Readers Write (Dec. 30): Inline skating at U.S. Bank stadium, U.S.-Israel relations, sanctuary, lives lost in 2016, holiday shifts, the holiday spirit

The Metrodome Inline Skate program was a treasured winter exercise option that had a cultlike following in Minnesota. For $6 to $8, you could park for free and skate to piped-in music on the nights the concourses were open.

My daughter and I treasured our skating nights, and for a single mom it was an affordable and healthy activity we could share.

The new stadium has opened up for inline sessions, but decisionmakers have raised the price and limited the amount of tickets they sell, and there is no parking available.

If you don't purchase through Ticketmaster (which adds on its own service fee), you have to wait to buy tickets outside in the cold and then walk around until you come to the one open door to get inside. If you get to the stadium and tickets are sold out, you are out of luck.

We taxpayers helped pay for this stadium.

I resent it already that I can't afford to attend a football game, and now they are making inline skating nearly inaccessible as well.

It used to be so simple to go skate at the Metrodome. Why can't it be the same in the new stadium?

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Secretary of State John Kerry got it exactly right: Israel must have a two-state solution or give up either democracy or being a Jewish state. It cannot annex the West Bank and have both. Israelis know this. I took an online course on the modern Middle East, taught by Tel Aviv University, and this was a big topic in the online forums. It's not an ideological problem. It's a math problem. Annex the West Bank, and in short order Arabs will outnumber Jews. Also discussed was the fact that Netanyahu's government needs a hostile Palestinian presence to stay in power. The terrorist threat is a big part of the government's appeal to Israelis. Is it real? Well, statistically you are twice as likely to get shot in Minneapolis as killed by a terrorist in Israel. The real challenge is greed. Israelis don't want to give up the ability to steal Palestinian land until they have all the best. It is similar to settlers stealing Native American land in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

If anyone in the world should be offering sanctuary, it is the U.S. We were the ones who invaded Iraq, and when Paul Bremer disbanded the Iraqi army and purged the Sunnis and Baathists and installed a Shiite government, the Islamic State was born. In addition, our war gave encouragement to the birth of the Arab Spring, and to the rebel forces in Syria. It is time to increase our risk level and accept "the wretched refuse of your teeming shore."

Thank you so much for the coverage related to the death of Tyler Lenort ("Judge rejects driver's mental illness claim: High-speed crash killed Bloomington city worker," Dec. 28). I worked with both of the men mentioned in the article — hardworking men, out in all kinds of weather to make the streets safe. This week we are remembering many people we have lost this year. Thank you for remembering Tyler, who died at work, on a Bloomington street.

I would like to "piggyback" on a Dec. 28 letter ("Holiday shifts: Thanks to those who sacrificed"). The writer thanked all the Minnesota doctors and other health-care providers who sacrificed by working the holidays. In addition, I would like to acknowledge that many of our Minnesota doctors are Jewish, Muslim, atheist, Buddhist, Orthodox Christian, Hindu and so on.

Therefore, I would also like to thank these doctors who, I am confident, offered to take over the Christmas shifts for their Christian peers.

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My family is very thankful to all who live in the same city so we don't have to deal with traveling and airports, most especially during the busy holiday season. However, living under the airplanes in our Minneapolis home, I am always reminded of the people at our own airport and around the country, from the airline employees, flight attendants and pilots, as well as the TSA workers who help keep our flying public safe. These people sacrifice their holidays to keep us all departing from, and arriving to, the places where we want to go.

Police, firefighters and hospital workers are the people who come to mind more often as being on duty so that the rest of us can have a safe holiday, and how we do appreciate them, but the airport workers are not always remembered, and I do want to do that now.

Thank you to all of you who keep this nation moving from place to place for families to be together whether for Christmas, Hanukkah or any other holidays that people celebrate now, and throughout the year. We appreciate your time and your dedication to our safety and well-being. Happy holidays!

If you favor a somewhat small and easy-to-handle (3-foot) tree, and if you decorate sparingly (lights only); if you decorate your home interior with four items or fewer; if the in-laws ask you to bring one food item or less to the celebration, and if you have to contribute only one gift (or less) … then and only then will you have an absolutely glorious holiday! (This from a wife/mother/grandmother who has been solely responsible for the festivities for 50 years — it's taken that long to reach this conclusion.)