Letters to the editor for Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I would like to respond to the May 29 letter suggesting that the Split Rock Lighthouse beacon be lit each evening for a short time all summer.

Split Rock Lighthouse operated as an active federal aid to navigation on Lake Superior from 1910 until 1969. Because the light is no longer in official use for navigation, the U.S. Coast Guard approved the use of the beacon for occasional lightings with the stipulation that it not be lit on a regular schedule. There is a concern of liability and that passing boats and ships may begin to use it as a navigational aid.

The Minnesota Historical Society, which administers the historic site, is also responsible for keeping the site open to the public, interpreting its history, and for protecting and preserving the buildings and the collections. With this in mind, we balance the preservation of the lens with lighting the beacon as often as is feasible.

There are three dates each year that the public can count on seeing the beacon lit. It is turned on for an hour at sunset on the first Sunday in June for an annual open house event; on July 31, the anniversary of the first keeper lighting it for the first time in 1910, and for the Edmund Fitzgerald memorial beacon lighting on Nov. 10. In addition to these three dates, the beacon is lit once a week throughout the summer for an hour at sunset on varying days. Seeing the lighthouse beacon lit in this way provides a wonderful surprise and an added bonus to a visit to the North Shore.

LEE RADZAK, TWO HARBORS, MINN.;

HISTORIC SITE MANAGER,

SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE

Because it fears him more than any other candidate and -- as you acknowledge -- knows all too well that it cannot win if the focus stays on Norm Coleman's record, why would anyone expect the party to behave otherwise?

Perhaps, since Franken has given Minnesotans a most sincere apology, the media should hold those who continue to sling the mud accountable for slinging mud.

If the media don't, Minnesotans will.

JOHN WELLS, EAGAN

Waiting for Ciresi I am dismayed that Al Franken was endorsed by the DFL for the U.S. Senate. Jokes he made about rape are not funny!

GEN OLSON, ALBERT LEA, MINN.

Accept his apology I had never been directly involved in a political campaign in my life. I never really felt it necessary to actively engage in the political process -- until I met Al Franken.

Like many baby boomers, I watched and revered the satirists of "Saturday Night Live" from its inception. Not every sketch hit its mark, but what these risk-taking writers did was speak their minds in the name of social reform knowing full well their work would be scrutinized and judged for years to come.

Having spoken and listened to Al, it is clear that he is just as committed to serving his state and country as he was to his satirical roots. I believe he is deeply sorry for offending people he cares about. He has eloquently said as much. Allow him the opportunity to speak to the issues that count. It is time to stop judging and scrutinizing and give him the chance to do what he is destined to do.

GORDON L. RUTMAN, CRYSTAL

Perhaps being uprooted from your home, job and life and locked in an internment camp for an indeterminate amount of time for no other reason than your ethnicity is not being mistreated?

He also stated, "There was very little complaining by those people when they were released."

If their ethnicity alone got them locked up, I wonder what would have happened if they had started protesting as well. Maybe the letter writer believes that, in response to terrorism, we should just lock up all American Muslims in internment camps? It might lessen the threat of another terrorist attack on our soil, right?

TOM WRIGHT, MINNEAPOLIS

Truth about the camps As a third-generation Japanese-American growing up in Southern California, I learned of my parents' internment in a history class in high school. It was something they never discussed. When I questioned them, I was appalled to hear of their treatment.

As I am the stereotypical stoic Japanese-American, not many things upset me. But your assessment of an atrocity in American history is horribly wrong. There were no uprisings or incidents of espionage! When allowed to leave the camps, many Japanese-Americans, including my father, went on to serve the United States in the Pacific as language specialists, and in Europe in the most highly decorated regiment, the 442nd.

Looking back at my upbringing, I realize my parents had something to prove. We were not brought up as Japanese, but as Americans. We were to be the best in everything we did. Never again were the Japanese-Americans (or any other people, for that matter) going to be looked upon as second-class citizens.

If the United States ever goes to war against Sweden, I hope the letter writer is not interned in a poorly insulated Quonset hut in the middle of nowhere because of his last name.

LORI (NISHIHARA) GUSTAFSON,