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Readers Write for Tuesday, June 2

June 2, 2009 at 11:52AM

COURT HEARS SENATE CASE

Regardless who wins, get the pen out, guv

Regardless of how the Minnesota Supreme Court rules in the Al Franken-Norm Coleman contest, Gov. Tim Pawlenty should, upon resolution of any outstanding actions, immediately sign the election certificate. Because once the Supreme Court has ruled, the issue of representation is resolved within the state of Minnesota. Any subsequent federal appeal constitutes a defiance of the will of the people of Minnesota.

It makes no sense to withhold Minnesota's representation until the federal government rules. Since when does a state's selected representatives have to appeal to the federal government for permission to serve in Congress?

ROBERT ALBERTI, MINNEAPOLIS

ABORTION DOCTOR KILLED

Movement doesn't have long history of violence

I'm certain I was not the only prolife/antiabortion person who cried upon learning of Dr. George Tiller's murder on Sunday. But in my frustration and grief, I have to point out some egregious wording in the Star Tribune's article covering this enormously disturbing event.

Saying that Tiller's murder was "the latest in a string of shootings and bombings" gives the reader the impression that this is a common occurrence. The reader has to go to the sidebar on the inside page to realize it has been 11 years since the last shooting of an abortion provider.

CATHERINE WALKER, MINNEAPOLIS

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I read with utter dismay the story about the murder of Dr. Tiller, one of the country's few doctors who performs what is commonly referred to as "late-term abortions."

Who let the inmates out of the asylum? Of course, the best course for a "prolife" person to take is to murder a human being. Let us get real. These people are not prolife, they are antichoice. There is nothing prolife about murdering a human being to get your point across.

BOB KOCH, COON RAPIDS

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So Dr. Tiller's alleged assassin, Scott Roeder, was "a subscriber to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocates the justifiable homicide position" ("Suspect is a staunch opponent of abortion," June 1)? And the website Talking Points Memo notes that Operation Rescue website staffers were desperately deleting their forum posts about the "mass murderer, Tiller"?

If families of minority and gay murder victims can legitimately sue the Ku Klux Klan and neo-fascist organizations for advocating and inciting specific violent or murderous acts by their followers and online subscribers, then the children and grandchildren of Tiller have a good case to legally sue Prayer and Action News and Operation Rescue, for their newsletters and website posts that directly and indirectly advocated Tiller's murder.

By calling abortion providers "mass murderers" and clinics "death camps" in blatant disregard of legal and ethical exceptions for destroying nonviable fetuses and embryos, these antiabortion proponents and their organizations are morally responsible, and should be held legally liable, for every murderous and terroristic act committed by the radical acolytes their sophistry has gestated.

FRANK BURTON, MINNEAPOLIS

DEBATING NATURAL HEALING

Miles shows us that there is a balance

I'd like to thank Steven Miles for giving us clarity regarding alternative healing and comparing it on fundamentals to mainstream medicine ("Of alternative healing and claims of truth," May 27). His commentary should put anyone's uncertainties to rest: Medicine cures, naturopathy might help.

Miles' piece moved me. Its simple truths excited my skeptical brain, and its poignant human stories tugged at my heartstrings. That you can embrace both therapies for what they really are says a lot about the quality geriatric internist he must be.

The world needs good, broad-minded doctors, and a few principled naturopaths can sometimes help, too.

RON CARLSON, LAKE ST. CROIX BEACH

INSURING ALL AMERICANS

Denying it to Congress is a good place to start

Instead of 20 more years of carrot-on-a-stick political rhetoric promising every American access to the same health care insurance coverage offered to members of Congress, why not have the same members of Congress relinquish their taxpayer-funded health care coverage -- temporarily -- until every American has access to affordable health care coverage?

ROSEANN PLUIMER, BLOOMINGTON

RAPID TRANSIT

In Bay Area, it's rail, and it's all over

My husband and I recently returned from San Francisco, where we rode the vaunted BART train that connects all corners of the city. We loved it and wondered why Minnesota can't seem to get it together to have such a system. If we did, we would be able to travel from the north suburbs to the south suburbs in a half hour or so and avoid bumper-to-bumper traffic. What could be better than that?

M.R. LARSON, PLYMOUTH

DEFENDING EVOLUTION

Letter left out very important facts

A May 29 letter writer makes a hit-and-run attack on the teaching of evolution. He does it by giving a false description of evolution theory, claiming that it is "molecules-to-man evolution by random changes in DNA." This is the standard creationist lie. When you omit the words "natural selection" from a definition of evolution theory, you are lying. Evolution is like the breeding of animals and plants. The easy part of breeding is the variation in the litter; the heavy lifting is in what happens to the members of the litter after they are born. Culling and selective mating are the way we get breeds and species.

ALAN DOWNES, ST. CLOUD