Readers write for Sunday, Feb. 21

So now it's official: Gov. Tim Pawlenty has no heart. After a bipartisan effort to rescue General Assistance Medical Care, the safety net for the poorest and sickest in Minnesota, with nary a pause for reflection or regret, all Pawlenty can do is say "NO" and scold those who voted to pass it. This is the best he can do for the people he serves? Would he really treat his own family this way if he didn't have money for insurance? Would he really let them suffer without medical treatment or prescriptions and let it go at that?

We're not in Minnesota anymore, Toto.

SANDRA BOES O'BRIEN, MINNEAPOLIS

•••

I would like to start a grass-roots group to unallot the governor's wages and health care benefits; it only seems fair, since he can do that to everybody else.

STEVE STEBLAYS, EDINA

•••

JIM STROMBERG, WHITE BEAR LAKE

•••

Why is it that when Gov. Pawlenty says we must all share the pain of budget cuts, he cuts the things that most affect the poor and middle class while continuing to let the most wealthy in the state pay the lowest rate of taxes?

JOAN FELICE, ROSEVILLE

There are several facts that the Feb. 14 editorial, "Don't let new law slow PolyMet," glanced over about the mine and the future hazardous waste site it will leave in the north woods.

The waste site is guaranteed to leak heavy metals at some point in the future. It may not happen immediately after the plant closes, but the containment system will deteriorate over time and fail. When it does fail, it will destroy a wide path through Minnesota forests and ecosystems.

I lived through the same jobs-vs.-environment line that resulted in the destruction of a large section of the Indiana sand dunes park at the southern end of Lake Michigan. Steel companies built large plants and a shipping port in part of the park. Today, the plant is closed, and the steel company went out of business. And the rusting hulk of a plant sits there with its hazardous waste soil walled off from the public, which is now on the hook to clean it up at great cost.

If the PolyMet mine goes forward, our grandchildren or great-grandchildren at some point in the future will have to address the environmental damage left in its wake.

RONALD WILLIAM HEGNER,

INDEPENDENCE

Coleman's Feb 14 column ("The state of the state? A stepping stone") continues to illustrate that he will be without any inspiration for columns when Pawlenty leaves office.

BOB ADAMS, PLYMOUTH

Like many conservative pundits, Katherine Kersten suffers from an acute case of Bushnesia ("Public sector: An anchor as we sink," Feb. 14).

Bushnesiacs see only the current economic woes, but cannot remember that our $3 trillion surplus of the late 1990s became a $3 trillion deficit in the 2000s.

Bushnesiacs don't even remember who was running the federal government for most of the past decade.

To Kersten and the rest of the right: American voters gave you most of the past decade to execute your policies, saw the results and resoundingly voted for the Democrats to take over. No amount of revisionism, no neglect of facts and no manipulation of statistics will cause us to forget.

ROB EPLER, RICHFIELD

Just as the Johnson Institute Minnesota led the way in alcoholism treatment programs, now the Star Tribune is leading the way with its ongoing "Smashed" series of articles.

I hope editors of the Star Tribune will continue, in an assertive, "broken record" fashion if need be, until once again Minnesota initiative, care and expertise puts practical, effective solutions in place that end the needless suffering that results from alcohol-impaired driving.

DAVID R. GROUT, MINNETONKA

So why does the media spoil the experience by insinuating that winning anything less than gold isn't even worth their time? By participating, they have already achieved more than the average person could ever hope to accomplish, and to medal -- at any level, is just one step higher in an extremely rarefied field. Stop downgrading anything but a gold medal and let these star athletes just bask in the glory of participating in the Olympic games. They are all winners just by being there.