Letters to the editor for Monday, March 23

A number of Minnesota legislators are proposing a 15-year retention of abortion-related medical records. This bill would establish a separate set of rules for a single medical procedure. As an R.N. and a medical clinic administrator, I know that charts with a different retention period are clearly marked. Anyone accessing patient charts would know which ones belonged to patients who underwent an abortion.

The first sentence of the first paragraph of the AMA Code of Medical Ethics related to medical records states that: "Physicians have an obligation to retain patient records which may reasonably be of value to a patient."

This bill does not state its purpose. Perhaps the bill's sponsors should address that. To the untrained eye like mine, this appears to be an effort to brand women rather that help them in any way. Are legislators allowed to use the crafting of laws as a means of intimidating constituents who disagree with them? Isn't there a legislative code of ethics that prohibits such behavior?

RON THIESSEN, BECKER, MINN.

I'm very happy that Sara Jane Olson has come back to Minnesota to serve her parole; it means that we don't make exceptions to precedent based on infamy.

I went to grade school with one of her daughters, where we rode the bus together for six years. We were happy kids, and this was before Olson's arrest, so God only knows how happy these past 10 years could have been for my old friend and her family.

Rep. Laura Brod, Sen. Bill Ingebrigsten and Gov. Tim Pawlenty should be ashamed at trying to use a family's ordeal as personal political capital. If the GOP legislators and Gov. Pawlenty object to the Minnesota-California agreement regarding parolees, then they should make an attempt to change that agreement, not to arbitrarily punish one woman because she happens to have garnered a good measure of infamy.

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Once again, I find myself dumbfounded by your sympathetic coverage of Sara Jane Olson, who earned her jail time fair and square despite successfully hiding out as a churchgoing, cookie-baking mother.

The argument that her behavior should be overlooked because it occurred during the tumultuous 1970s is absolutely ludicrous. So Olson has done her jail stint, and it is time for society to welcome her back with open arms? Unfortunately, this invitation cannot reasonably be extended to her long-dead victim. Her stint, it would seem, is for eternity.

RICHARD BRINDLEY, PLYMOUTH

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KAY MYHRMAN-TOSO, WOODBURY

Recent tax proposals by Rep. Ann Lenczewski and Sen. Ann Rest are bold in their timing as well as design. Why present revenue-neutral proposals in this economy? Because a good idea doesn't have a time.

While we need legislators to solve the current budget deficit, we shouldn't dismiss those who continue to do their due diligence in pursuit of good government. I am grateful our state has legislators willing to lead with courage in the shadow of the budget deficit.

MATTHEW FLORY, ST. LOUIS PARK

I have been a loyal viewer of WCCO-TV since the Dave Moore years (1950s). Not anymore! I am dismayed by the abrupt firings of Paul Douglas (while he was out of town) and now Jeanette Trompeter (not long before she was to broadcast the 5 o'clock news that day).