Letters to the editor for Saturday, Jan. 10

Reports on the recent Israeli response to escalated terrorist attacks from Gaza are only telling one side of the story.

For instance, a Palestinian school was hit by Israeli rockets. While this is unfortunate, there has been little coverage of the fact that the Hamas rockets were being launched at Israeli civilians from this school. When terrorists seek safe haven in schools, hospitals and mosques, are they to be immune from retaliation?

Rather than protest Israeli aggression, activists should demand that terrorists cease endangering their own people. Should Israel continue to allow its citizens to die simply because cowards are hiding in places that will undoubtedly suffer collateral damage in response?

ADAM BRUNET, LAKEVILLE

If I were a poor black man, sitting in court sipping a Mountain Dew instead of Perrier water, would I get to cut a deal and avoid felony charges as Carl Eller did (Star Tribune, Jan. 8)?

Shame on you, Carl! You have taken your fame and used it to twist the justice system around your little pinky finger. You're no better than anybody else, and you should be made to stand up and take your punishment just like any average Joe does. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

MARILYN HOLZERLAND, MOUND

PAUL CARTER, EDEN PRAIRIE

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A Jan. 8 writer thought it "fishy" that absentee ballots leaned toward Al Franken. Who votes absentee? People like my mother and my son. My son goes to college in another state but wanted to vote in Minnesota because he liked Franken. My mother voted a straight Democratic ticket by absentee ballot because of "that stupid war."

College students and senior citizens have time to be well-informed. They know about infringements on our constitutional rights, torture, false claims about WMDs and the hundreds of other reasons to not vote for a Republican in the last election.

LISA VANDERLINDEN, EAGAN

I am dismayed at how our election system can be in such disorder. Impartial machines are called into question. Voter intent considered.

It is time to take the human element out of interpreting election results. There needs to be national voter registration that guarantees one vote per eligible voter without exception. Get rid of the fraud and doubt now before this escalates into a national crisis.

GREG AUSTIN, EDEN PRAIRIE

When I heard that there is financial aid available for people wanting to purchase foreclosed homes, I wondered if the people dispossessed shouldn't have first crack at this money.

Trapped in a balloon mortgage or something similar, these folks lost their homes through predatory lending. Now the interest rates are reduced or renegotiated and there is state aid on top of it.

HARALD ERIKSEN, BROOKLYN PARK

Someone recently pointed out to me that Joe Dowling at the Guthrie earned more money last year than several of the Vikings players, and I thought, "Well, sure, Joe had a better season!"

PETER MOORE, ST. PAUL

Carl Pohlad will be remembered by most as the billionaire Twin Cities businessman and Minnesota Twins owner, but his most lasting legacy might well prove to be the investment made by the Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation to provide employment assistance for nearly 300 high school students through community banks in Minnesota. The seeds he helped plant as part of the TEAM Future Banker Program, in an industry that he loved, will bear fruit for a very long time.

MARSHALL MACKay, Eagan;