Readers write (July 31): Amy Winehouse, political moderates, rich and poor, water fun, paddleboarding, living with nature

Eric Davis' suggestion that the public's obsession with Amy Winehouse's struggles may have contributed to her untimely demise is inaccurate ("Who killed Amy Winehouse? Maybe we did, on the Internet," July 28).

Drugs and alcohol were not only part of her life, they essentially were her life for many years. After rocketing to stardom with the 2006 album "Back to Black," she had accomplished little else professionally.

Rather than give the public the performances they craved, she would often stagger onstage -- then quickly be booed off -- under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

I saw Winehouse at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis in 2006, and she was very good. I also remember her as an alarmingly thin woman.

Davis's view of the situation is all too common in today's society. Rather than hold a person accountable for his or her own behavior, we seek to place blame elsewhere. Winehouse's fans didn't want her to consume countless bottles of vodka or inject poison into her body.

She made those decisions on her own. Addiction is a disease. Some people fight it and win, some fight it and lose.

JASON GABBERT, APPLE VALLEY

We moderates have been silent too long. Most of us believe that government could work more efficiently and that we should pay for the services we expect. Through our silence, we've allowed both ends of the political spectrum (the "don't cut my programs" and "don't raise my taxes" folks) to bring us to a halt.

Come on, moderates, let's find that middle path that will get us moving into the future. Let's be just as loud and insistent as the extremes have been. It's time for our "silent majority" to start speaking up, especially as election season heats up.

LINDA COFFIN, MINNEAPOLIS

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A letter writer wonders why asking the wealthy to pay more is fair (Readers Write, July 28). Here's why:

2. They have the most to be grateful for, including that America has made it possible for them to become so wealthy.

3. They need a strong economy, which requires all people to have sufficient funds to buy the products of their firms. If products can't be sold because people are unemployed and broke, they have to lay off workers, further reducing demand, requiring even more layoffs.

4. It's not just the Christian thing to do, but the moral thing, found in all religions.

5. Because they can.

DARRELL EGERTSON, BLOOMINGTON

Paddleboarders apparently can ignore the common-sense rules of water safety ("Paddlers take a stand," July 27). The Star Tribune's article touted the experience for kids and other novices and featured photos of people not wearing lifejackets.

Maybe no one ever falls off a board or paddles over water deeper than they can stand in -- though I doubt it. Anyone care to guess when we'll read the first story of a serious accident?

DOUG LIND, EDEN PRAIRIE

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It has been with great pleasure that I have watched winter turn to spring and spring to summer.

At night I can look up and see bats precisely charting the same circles over and over in the air, their ultrasonic emissions leaving the slightest impression on my eardrum.

And this week, most marvelous of all, the three Cooper's hawks that have inexplicably made their home in the neighbors' trees, calling out and swooping through the yard just a foot above my head.

A rare site that, with everything I've listed above and so much more, makes me proud to live in a city such as Minneapolis. It is a tragedy, then, that in a few days these neighbors are clear-cutting every tree in their yard as a matter of aesthetic taste.

In a city that used to put stock in its natural landscape and is struggling to combat the deforestation caused by tornadoes, industrial development, invasive species and disease, and in a world that is increasingly disfigured by humanity's bulldozers and soot and greenhouse gases, for how many years will the natural world still give us its wonders?

For how many years can this family of raptors, and the countless families of hundreds of other species, find a new home for every spring?