Letters to the editor for Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Everybody keeps talking about the NWA/Delta "merger." I've seen this a few times in my working life, and what is promoted as a merger really gets to be a takeover by the stronger of the two companies.

I'm retired from the BN Railroad and watched it happen, and my fraternal insurance company "merged" with a stronger company. Guess which companies ended up with all the true power posts and whose business policies became the norm.

The same will happen with the airline merger. It will also give the companies a great opportunity to go back on their labor and other agreements. I believe NWA wasn't very good at keeping its agreements with the Metropolitan Airports Commission and the state of Minnesota.

The merging of seniority rosters can be a sticky wicket, and a lot of employees will feel they have lost, once again. Delta won't be too willing to keep NWA agreements that don't fit into its money-saving plans. Minnesota airline jobs are going to be lost down the road. Also, service will disappear and costs go up.

So keep your eye on the dogfight and see which dog comes out on top.

VERNON DRAKE, STAPLES, MINN.

Prepare for takeoff Let's see: Fares up, competition down. Fewer routes, more job layoffs. The metro remains a hub ... for now. Shareholders hit, and Minnesota loses yet another corporate headquarters. The combined airline faces huge merger-related costs in the middle of an economic downturn. But the NWA board and top execs stand to cash out big.

PETER BENSON, NORTH OAKS

A man allows a dog who attacked at least three people in less than a year to live in a house with his small children. The dog kills a child and, in the mind of a Hennepin County district judge, Minneapolis Animal Control is somehow at fault because it didn't notify the man that his dog was dangerous ("Father acquitted in son's dog-bite death," April 12).

The dog was a menace. It doesn't take a governmental authority to tell anyone that.

I just have one question for Judge Kevin Burke: Don't we have something called a "reasonable person" standard anymore?

ERIC OLSON, BLOOMINGTON

Clearly, Obama was talking about middle-class Americans who are conservative Republicans. The truth is, he is not alone, and he is not the first. Many people have raised the question of how it is that people can be induced to vote against their own best interests, i.e., how it is that so many middle-class people can be induced to elect a president who has been harming the middle class.

Will writes that John Kenneth Galbraith noted that advertising can and does affect people's behavior. That's not condescending; it's true. Ask any Madison Avenue ad man. Will chastises Adlai Stevenson for commenting that not enough people learned his message. That was true, too.

Jefferson and Madison argued whether the vote should be given to the common man (Jefferson) or just to landowners (Hamilton). Jefferson's views prevailed, but sometimes, the discussion continues.

People don't like to be criticized or to have their faults made public. Therein lies Obama's mistake. The level of response can only be attributed to that. The situation reminds me of the late comedian Lenny Bruce. His nightclub act was based on serious social commentary, and while what he said was true, many people did not want to hear it. Bruce was figuratively (some would argue literally) crucified. Let us hope the same does not happen to Obama, who spoke accurately but unwisely.

DAVID M. PERLMAN, MINNEAPOLIS

I am a physician and part of the underinsured health care crisis was solved here in Minnesota a few years ago by instituting a so-called "sick tax," basically a 2 percent tax on physician and hospital charges that is used to pay me and the hospitals (seems circular, but I didn't design it). MinnesotaCare is funded by this extra tax.

How about a 2 percent tax on all lawyers' charges and use the revenue collected to fund the Public Defender's office and services? This is such a no-brainer easy solution, I'm surprised the altruistic lawyers haven't proposed it yet themselves!

And if by chance some money is left over, like with the sick tax, I'm sure they would be pleased to donate it to the state's general fund.

DAVID R. PETERSON, EDINA

I was just mulling over the desire of some Muslims to have Friday off from school and work, since the Jews have Saturday and the Christians have Sunday. Hmmm. Not being a member of any of the aforementioned groups, it sounds like a good three-day weekend to me.

In the April 14 article "Skipping Olympic opening a 'cop-out,' U.S. official says," Jimmy Carter is quoted as saying that the situations in Afghanistan and Tibet are not comparable. The former U.S. president goes on to state that thousands and thousands of Afghans were killed during the Soviet invasion. It seems that Carter is unaware that since the illegal occupation of Tibet by China began in 1959, 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed and over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed.

Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, calls an Olympic boycott a "cop out." It appears that he does not care that there is no respect for human rights in Tibet or that anyone who voices political dissent is imprisoned, tortured or killed. It is time that our government steps up to the plate and supports human rights in Tibet.