Letters to the editor for Thursday, April 24

Last week I was driving south on Xerxes Avenue from 44th Street. Between 48th and 49th streets, there was a big pothole. At the bottom of the pothole, I noticed old trolley car tracks.

So why not remove all of the blacktop that covers the old tracks, I thought, and resume the trolley service? That way, we could have light rail transit everywhere just like we did 50 years ago.

We went from trolley cars to buses because the buses could go to more places than the trolleys. But now 50 years later, we want to go back to transportation that again will be restricted by the location of the rails. Seems a little confusing to me.

MIKE MCLEAN, RICHFIELD

An April 23 Counterpoint asked for a definition of victory in Iraq. Vets for Freedom stands for nothing short of victory. Victory will be achieved when the Iraqi people and their duly elected government can protect themselves from internal and external enemies. As long as Syria, Iran and Al-Qaida continue to subvert and attack the Iraqi people, and the United States and our coalition partners are asked to stay by the Iraqi government, our job continues.

Regardless of the defeatist rhetoric of a small antiwar crowd, vast improvements militarily, politically and economically have been made in Iraq. The economy of Iraq is now funding many internal infrastructure improvements and security needs. The Iraqis are planning to repay the coalition. Recent polls show a majority of Americans believe we will win in Iraq. The surge has made both the Iraqi people and our soldiers safer.

JOE REPYA, EAGAN

Delta is in much worse financial shape than Northwest. NWA's profit margin is the best in the industry -- 6 percent -- while Delta's is around 3.5 percent. NWA's balance sheet has $3 billion in cash, the best of the top seven carriers and double what Delta has. With a huge balloon debt payment due in 2009, Delta's motive to take our cash is clear.

Now let's talk productivity. Unionized NWA beats Delta hands down. According to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics, NWA has the lowest number of employees per aircraft at 82. The industry average is 101. Delta has 107 employees per aircraft, and they are basically nonunion. NWA employees historically have always been the most productive in the airline business. Who said unions hurt business?

As for the NWA pilots, the Minnesota public needs to know that the union's merger committee adjusted its proposal three times to get a deal and the Delta pilots never budged from their position. At the seven-year point only 300 original NWA pilots would be left in the top 2,000 pilots. Delta pilots would be flying all the international widebody airplanes. That is why the talks broke down.

We NWA line employees do not want Delta and we do not need Delta. Only the NWA management team does.

Rep. Oberstar, thank you for trying to stop this abomination.

Despite polls that show that women workers are stretched to the limit and desperately want more family-friendly policies, the Bush administration is quickly and quietly advancing regulations that would weaken the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and make it more difficult for workers to take the unpaid leave the law provides. For 15 years, the FMLA has helped tens of millions of workers take unpaid, job-protected leave when illness struck or new babies came.

The administration's proposed regulations would take us in exactly the wrong direction by scaling back workers' access to leave. They would make it easier for employers to deny leave, and more difficult for workers to take it, by increasing the burden on employees who need leave, raising the number of medical visits required of those employees, and giving employers more direct access to employees' medical information.

Our leaders should be looking for ways to expand the FMLA so it covers more workers and provides paid leave for those who cannot afford to miss a paycheck. If the administration really values families, it will reconsider these harmful changes.

SALLY J. KENNEY, MINNEAPOLIS;

PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND LAW,

AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

To assert that the Catholic Church is the main defender of reason in the modern world, as Michael Gerson does (Opinion Exchange, April 23), is so entirely preposterous as to call into question the very meaning of the word "reason."

It is entirely appropriate to recognize the legitimate efforts of any organization, including the Roman Catholic Church, to relieve suffering, help the disadvantaged, advocate for the powerless, exert moral leadership and counsel the uncertain. It is entirely unreasonable to assert that this faith-based organization is a champion of anything other than its own survival through adaptation.

We might even have to tip our hats to Charles Darwin, a reluctant purveyor of reason who predicted this course of events and was torn apart by the church for his efforts.