Letters to the editor for Sunday, Dec. 16

First we read that black police officers are suing the Minneapolis Police Department for racial discrimination. Now we read in Nick Coleman's Dec. 14 column that a Minneapolis police officer refuses to allow a woman to borrow a shovel to help dig out a bus filled with senior citizens and others stuck in the snow.

To add insult to injury, the officer tracks her down at the "crime scene" and gives her a ticket for "failure to obey" because she borrowed the shovel anyway.

The woman, Lisa Bellanger, happens to be an Ojibwe Indian. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect these dots. Happy Holidays.

KAREN JOHNSTON, BAXTER, MINN.

Those who seem so casual about U.S. use of waterboarding should consider Sen. Lindsey Graham's question to the chief legal adviser at the Pentagon's Office of Military Commissions, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, during the Dec. 11 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Graham, R-S.C., asked: Suppose there is a downed American airman in Iran and the Iranian government is waterboarding the airman to learn when the next U.S. military operation will occur. What should be the response of the uniformed legal community regarding such activity? Hartmann answered, "I'm not equipped to answer that question, Senator."

It seems many in our government and many readers of this newspaper have forgotten that the United Stated prosecuted Japanese officials for waterboarding our soldiers during World War ll.

The Dec. 13 story about Minnesotans facing high energy bills has wide implications for children's health. While trying to keep the heat on, many families are forced to skip meals and forgo filling prescriptions. Young children are especially vulnerable to the cold. When their bodies have to spend calories trying to stay warm, they often become undernourished, underweight and even hospitalized.

Minnesota's Energy Assistance Program defrays the cost of home heating bills for many children, disabled individuals and seniors in our communities. Yet the Children's Defense Fund found that only about 30 percent of eligible Minnesota households receive energy help because of meager federal funding from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

Each year, Congress must decide LIHEAP funding levels. In November, President Bush vetoed the appropriations bill which funds LIHEAP and many other programs that strengthen communities. On the heels of six years of cuts, the president still said the bill was "fiscally irresponsible." Despite the support of both Minnesota's U.S. senators, the bill has yet to be passed, and Minnesota and other states will soon deplete their LIHEAP dollars.

By starving funding for energy assistance, children will go hungry this winter. This holiday season, call your members of Congress and urge them to fill LIHEAP's stocking by fully funding this critical program.

ANDI EGBERT, MINNEAPOLIS;

CHILDREN'S DEFENSE FUND MINNESOTA

With respect to your Dec. 9 report "Huckabee stands by long-ago statement that AIDS patients should have been isolated," I have nothing to offer but common sense.

Nothing separates Mike Huckabee from any HIV/AIDS sufferer except a virus. Any presidential candidate who advocates virtual abandonment of those affected by HIV/AIDS is seriously misinformed. His position is more ignorant than it is mean.

Those who support Huckabee's candidacy might open their minds, if not their hearts, and share a cup of coffee with an HIV/AIDS sufferer to learn more about those who live with this illness. They may discover someone with whom they share much in common.

In our wounded society, we cannot abide those who view those with HIV/AIDS as threats to our common future. Such biased prospects have proven destructive throughout history and yield little except more exclusion and misery.

While visiting your area last weekend, I read the Dec. 9 Letter of the Day, "There's no serious defense of Sonia Pitt." The letter writer implies that, because of her actions, the former state Department of Transportation emergency response manager does not deserve a legal defense and that her attorney will suffer public humiliation for taking her case.

I do not pretend to know the details of the case against Sonia Morphew Pitt. However, I do believe that if the least of us has no right to a good defense, then the best of us will not get one. Every citizen deserves to be defended and defended well.

John Fabian, Pitt's attorney of record, is simply doing his job for his client; he would be remiss at the very least if he did any less.

KAREN PHILLIPS, BOZEMAN, MONT.

Everything Pete Rose accomplished as a player he did without performance-enhancing drugs. All the guilty players from the past and today have broken records, and earned more money based on their cheating.

JOHN GIESE, GOLDEN VALLEY

Field of drug deals Since the commissioner, team owners and players all knew about the illegal drug use, and the DEA has the right to confiscate property tied to drug dealers, does that mean we get our stadiums back?

Oh, the taxpayers paid for them anyway. Never mind.

TED SCHMIDT, MINNEAPOLIS

The Dec. 12 article "What is Pawlenty's effect? Big ideas but little follow-up" resonated with me. In addition to infrastructure, many crucial but decidedly "unsexy" programs have crumbled under Gov. Tim Pawlenty's leadership.

DEAN PETERSON,