Readers Write (Feb. 7): Right to work, the environment, achievement gap, Amy Senser, academia

Republicans often refer to the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, but ignore almost everything else he wrote, including:

"The masters, being fewer in number, can combine much more easily: and the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit, their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen. We have no acts of parliament against combining to lower the price of work, but many against combining to raise it. In all such disputes, the masters can hold out much longer. A landlord, a farmer, a master manufacturer, or merchant, though they did not employ a single workman, could generally live a year or two upon the stocks, which they have already acquired. Many workmen could not subsist a week, few could subsist a month, and scarce any a year, without employment." (From "The Wealth of Nations," Book I, Chapter VIII: "Of the wages of labour.")

Many of these same people want standardized tests for schoolchildren. How about a standardized test for legislators on the Constitution, the Federalist Papers and "The Wealth of Nations"? I think we would find we had failing legislatures, both state and federal.

MELVYN D. MAGREE, DULUTH

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Within days of Minnesota Republican Party leaders citing "derogatory comments concerning, quote, dirty fossil fuels" as justification for effectively firing the state's public utilities commissioner, we now learn that one in 10 babies selected at random along the North Shore have unhealthy concentrations of mercury in their bloodstreams -- some as high as 1,000 times the Environmental Protection Agency's limit. Elevated mercury levels in babies adversely impact brain development and reduce IQ -- effectively dooming them to lives of diminished mental capacity and lower earning power.

Where does this mercury come from? It comes from burning the "quote" dirty fossil-fuel coal, and makes its way into a baby's bloodstream through it's mothers placenta after she eats contaminated fish. Are Republicans so beholden to the fossil-fuel industry that they simply pretend there is no such thing as a "dirty fossil fuel," or did their mothers just eat too much fish?

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I agree with Howard Bergstrom's assessment that some children need a second year of kindergarten ("Let's nip that student achievement gap in the bud," Feb. 3). A "transition year" is a good option.

As owner of a pre-K school, I witness the varying school readiness skills of kids within a given class. Predictably, the 12-month age range does describe the differences in social and academic maturation.

Competition with classmates affects the self-esteem of kids in all grade levels. Self-esteem is a key component in a young child's ability to handle new learning skills. Behavior issues and learning disabilities can stem from a child's not feeling capable with class expectations.

The third-grade standardized test assessments are too late in mandating a grade repeat. Allowing a child extra time to mature in a kindergarten transition year could make the difference with the failure rate seen in these tests three years later. The earlier kids get help the better.

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So ... if Amy Senser had struck and killed a person with epilepsy or one who occasionally had seizures like Gophers football coach Jerry Kill, for example, would her attorney Eric Nelson have used that as a defense tactic ("Senser lawyer: Victim on drugs," Feb. 4)?

Because we all know that people with epilepsy can and do move "erratically and unpredictably" when having a seizure. And would the headline have been, "Senser lawyer: Victim was epileptic"? Shameful defense. Tastelessly inappropriate headline.

TINA LANDEEN, BURNSVILLE

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