Netlets for Monday, May 19

Bravo for the Great Commuter Challenge, comparing travel times for bike, transit and car on a six-mile commute (Star Tribune, May 13)!

When we make these comparisons in my classes, we also include the time needed to pay for your expenses. It takes time to earn your transit fare. Likewise, you have to add the time-cost of the gasoline, the fractional share of the car itself over its lifetime, the car insurance and maybe parking. Same for buying the bicycle.

Add these indirect time-costs and the bicycle's win is even more decisive -- even if the car is allowed to "dash" on the highway. The car's speed is more apparent than real. The driver has to wait to earn costs at the end. Now, add the hidden environmental costs -- health costs from auto emissions and contributions to global warming via carbon dioxide emissions -- and one might begin to wonder why we drive cars at all.

DOUGLAS ALLCHIN, ST. PAUL

A May 16 letter writer is concerned that immigration is contributing to the recent double-digit increases in food prices. If he feels that a 10 percent increase in food prices is a burden, I wonder how he will feel after food prices double when there is nobody left to plant, cultivate, harvest, deliver, process and serve food at or below minimum wage.

Despite recent increases, Americans still pay a smaller percentage of their income on food than anyone else. Immigrant labor is a big reason why we continue to have the cheapest, highest-quality food supply in the world.

CURTIS GRIESEL, BLOOMINGTON

Unless you have checked your pension plan or 401K, or called your broker to find out how heavily you are invested in commodities, you may have more influence over the price of your food than the farmer growing it.

PETER IMLE, GONVICK, MINN.; FARMER

In response to Katherine Kersten's column of May 12, I am writing in support of the Welcoming Schools Curriculum. Homophobia is alive and well in Minnesota schools.

Homophobia is also rampant in our society, and anything we can do to combat it in the schools, we need to do. Not only is homophobia dangerous to lesbian and gay students, and students who have same-sex parents, it is dangerous for all of us.

In their article, "Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence: Random School Shootings, 1982-2001," Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler found that random school shootings in American high schools and middle schools are closely linked to homophobic bullying. Their article is in AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST, Vol. 46 No. 10, June 2003 pages 1439-1458. Please read the article -- it is very enlightening and disturbing.

MARC A. MARKELL, ROGERS

Katherine Kersten's point seems to be that any deviation from middle-of-the-road values/beliefs/ customs is suspect, and that the role of schools is to reinforce the attitudes/values, etc., passed on to children by their parents.

I agree that the agenda of the anti-bullying curriculum should be tolerance of differences in human traits and proclivities, and not lobbying for any particular alternative lifestyle. Such a curriculum must convey the message that bullying, teasing and discriminating against those who don't fit the mold is anti-social, and will not go without serious consequences. Children understand that they can't get away with insulting their teachers, and they can learn that they must respect their peers as well.

LLOYD K. SINES, BIG LAKE, MINN.

Everyone is complaining about high the cost of filling one's gas tanks right now. I'd like to suggest one simple, effective but seldom-mentioned cost-saving technique: Simply drive the speed limit.

Who among us would not like to save 50 cents a gallon every time we fill up? By getting more miles out of each gallon, one can effectively buy gas less often and save money each week. Most people habitually drive above the speed limit -- 72 in a 65 zone or 62 in a 55 zone -- not realizing how much this wasteful habit costs. Remember the "double nickels" speed limit instituted with the oil crunch in the early '70s? There was a very practical reason for that: It takes a lot more energy to push a vehicle through the air at 70 miles per hour than it does at 55. Give it a try. Even the thirstiest SUV can get near 20 mpg while traveling at or below 55 mph. Slow down: You will save fuel money and arrive more rested.