Letters to the editor for Monday, Nov. 3

On behalf of the Jewish community, I applaud the decision of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to return Fernand Leger's painting, "Smoke Over Rooftops," to the French heirs of a Jewish art collector who died in 1948.

I am proud that many of your readers have commented on the Star Tribune's website that MIA did in fact "do the right thing."

Nov. 9 and 10 marks the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"), when Jews witnessed the destruction of their synagogues, homes and businesses in Nazi Germany. As we remember the horrors of the Holocaust, we thank the Minneapolis Institute of Arts for taking this profoundly righteous action.

STEVE HUNEGS, MINNEAPOLIS;

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL OF MINNESOTA & THE DAKOTAS

Good riddance to Northwest -- it never did the caring and generous people of Minnesota a service after they bailed it out of the sling it was in. How did Northwest repay them? By charging them more for airfare than anyone else. Shame on it!

MAUREEN GAGLIARDI, TUCSON

When graduation rates among some minority populations, including black and Asian students in Minnesota's high schools, lag behind those of their white counterparts, and even B students arrive at college completely unprepared, maintaining the status quo shouldn't be an option.

These regulations represent a positive step toward tracking the details of minority student achievement and focusing reform where it is needed most. Just because some view their implementation as inconvenient doesn't mean the regulations aren't valid. There is little doubt that history would point to many who also found school desegregation to be inconvenient.

Doing nothing now would mean shutting the door on thousands of Minnesota youth at the expense of their futures and the state's economy. We should expect more from our schools and for our students.

MICHAEL WOTORSON, WASHINGTON;

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CAMPAIGN FOR

In your Oct. 29 article, "Know your plastics," the canning industry states there aren't any alternatives to the harmful chemical BPA, currently used in food can linings.

This is false -- Eden Foods has BPA-free cans. Granted, they haven't found a substitute yet that works for canned tomatoes due to their acidity, but all their other canned goods are BPA-free.

Eden is an example of a company that is trying to protect our health. To suggest we are opening ourselves up to food poisoning by removing BPA, a synthetic estrogen that disrupts the hormone system, is an alarmist tactic to divert the public from the truth. The truth is BPA is harming our health.

NANCY PETERS SPARROW, BURNSVILLE

Financial news hasn't been good lately, but your Oct. 26 article "Banks pull squeeze play on credit cards" held some of among the worst I've had to absorb. J.L. Fish, a Wells Fargo customer valued enough to hold its Platinum VISA, was "rewarded" for faithful minimum monthly payments with an interest rate increase from 5.2 to 17.69 percent on her $8,000 balance.

I thought it had become apparent that the greed and callousness operating our financial institutions were instrumental in the economic collapse we're now enduring; stupidity must also be a factor.

Despite promises, the bailout plan supported by our government still allows golden parachutes for rats abandoning sinking ships, and virtually no consideration has been given to protecting the innocent public, as reflected in Fish's story.

Thank God for your heartening article on the same page, "One cup at a time," about Peace Coffee. Perhaps eventually business communities will recognize that rewards arising from moral and ethical practices often produce financial benefits, as well as allowing principals to sleep at night.

SHAWN GILBERT, BLOOMINGTON

The Oct. 29 Letter of the Day raised some issues as to why the Interstate 35W bridge stood for 40 years and then suddenly collapsed while under a lighter than normal traffic load (due to closed traffic lanes) but "heavier dead load" due to the materials placed on the bridge by the contractors.

The letter writer suggested that the motivating factor to raise these questions was a "desire to suppress the lack of maintenance as a contributing factor." Rather, I think it is a strong desire to suppress intentional acts of the contractors in removing considerable sections of the steel-reinforced concrete deck, which, in most bridge designs, is to carry a considerable portion of the compressive forces, which are present in the upper chord of any bridge.