Readers Write (June 16): Livability laws, the Catholic Church, the pope and the environment, the Guthrie Theater

While the June 15 editorial "What next after end of lurking law?" reached the right conclusion, the Star Tribune Editorial Board seemed to adopt the flawed conclusions of the proponents of the repeal of the lurking ordinance. In my decade and a half as a prosecutor in St. Paul, I dealt with hundreds of lurking and loitering cases. Without exception, the suspects were urban entrepreneurs dealing crack cocaine on street corners. It doesn't require much to realize that the majority of these people were black. Therefore, it doesn't require the assumption that such cases were the result of police bias.

Analysis of the facts of the 59 percent of cases cited in the editorial wouldn't be burdensome. Were the suspects just standing around without obvious criminal intent? Did the police just swoop down on anyone standing around? How many people were arrested on warrants after being approached for lurking? But why bother with a detailed analysis when all that counts is that something is "disproportionate," whatever that really means? Without a doubt there is racial bias during some instances of police action. But the flawed conclusions reached in the analysis of the lurking ordinance is hardly solid proof.

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The editors might want to think a little further in their defense of "livability laws." The phrase is "law and order," but while law is at least in theory neutral, order is usually imposed by one group on another.

In a June 13 article, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek talks about a man named Robert ("Mental illness in jail: 'Society's dirty little secret' "). Robert has been jailed 31 times for misdemeanors like trespassing, vagrancy and disorderly conduct, but his underlying offense, almost a status offense, is that he is poor and messy in an area the powers that be have defined as affluent and tidy.

If the editors and those they represent want to stroll comfortably downtown, what are they willing to give Robert beyond the pain and humiliation of being arrested?

The resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt, announced Monday, is long overdue. He leaves with characteristic aloofness of "prayers for the new leadership." I pray for the countless victims of his failure to protect children.

Those of us who take seriously the warnings of most scientists that unless we do our utmost now to curb global warming and climate change the very future of humanity will be threatened have already made major changes in our lifestyles.

One does not have to be Catholic to follow the environmental directives of the pope, but we all live in the world where the often-controversial U.N. is doing major good on this issue.

In my opinion, this and the threat of a nuclear exchange are by far the most important issues facing humankind.

I have told my children and grandchildren what I'm doing and why. One of them, 12, decided some time ago to become a marine biologist. Now, he receives materials from all sorts of environmental organizations around the world praising him for his career choice and urging him to join their fight against global warming and climate change. He has. All of us can, too. Please act now.

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We empathize with a June 13 letter writer's mother and we regret that she has not yet found the helps that the Guthrie Theater, staff and other patrons offer to all who could otherwise find it less accessible due to various handicaps:

1) Elevators up to the fourth-floor main-stage theaters from the ground floor, which is level with the sidewalk, so there's an easy alternative to the escalators.

2) The same elevators up to the fifth-floor Thrust Stage balcony.

3) Elevators up to the ninth-floor Dowling Studio from the fourth or fifth floors.

4) The elevator down to the front rows of the Proscenium Stage, escorted by an usher.

6) Main entry doors that are quickly opened by the concierge — unless another patron more quickly opens the inner and outer doors at once by a press of either button.

7) A main restroom door quickly opened by a press of the button — unless another patron holds it open.

8) An office door button where any complaint would have been answered well immediately to fill any need for those of us who are handicapped.

9) Fellow patrons who quickly step aside to clear our way, pick up our dropped program, offer a hand up or down any slope, etc.

Joe Dowling, his team and his patrons have made it easy for those with handicaps to enjoy the Guthrie. We'll miss Dowling, even as we welcome his replacement to carry on the tradition of hospitality.