Readers Write for Saturday, April 18

After reading the Friday front page about the CIA's torture techniques, I'm wondering why this garbage is brought to attention. The enemy tortures, chops off heads and blows up bombs, killing women and children. These stories are put on the back burner or barely mentioned in passing. What is wrong with the news media today?

SANDRA BROWN, BUFFALO

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It is very disappointing to learn that at the request of Michael Hayden, the former director of the CIA, the Justice Department is not going to investigate, prosecute or punish CIA officials for their part in torture of detainees. This is a huge mistake on several fronts:

It lets torturers get off scot-free, it sends a message to current CIA operatives that torture is OK, and it tells Americans, as well as the outside world, that the United States is a hypocrite who preaches good and practices evil.

The most ironic part is Hayden telling us why the torture memos should be kept classified: "They would tell terrorists what to expect in case we should ever want or need to use these techniques again." Now there's a man who has not learned his lesson.

TERRY D'SOUZA, WOODBURY

I speak with thousands of parents in the course of my job as the trauma prevention specialist for Hennepin County Medical Center, and many ask for details about Minnesota's current law. I'm repeatedly asked if they would be breaking the law by having their 7-year-old in an adult seat belt without a booster seat. I tell them that they would not be breaking the current law -- but they could break their child.

For those who don't want to tell parents how to parent, the proposed changes to our law would be providing data-based guidance. When I educate children about how to be safe in the car, they tell me that, even when they ask for a booster seat, their parent says "no" since there is no law that says they need one. Even after hearing the results of countless studies, crash facts and personal testimonies, parents will default to the law to tell them what to do.

Upgrading our law to cover kids up to age 8 will also save us money because when people are killed or injured on our roadways, we all end up paying higher health- and car-insurance premiums. We all also pay for a lifetime of state-funded medical assistance for children who disabled by an improperly placed seat belt (which a $15 booster could prevent).

So who loses with this proposed law change? Nobody. If a parent chooses to disregard the law and receives a citation, the violation does not go on his or her driving record. The fine would be waived if it can be proven that he or she purchased a safety seat, and a portion of the fines collected will be used to buy seats for low-income families.

Upgrading our child passenger law sounds like a winning proposition for all Minnesotans!

Norm Coleman thinks the law is on his side (Star Tribune, April 17). I want to be fair and believe him, but a three-judge panel of people whose career involves interpreting the law say otherwise.

Norm is entitled to his opinion like anyone is, but to sweep aside the ruling smacks of arrogance, not a fight for principles. Win or lose, he will never be able to run for elected office again. I hope the risk is worth it.

JOHN JOACHIM, TAYLORS FALLS

I must be one of those right-wing extremists. I don't want President Obama's redistributionist so-called tax breaks. I don't want his national health care. I don't want his misguided big-government "solutions" to all of life's problems.

I don't think anybody else should have to pay a higher tax rate than I'm willing to pay. I want a fair tax code, where everyone pays taxes at the same rate.

KELLY BAILEY, MINNEAPOLIS

Memo to George Will: Denim is not a manifestation of shabbiness or unwillingness to give up childish habits ("Is that really what you're going to wear?" April 16). It is, instead, emblematic of fundamental values of everyday life.

For while few Americans continue to kneel in mud to pan for gold, the lives of many are made neater by the ability of jeans to withstand the everyday rumples of caring for children, hauling groceries, cooking meals, standing on the bus, schlepping laundry, walking in the neighborhood and even curling up on the couch with a good book.

So get a life, George. Check out the people who live by old-fashioned American values like frugality and practicality. People wear jeans because they're readily available and inexpensive. People who do their own laundry and don't like to iron.

RUTH ANNE OLSON, MINNEAPOLIS

The Somali community is comparable to the Vietnamese community that occupied the Riverside area previously. When it first arrived, it faced the same problems that the Somali community does. And poverty, lack of resources and lack of education always breed crime.

The Somalis are just as actively engaged with society as the Vietnamese were. The belligerent statement about their leeching social services without giving back is unfounded. Somalis work and pay taxes just like the rest of us.

Drew's basis for his argument -- the assumption that minorities get a break in the media -- is downright ignorant. Minorities generally, and currently Muslims specifically, are targeted by the media to place the blame of society's problems. Just because some humanizing stories made it through the filter does not mean that the real issues are being cast by the wayside.