, little play areas, play time, organized activity times come into play.

It seems to me that preschool programs are being aimed more at creating robots, taking care of working parents needs, and the needs of the corporate world, than creating nurtured, secure little people. Nurtured children become positive thinkers and more humanitarian achievers. Is there anything our world needs more of?

MARY OLLERICH, MINNEAPOLIS

Your reporter never understood the reason why 250 people turned out to Minnetonka Community Center on an evening last week for a "listening session." This seems like a boring meeting, but lakeshore residents were fired up! It was not because the city was proposing an environmental "buffer" to the lake (Star Tribune, Nov. 29). It was because the city was proposing a permanent easement to lake residents' property.

This means that the city can control 25 feet of shoreline, telling homeowners what limited use and enjoyment they can have from their prime lakeshore. Your reporter interviewed the city manager and DNR employees, but never asked one lake resident why he or she felt so strongly against the city plan. In the United States that I know, all citizens have constitutionally protected property rights.