Letters to the editor for Saturday, Dec. 15

The Dec 12 editorial "Retail needs a boost in Minneapolis / It's time to return to a healthy retail environment downtown" is well-stated. The Nicollet Mall was once hailed as a pioneering example of urban beauty. Hennepin Avenue is proclaimed as the cultural spine of downtown. Downtown has a solid base on which to grow. Yet people do not feel safe downtown after dark, and dealing with that is job No. 1. This is doable if business demands a secure environment from City Hall.

JACK MCHUGH, EDINA;

past chairman, Nicollet Mall Task Force

I read with amusement that KMSP-TV reporter Tom Lyden is upset that police got his cell phone records as part of a leak investigation (Star Tribune, Dec. 13). Lyden had asked the police for a police report and was denied, so he found some other source to give it to him.

I guess when reporters do an end run around the police to get what they want it's ethical, but when police do an end run around them, they forget the definition of the word "irony."

TOM BUTLER, WEST ST. PAUL

I see our elected officials pointing their fingers at the management and staff of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. What they should be doing is looking in the mirror and asking themselves, "Why did I let this happen?" "How could I have let the funding for our roads and bridges go to the wayside?" "What part of this problem do I own?"

MARK SHERWOOD, MINNEAPOLIS

In response to the debate between Minnesota Business Partnership Executive Director Charlie Weaver and former Sen. Mark Dayton over school funding in Minnesota, there's a lot of great statistics going back and forth between the two, each easily proving their case. But here is a view from a taxpayer who currently has no children in the Minnesota school system.

I don't want anyone to take my hard-earned money via property taxes to fund something based on emotional pleas and manipulated statistics. The use of schoolchildren as fodder for increasing budgets is reprehensible, and is obviously not working.

How about this: Tell Minnesotans exactly where the $10 million or the $50 million or $100 million schools claim to need is going to be used. Line-item detail. Don't say it will be used to "reduce class sizes" or "bring us back to 2002 budget levels," etc. Tell us what schools are going to do with the money.

And once you have my money, prove to me you used it for the requested purpose.

A Dec. 14 writer asks smokers to "please move far away from doors and other areas through which others must pass." How about no? Smokers have been pushed out of every public and private building in the state, and now we are expected to banish ourselves to snowbanks and back alleys?

No, we are not about to pay another unearned sanction to those who steal our rights. Go ahead, try to stop us. You will fail. You'll breathe easier once you stop hyperventilating at the sight of a cigarette.

SCOTT JOHNSON, LAKEVILLE

As I read the Dec. 10 commentary by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, "Brute force," in which she asks "where are the moderate [Muslim] voices," I thought to myself that there are many parallels to this in Christian history.

Two examples are the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem witch trials. There were moderates during those times, but they feared for their lives if they spoke out because it was the fundamentalists who held the political power. The only thing that could defeat the extremists was for moderates to regain power -- but at great risk.

Both moderate Christians and Muslims must find the courage to resist these extremists.

BILL HABEDANK, RED WING, MINN.

According to the criteria outlined in a Dec. 12 letter, I have earned a vote in the abstinence-only sex education controversy. I chose to abstain from sexual relationships until my wedding night, and I have never regretted my decision for a moment. Besides the obvious benefits of avoiding unwanted pregnancy and sexual diseases, the main reason I chose abstinence is that I was taught that sex is healthiest and happiest within the bounds of a committed, loving marital relationship.

That being said, sexuality is a complex issue and deserves a comprehensive education program. Give kids information about safe(r) sex options, but don't belittle abstinence.

VALERIE MCCLURE, APPLE VALLEY

Outsourcing, as good as it is for the bottom line, is not such a hot idea. There's no control over people working for you and it takes jobs away from people in your community.

SHARON NORDBERG, BUFFALO

Patricia Lopez tries real hard to find criticism of Gov. Tim Pawlenty ("Is Pawlenty better at providing big ideas than results?" Dec. 12). Certainly he is a man of ideas but, when you are surrounded by a majority of Democrats who are intent on making you look bad, it is hard to bring those ideas to fruition.