Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008

Several years ago when Northwest Airlines was in financial difficulty, its various unions stepped to the plate and offered wage concessions to keep the company afloat.

Over the last couple of weeks, the CEOs of the Big Three automakers have appeared before Congress asking for money to help bail out their companies, which are in danger of going under.

Have those CEOs sat down with their union leaders to tell them how serious the situation is? If the unions were spoken to honestly and given a choice in helping out, I think they might be surprised. Before crying to Congress about your money troubles, try exhausting all the possibilities at your disposal first.

JOHN JOACHIM, TAYLORS FALLS, MINN.

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The Big Three weasel their way into more money, manipulating words and with a "Yeah, but that's not it" to every protest. They want more money to "keep people at work," sustain a manufacturing base and help with the economy. Right. They know they will be taking home substantial chunks of change individually.

The rest of the world is already ahead of us. Renault-Nissan is planning a four-passenger car that would price as low as $2,500, 40 percent less than the least expensive subcompact cars on our markets today. Indian carmakers are ahead of us as well in the electric and fuel-efficient sector of car manufacturing.

Our automakers say it costs too much money to retool and refit. Here's a news flash for the Big Three -- people can't afford the automobiles that it makes anymore. So scrap them. Provide the automakers assistance to retool and retool only. Make the cars cheap, sturdy and fuel-efficient. Give Americans tax credits for purchasing these vehicles.

Oh, yeah, and make them any color they want, as long as it's cheap.

DAWSON DAVIS, MINNEAPOLIS

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The best way the government could aid the big three automakers would be to pick up their medical costs.

JOHN SHERMAN, MOORHEAD, MINN.

Sean Kershaw's commentary ("The debate over schools is framed improperly," Dec. 5) is spot-on. All charter schools be no longer be grouped together as should all Minneapolis Public Schools.

There is nothing implicitly better or worse in these generalized providers of education. Yet charter schools in their inaugural years have categorically positioned themselves as darlings to public education; likewise, billboards and ads at transit stops suggest that parents should pull their kids from MPS schools to attend Choice is Yours schools in suburban districts.

As our population has become more diverse, there isn't a single model of success. MPS needs the flexibility to deliver multiple models, as do charters. Part of that flexibility comes from being held to the same standards of performance as other districts.

Let's be clear about what standards we are setting for our public educators to meet. And let's hold all of our public educators to the same standards. Like it or not, we've created a competitive market in which schools compete against one another to attract and serve students. Let's just make sure we're asking everyone to operate on a level playing field, and let's demand that all work together to raise the level of that field for our students.

As sure as December rolls in, so do letters to the editor associating the greeting policies of discount retailers as an attack on the Christian celebration of Christmas.

I double-checked my church calendar. We are now celebrating Advent -- a season of quiet reflection, keeping with the darkening of the year. The Christmas season begins the evening of Dec. 24. I concede no power to the retail industry to change these dates. I will wish others a "Merry Christmas" at the appropriate time.

I do not know what I find more disheartening, the association of Christmas with frantic bargain hunting, or some believers' repeated attempts to use a season based on peace and good will as one more excuse to spread division and distrust among their neighbors.