Readers write (April 5): Vaccines, local government aid, federal budget, Katherine Kersten, Vikings stadium

Medical personnel and journalists are scratching their heads wondering why parents don't believe the experts when they say vaccines don't cause autism ("Vaccines. Autism. Let the e-mail fly," April 1).

For insight into this skepticism, just turn the newspaper page to the article "Further study of food dyes is urged."

For years, experts have assured us that there is no link between food dye and childhood hyperactivity, but now the FDA says that "hyperactivity and other behavioral problems may be exacerbated by food dyes."

Autism is devastating to families, and until the cause is found, many parents would rather take their chances with measles, which most children recover from, than risk autism, from which there is no recovery.

STEVE JOHNSON, EAGAN

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Newspapers as well as politicians need to stop using the term local government aid (LGA) and call it what it really is: "property tax relief."

If the state cuts property tax relief to cities, indeed, taxes probably will rise, because, without such relief, there isn't enough revenue to fund police, fire and snow removal services at an acceptable level.

MARK KARNOWSKI, LINDSTROM, MINN.

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When did unelected officials get so powerful? The National Park Service, for instance, is dictating traffic and commerce by blocking a new bridge over the St. Croix River at Stillwater.

If Congress can't stop unelected federal officials from overreaching, how are ordinary citizens supposed to do anything at all? In the end, if we can't instill change at the ballot box, our vote means nothing.

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Two letters writers in the April 3 Star Tribune used socialist Saul Alinsky's model of demonizing and discrediting opponents in order to avoid uncomfortable facts.

They attacked columnist Katherine Kersten and her graphic examples of Wisconsin union thuggery.

That is also the left's mean-spirited strategy of sexist attacks upon U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

TOM OSTROM, ROCHESTER

The current Vikings proposal ("Few cheers for new stadium scenario," April 2) requires the public to pay $2 for every dollar that the team pays.

The Vikings are unhappy about a surtax on player's income and luxury seats. The team's Lester Bagley says that the stadium bill must be properly balanced.

Yes, balance is primary, Mr. Bagley! Morally, why should the state choose stadium funding over kids, folks with disabilities, housing for the homeless, and roads and bridges?

Here's my solution: Considering the economic condition of Minnesota, my moral compass appeals to you to pay between 75 percent and 100 percent for a new Vikings stadium.

You can create jobs just as well as taxpayers can. And a new stadium clearly benefits the owner should he decide to sell the team.

SHERYL PALMER, STILLWATER

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The U.S. unemployment rate is decreasing, and some Republicans want to end that nonsense by reducing government programs that employ people.

We laugh, but it's obviously serious business. Ignoring Keynesian economics has hurt the country before, and it hasn't been just Republicans who have been guilty.

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt, a man we assume was a liberal, did it twice. In 1933, FDR shut down the Civil Works Administration because of concerns about its costs.

The economy worsened.

Of course, circumstances were different then, or so the argument will go.

But keep in mind that by 1945, at the end of the world war that put people back to work, the national debt was actually larger than the gross national product, yet the economy not only survived but prospered during the following years.

Now economic output and national debt are running a tight race again. Even so, we will prosper again. It will just take a little more patience and a lot less whining by the obstructionists.