Netlets for Sunday, May 4

One of the copies of the Declaration of Independence is coming to the Minnesota History Center May 6-18 for a free public exhibit.

I've always cherished the final line of that document because it shows how committed the signers were to creating a new nation where government derived its power from the consent of the governed:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Our founders were willing to give everything they had and everything they could ever be for the right of self-government. Today, in between not bothering to voter, we complain about a modest gasoline user fee, worry about flag label pins and blame our ills on defenseless immigrants. We don't deserve what our founders wrought.

JEREMY POWERS, FRIDLEY

It is good that the Star Tribune featured an article on the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree ("A doctor and a nurse, all in one package," April 27). However, the information fell short in regard to the entire DNP story.

There are many us with advanced practice nursing degrees (master's prepared) pursuing a DNP degree who do not function as nurse practitioners. Our master's preparations include public health nursing, nurse educators, clinical nurse specialists, project management, and nurse administrators, to name a few. In addition, prior to the availability of the DNP degree, some nurse practitioners have focused very successfully on providing primary care to a variety of patient populations for many years, while other nurse practitioners are focused in different areas of specialties such as geriatrics, oncology and pediatrics. All of us advanced practice nurses provide positive contributions to health care in a variety of ways that are not outlined in the article.

BEVERLY CHRISTIE, MINNEAPOLIS;

DNP STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA SCHOOL OF NURSING

Hillary Clinton and John McCain must be desperate for votes by proposing a federal gas tax holiday. The road trip I may take this summer to Colorado would save me $15 total. That's not going to encourage the trip or influence my spending decisions. To me, it comes off as a cheap way to buy votes.

THATCHER IMBODEN, MINNEAPOLIS

I have been watching the attacks on Barack Obama because of his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Two things are happening that I find very uncomfortable.

This is perilously close to what the Communists do when they assign political officers to monitor behavior to make sure people do the proper denouncements and shunning. Our media now perform this function.

The other is that the only person being held to this standard is a black man -- Barack Obama, because of his black minister's angry views. The media response looks an awful lot like anti-black sentiment being directed in a slightly more subtle way at Obama. Something he cannot dodge or mollify, no matter what his sentiments might be, because he is black and Wright is black. And more specifically, Wright said things that made us angry. Therefore we are free to attack Obama without mercy and pretend we are doing it for only the best of reasons.

DAVE HAJICEK, MINNETONKA

I find it interesting and sad that almost no one seems to be suggesting an alternative use for the tax rebate: making a donation to charity.

There's no doubt that in these trying economic times, some people need that money for the basics and/or to pay down credit card debt. But there's also no doubt that those same trying times cry out for those of us with no immediate need of that extra money to share it with others.

MARY AND JEFF SCOTT, EDEN PRAIRIE

Let me get this straight. The president who has spent eight years gutting our economy -- deregulating every industry he could touch, squandering a surplus and amassing a national debt in the trillions, patronizing the victims of Katrina but lavishing funds on a disastrous war that benefits no one but his oil and oil-service cronies -- this president now wants to pose as the people's champion against a dastardly Congress ("Bush criticizes Democrat-led Congress for inaction on housing and energy bills," April 29)?

To the long train of abuses meriting Articles of Impeachment, we can now add another: his utter contempt for the intelligence of the American people. If that's not a crime, it oughta be.