Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Sept. 16

How truly refreshing it was to see the front-page photo on Sept. 12 of John McCain and Barack Obama standing together throwing flowers on the site of the World Trade Center, and to read they had suspended their attacks on each other for that day.

It reminded me of the brief post-9/11 period when we were truly united as Americans, before the invasion of Iraq caused our nation to become bitterly polarized.

This makes me hopeful that, in spite of the divisive rhetoric of this campaign, after the next election we will be able to do what we have not for so long -- put aside our partisan differences and unite behind whichever of these fine men we elect as president.

JAY HUMSEY, WOODBURY

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I watched the interviews with John McCain and Barack Obama at Columbia on Sept. 11. Clearly, they are exceptional men. Inspirational.

One evening without pettiness, sniping, sticking a leg out to trip your opponent.

MARY MCFETRIDGE, NEW HOPE

Their family, your vote OK. We get it. Politicians want their families off limits for judging. Then I may ask: Why do you keep parading them in front of us?

TOM DEGREE, LAKE ELMO

The POW effect? Is there a remaining collective, unconscious guilt over America's ill treatment of returning Vietnam vets that explains John McCain's rising poll numbers? While not at all disparaging the senator's extremely painful POW years in his service to his country, do we owe him the presidency to alleviate this guilt?

Are we letting ourselves be distracted from McCain's voting record and his own acknowledgment of economic ignorance in these tough economic times?

MARY MORIARTY, PLYMOUTH

Overriding the Rapture A Sept. 14 letter writer advanced the notion that if Gov. Sarah Palin, an evangelical Christian, were to become president she may feel it is her calling to usher in the end of days by pushing the nuclear button.

There is something referred to as the great commandment, which is Jesus summing up all the law and instruction from scripture (Matthew 22:37-40) as "Love your neighbor as yourself." Palin, and most evangelical Christians, are very familiar with this, and I dare say that most of us try to live accordingly, doing good to "neighbors" in countless ways.

Loving your neighbor is completely inconsistent with having an itchy nuclear trigger finger that if used would wipe out untold numbers of innocent neighbors.

BRENT PAYNE, LAKEVILLE

Let's keep moving in the same direction. The next step can be public disclosure by members of Congress regarding all campaign donations they have received, along with a public disclosure of their daily calendars listing all those with whom they have met.

T.A. HAWLEY, EDINA

When people think of the holiday desert between July 4th and Oct. 31, few remember the democratic oasis of Constitution Day celebrated on Wednesday, the anniversary of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.

Even fewer people know that federal law mandates that publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the U.S. Constitution on Constitution Day.

To help educators in middle and high schools, the Minnesota State Bar Association's Civic Education Committee has provided online resources (visit: mnciviced.org) that teach students about the application of the Constitution to their daily lives. The MSBA also assembles a group of volunteer lawyers and judges to visit classrooms around the state to lead these activities.

Your Sept. 1 editorial and Aug. 24 front-page news article do not tell the whole story about debt collection, lawsuits and garnishments.

Debt collectors work tirelessly to resolve debts before legal action has to be taken. On a recent 10-hour day at the law office where I work as a collector, I manually dialed out nearly 200 times, took 30 to 40 inbound calls and worked an auto dialer for four hours. Every one of those phone calls was an effort on our part to avoid a garnishment.

We also do extensive tracing to have accurate information as to the debtor's whereabouts. The cases the Star Tribune portrays as the norm amount to a tiny percentage of garnishments. Creditors do not want to garnish bank accounts (or more often wages) unless they have to.

By the time an account reaches the garnishment stage the creditor has spent $300 or more pursuing the legal process -- a lot to spend when you're already out a couple thousand bucks someone did not pay back, especially since it does not guarantee your money back. Most people who end up having their wages garnished or bank accounts levied don't get there because the creditor is dirty and underhanded but because they fail to respond to the many warning signs.