Readers Write for Sunday, July 19

Denny Hecker is quite a guy. He has reportedly defrauded companies, employees and the state of Minnesota of approximately $800 million. Throughout the assertions against him he portrays himself as a misinformed victim. Oh please! I believe he belongs in a cell next to Mr. Petters and Mr. Madoff.

WAYNE KARNITZ, SHOREVIEW

A female candidate for the Supreme Court is asked repeatedly whether she can keep her "feelings" and "gender" out of her legal opinions. In the history of nomination hearings past, have questions of this nature been asked of male candidates?

And the party pounding these questions home supposedly doesn't want to alienate women or Hispanics. Too late!

MARILYN CARLSON, NEW HOPE

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When Justices John Roberts and Sam Alito were in the midst of their U.S. Senate confirmations, our nation's secular progressives voiced grave concern that Roberts, and then Alito, would be the fourth and the fifth (successively) Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court.

GENE DELAUNE, NEW BRIGHTON

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Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page had to explain to a fellow justice that DWB means Driving While Black. There is no doubt that any minority will bring a perspective to the courts that old white guys like me just do not have.

LEN SCHAKEL, LAKELAND

I am shocked at the lack of fact-checking in Garrison Keillor's Jan. 12 commentary on health care. His claim about Americans being treated free of charge in British hospitals is simply not true. I recently returned from a six-month work stint in the United Kingdom and can testify firsthand to the nature of the NHS system.

STEVE SHADDUCK, PRIOR LAKE

In "Look for savings in care for state's poor" (editorial, July 12), the Star Tribune missed a great opportunity to illuminate for readers why Gov. Tim Pawlenty's decision to veto the General Assistance Medical Care program (GAMC) under the guise of "cost-savings" was so outrageous. Instead, the Editorial Board focused on the rising costs of GAMC to the state and institutions, opining that the veto could even be a "catalyst for cost-saving changes."

Our citizens cannot afford that kind of catalyst. Eliminating the state-sponsored health care program so critical to the health and even life of 33,000 of our poorest and sickest will mean a great increase in real human suffering. Now, promises by the Pawlenty administration of "mitigating the effect" of GAMC's elimination are just more salt in the wound.

We implore the governor to work with the Legislature to find ways to control health care costs for all Minnesotans by implementing health care reform, not by cutting health care.

MONICA NILSSON, MINNEAPOLIS;

ST. STEPHEN'S HUMAN SERVICES

In "Hard to grasp swooning over Tony Kushner" (Opinion Exchange, July 12), Katherine Kersten writes:

"Kushner is given to similar rants against anyone who has the temerity to view the world differently than he does."

My irony meter just exploded.

ZACH CURTIS, GOLDEN VALLEY

How dare we celebrate playwright Tony Kushner when his characters do such hurtful and morally questionable things. And while we're at it, what about that Shakespeare guy?

In "King Lear," Gloucester has a son out of wedlock, and that son allows Lear's daughter and her husband to poke Gloucester's eyes out with their bare hands.

I used to think "King Lear" was a pretty good play, but thanks to Katherine Kersten I can see it for the cesspool that it is. And I say, no more celebrations of that disgusting William Shakespeare, either!