Readers write (April 9): NFL lockout, Stillwater bridge, George Will, vegetarians, debit cards

I wonder how Vikings owner Zygi Wilf would react if he woke up one morning and found out that he had been traded and would be going to work in Seattle, Denver or maybe San Diego. It would mean putting a house on the market (good luck!), hiring a moving company (more horror stories), looking for a new place in a new city, uprooting the kids and looking for new schools -- all the time knowing that fickle bosses might trade him again without his notice or consent.

The NFL has the advantage in being able to "own" human beings and move them where it wishes in order to extort free stadiums from cities and states. Do movie moguls demand that others buy them studios, sets and theaters? The NFL uses up its players, then spits them out crippled, uninsured and dependent.

Just because a person is well-paid for catching or running or knocking someone senseless doesn't mean they are able to defend themselves from greedy employers locking them out in order to extort even more from them. I hope the players are successful in their suit and that this is the beginning of a better deal.

JOHN CRIVITS, ST. PAUL

* * *

I'm an 83-year-old retired civil engineer with extensive experience in planning and governmental regulation of large projects. The editorial published on April 2 should have been published on April Fool's Day ("It's time to build St. Croix bridge").

Spending hundreds of millions of dollars of federal and state taxpayer money primarily to further urbanization of western Wisconsin is a travesty. That's especially true at a time when Minnesota's transportation systems are in a state of major neglect and underfunding. Let's get our priorities straight.

• • •

Having traveled the well-maintained, pothole-free toll roads of many Eastern states, I think the Stillwater bridge conundrum is a perfect opportunity to try a new/old way of building and maintaining Minnesota's transportation infrastructure.

Wisconsin isn't likely to pay a dime toward this project, though many of its commuting citizens would be bridge users. Therefore, charge the thousands who use the bridge a fee, and finance at least part of its construction and maintenance with proceeds. That's how it was done in the old days!

RICHARD GRIFFITH, HERMANTOWN, MINN.

• • •

Now what's really going on with the decision to replace the Stillwater Lift Bridge over the St. Croix? Contrary to current political dogma, compromise is not a dirty word if it moves you forward. Sometimes you have got to build a bridge and then get over it.

BENJAMIN CHERRYHOMES,HASTINGS, MINN.

* * *

While I'm not a fan of George Will, I agree with much of his April 4 column ("A nation of laws, and not of liberty"). He states that many people go into government because they enjoy bossing people around. I couldn't agree more.

R.J. DUNNE, BLOOMINGTON

I fully support the retreat from the grain-based agricultural system we currently have in favor of sustainable farming that supports the health of the soil first and feeds animals what they're meant to eat ("Grain drain: We don't need to give up meat to feed the world," April 3).

Dairy and beef cattle are not designed to process grain. It's one reason confinement beef and dairy operations have to rely so heavily on antibiotics and other drugs. When cattle eat grass as their exclusive/primary food, they're healthy, and the meat and milk they produce is far more nutritious. People are also not designed to eat only plants.

When Dr. Weston A. Price studied indigenous cultures still eating their traditional diets, he couldn't find a single vegetarian group. The smallest amount of meat products eaten came from an agrarian culture in Africa that drew 30 percent of its diet from animals.

Many of the healthiest cultures he studied, like the Inuit near the Arctic Circle and the Maori of New Zealand, ate upwards of 90 percent animal products. They had no cavities, no arthritis, no heart disease. That same health can be found today in the Maasai cattle herders of Africa.

Personally, I've upped my own consumption of meat and whole dairy, as long as it comes from knowledgeable local farmers who are supporting the health of their land and animals.

* * *

Reading about the Federal Reserve's proposed limits on debit-card fees, I'm struck by the difference between free enterprise and a free market. Free enterprise extracts wealth from others by any means at hand. Free markets ensure fair prices, voluntarily agreed to between payer and recipient.

The problem with the current system is that the user chooses the card payment, but the fees are paid by the merchant. We'd be better off if banks were free to impose any fees they chose, but if anything above the Fed's limit were collected from card users.

They'd probably use cards less often, and banks would compete to set lower rates: a win for customers (who now pay the fees through higher prices, even if they don't use the cards) as well as merchants.

Maybe even banks would benefit, in the long run, from some market forces in their free enterprise.

* * *