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Netlets for Wednesday, Jan. 9

July 7, 2008 at 9:03PM

After reading that the victims' survivors of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse, by law, could only collect $1 million total, from the state, I propose a way to augment that amount:

Establish a raffle with two winners. The winners would get to be the first people to drive across the new bridge, one north and the other south. Proceeds, less the expense inherent in conducting the raffle, could be channeled to those families. It would not only help them out, but it would give all of us a small chance to help out also.

I crossed over the bridge going north just 15 minutes before the collapse, as many did and I think it would be fun to spend a buck or two trying to be the first one to cross the new span. What say?

MARK JOHNSON, ST. PAUL

Minnesota needs a good, stiff DWI law I updated my New Year's Resolutions after reading your Dec. 29 "Face of drunk driving" article. I would like my chances of being involved in an alcohol-related car accident to go down in 2008.

But how? How can we reduce drunken driving? How about Minnesotans renewing our commitment to driving being a privilege rather than a right?

The ideal law, in my opinion, would be the following: Get a DWI? Your license is suspended for five years -- enough time to appreciate the privilege of driving on our roads. Get a second DWI? Better find a job you can walk to, or relocate to a bus line, because you now have permanently lost your license.

If our representatives would make this law, 2008 would bring positive statistics at this time next year. We may even see revenue go up for mass transit (See? I knew I could their attention one way or another!).

JASON HOKKANEN, DELANO

Universal health care: here's why I write to support state Sen. John Marty's view (Opinion Exchange, Jan. 4) that universal health care is justified based upon human need (vs. ability to pay), and to make six additional points:

• The United Nations and World Health Organization have declared universal health care as a human and civil right. As a member of both organizations, our country has a moral obligation to provide affordable health care to every American.

• All Americans are supposed to be guaranteed the constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are denied to those who cannot afford health care.

• A good society is both healthy and just, hence health care is a social good to be distributed fairly, not private property one should own without sharing the same opportunity and benefit for everyone.

• Remember the Golden Rule? It advocates genuine equality grounded in the intrinsic value of human life. To continue to tolerate the denial of health care to 47 million Americans is both grossly unfair and an affront to human dignity.

• Our present, mixed private-public system for financing health care has failed to achieve universal health care for decades. A publicly financed system could achieve that goal at much less cost.

• Health care reform is a civil rights issue of our time. It is also a matter of human decency and fairness as well as necessity and communal need.

R. PAUL OLSON, BLOOMINGTON

Obama will make better Americans In the last week I settled on the best candidate for president: Barack Obama. And it is not because he is the strongest "agent of change." It is because he is the only inspiring leader who understands the malaise of our country and offers us a way out. The debates have been about technical issues: who will get us out of Iraq quicker, who is tougher on immigrants, who has more experience with Washington in-fighting, etc. But only Obama inspires us to believe that we can be better.

I am reminded of 1960, when John Kennedy began to inspire America to change for the better. Sure, Kennedy had some serious flaws, he did not prove to be the most effective president and it all ended too soon, leaving many of us with a nearly overwhelming sense of sorrow and loss. But those are only details. The bigger point is that he made us better than we had been, and he gave us courage to keep moving forward.

When Obama says "we are not red states and blue states but American states," he is speaking not to our minds but to our souls. Few of us know much about his bipartisan legislative experience, but we know exactly what he means, and we are better for it. When the lights are turned off at night, just before sleep, when defenses are down and vulnerability seems greatest, virtually every thinking American knows in his heart that our country has lost its way. Our wealth, our honor and, most important, our ideals are slipping away and we don't know what to do about it. Obama addresses those fears and we know he is right. That is leadership. He can hire others to do the details, but a leader must understand the broad scope of what needs to be done and, in a democratic government, he must be able to unite the people to want it. That is where Obama excels.

THOMAS DETWILER, MINNEAPOLIS

Unleash and nurture the imagination Regarding Christine Brunkhorst's column on "Why I assigned reading over the holiday break" (Opinion Exchange, Jan. 5): Hats off to her for promoting -- even requiring -- her students to read and engage their imaginations while on vacation. Would that we all could sit in her classroom and be so engaged and supported to "play big" and envision ourselves realizing our fondest dreams.

As a special education teacher who loves teaching reading, I still find it so rewarding to see even my struggling readers excited to find out what's going to happen next in Jack London's adventure tale "Call of the Wild" as they imagine themselves driving the sled dogs through the wilds of Alaska in pursuit of gold, fortune and marvelous adventure that only comes through using one's imagination.

BARBARA SCHWEIGER, ST. PAUL