Readers Write (Jan. 31): St. Croix River bridge, the military, Mexico, bus trip, traps

A Jan. 26 editorial ("Bachmann's help is key on St. Croix bridge vote") mischaracterized my position and motive regarding the St. Croix bridge.

U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum and I are not advocating for an alternative design to the proposed version because we want to deny U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann a victory. It's a cynical notion that politicians act only for political gain or to deliver an opponent a political loss. I have taken my position on the St. Croix bridge in good faith.

I support replacing the Stillwater Lift Bridge. However, I want the new bridge to be of the right size and scope. The proposed St. Croix River Crossing is oversized, overpriced and overhyped.

It is expected to cost $700 million and carry 18,000 vehicles a day; by contrast, the Interstate 35W bridge cost $234 million and carries 140,000 vehicles daily.

Minnesota has 1,000 neglected bridges statewide, including in the Fifth Congressional District, that need repair, and a right-sized St. Croix bridge might save money, allow other communities bridges they need and preserve scenic river areas. I am sensitive to the need for fixing bridges all over Minnesota.

My congressional district is home to the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River. We all remember the heartache we experienced when the previous span at that location fell into the river during rush hour -- and we continue to mourn the lives lost.

We may end up with the $700 million bridge; I just hope there's something left for the rest of us across the state.

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Is it true that a gigantic and gigantically expensive military is invincible and can vanquish any foe more or less at whim? The data indicate that it cannot.

We have 400 military bases in Afghanistan. That's a base for every 629 square miles. If they were evenly spaced around the country, no base would be more than 25 miles from another; in fact, there would be four bases 25 miles away and another four bases 35 miles away from each of the 400 bases.

With that kind of coverage, it boggles the mind the greatest military force the world has ever seen is still bogged down 10 years later fighting guys who have no army and not much more than small arms. What's going on? There must be other motives, other objectives we're not being told. If there are not, the military is absolutely incompetent.

STEVEN BOYER, ST. PAUL

I am at a loss to know who could be writing the truth about Mexico. Is the Jan. 28 commentary by Ana Luisa Fajer ("A neighbor making strides," part of the "Great Decisions" discussion series) regarding the progress that is happening there the truth?

I ask because I read an article called "Mexico's Great Migration," by David Bacon, in the January issue of the Nation, and it portrayed a totally different picture of Mexico.

Bacon writes, "Mexico's extreme rural poverty rate jumped from 35 percent to 55 percent after NAFTA took effect, helping to fuel immigration." This is just a small part of a good article that seems much more truthful of what is happening with our neighbors and our relationship with them.

CAROL M. GERM, BROOKLYN PARK

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I do not know if Schrader knows the works of John Dos Passos, but I found his article to embody the deeply humane ethos and literary perceptiveness of that great commentator on our American scene decades ago.

I, too, rode the bus on my journeys to and from college some six decades ago. I, too, am puzzled by the juxtaposition of the ecstatic, buoyant, vibrant optimism that I knew from those distant times and the "inertia, ennui and despair" that we encounter so much today. I echo Schrader's existential philosophical cry, his question: "How did we come to such a place?"

WILLIAM E. OYLER, WEST ST. PAUL

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This is what Schrader's seatmate might have written on that Christmas Eve bus with equally judgmental, smug self-satisfaction: "He appeared to be sadly aged and confused as he bumped his head and struggled to get in his seat. All alone on a holiday, he clutched his beloved electronic devices while he gawked at the other passengers, unable to strike up a simple conversation."

CHRISTINE DEUKER, ANOKA

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The article "Hunters upset after dogs killed by traps" (Jan. 25) had a number of hunters expressing compassion for hunting dogs caught in traps. How about the terrible suffering that wild animals experience in these traps?

Charles Darwin called leghold traps one of the cruelest devices ever invented by man, saying that few men could endure five minutes of watching a trapped animal struggling in a trap with a torn limb.

Seven states have prohibited trapping (with some exceptions), and Minnesota should follow their lead. For example, last year some 1,012 bobcats were reported killed in traps (with many others unreported).