CORPORATE LAYOFFS

The nation needs more CEOs like Marvin

Susan Marvin is right on the money with her views on layoffs ("Do layoffs really help the bottom line?" April 3). Balancing the needs of all key stakeholders -- employees, customers, shareholders and communities -- is no easy task. Too often, U.S. management kneels at the altar of short-term profits for shareholders, and look what that has done for our country.

I'm an adjunct instructor at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communications, where students learn that employees are the best ambassadors for any company, and keeping customers happy with service that delights (think Apple) saves companies thousands, if not millions, as it is the most efficient form of marketing invented.

Marvin's business model is extremely solid. I predict the company will be around for generations to come, unlike others that have bowed to short-term profit pressures (think Toyota).

This country needs more companies like Marvin Windows and Doors.

LYNN NELSON, MINNEAPOLIS

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After reading Susan Marvin's commentary, I concluded that whether she is conservative or liberal, I would vote for her.

We need more people like Marvin to run our government. Her value system surpasses political thought because she is concerned about people and favorable outcomes. There is hope for our country with patriots like Marvin and her company.

DICK WRIGHT, NORTHFIELD, Minn.

MARTY SEIFERT

Candidate has never accepted lobbyist cash

Important information was omitted from a recent article on the governor's race ("Lobbyist Cash Flows to Candidates With Clout" March 31). Republican gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert has not accepted contributions from registered lobbyists for his campaign.

In fact, Seifert has never accepted a contribution from a registered lobbyist during his time in office. Of the front-running candidates for governor on the DFL and GOP sides, Seifert is the only one to refuse donations from lobbyists. It was a disservice to readers to leave this important information out of the article.

KURT DAUDT, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, SEIFERT FOR GOVERNOR

gun shows

Fear drove vote against background checks

A strange thing has happened at the Minnesota Legislature. In a committee charged with public safety, a 5-3 majority decided that the best people to make sure felons, domestic abusers and the dangerously mentally ill don't buy guns are the prohibited buyers themselves.

That's who's left to monitor unlicensed gun transactions at gun shows right now, because of a gaping loophole in the law. Federally licensed firearms dealers must conduct a background check on a prospective buyer, but unlicensed sellers at gun shows have no legal background check requirements at all.

This bill would have closed this loophole by requiring background checks on prospective buyers. The bill is backed by the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, and polls have shown that 82 percent of Minnesotans support background checks before all gun sales.

So why did the committee vote against the bill? The reason was political fear, which was a major miscalculation on the part of lawmakers. There is no known example of a state legislator losing an election for voting for reasonable gun regulation.

As V.J. Smith of MADDADS testified, in his neighborhood the children can't go outside to play because the gang members have guns. Ten people have died from gun violence this year in Minneapolis. This is not normal, and this is needless.

There is a clear course of action to help stop the gun trafficking. The legislators who voted to do nothing are guilty of dereliction of duty. The full Legislature should take up the bill.

HEATHER MARTENS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Citizens for a Safer Minnesota

school fundraising

Wrestling 'villains' inappropriate for kids

Regarding the article on "creative fundraising" for schools ("Wrestling for school dollars," April 1): As someone who teaches cross-cultural management for a number of higher education institutions, I don't even know where to begin.

Referenced was "a spectacle of caricatured roles -- a fur-clad Norseman, a pair of fighters in kilts -- a wrestler playing an Iranian made a show of unrolling a rug and kneeling to pray, then insulted Americans as the crowd booed."

This at a school whose mission is to educate our youth?

My heart just hurts for my Muslim friends, who have to live with this kind of misinformation and lack of knowledge each and every day.

Does anyone know, or care, that the vast majority of the 1.2 billion Muslims in the world are not terrorists, and are peace-loving people?

How does this serve our multicultural society?

LYDIA MACKENZIE, RICHMOND, Minn.

mexico's drug war

Source of gangsters' guns adds another myth

Another widely touted myth about the Mexican drug wars is that the gangsters buy weapons in the United States ("Five myths about Mexico's drug war, March 31).

Actually, they don't use sporting arms, but rather military weapons like AK and M16 rifles, as well as rocket-propelled grenades, which are illegal in the United States.

If the gangsters can import tons of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine ingredients from overseas, they can certainly import military weapons.

So if you care about the violence in Mexico, if you care about the South American environment destroyed to grow coca, if you care about the drug trade, don't buy drugs.

Stick to beer. We make that in Minnesota.

JOSEPH SMITH, MINNEAPOLIS