Readers Write (March 24): Brenda Ueland house, disparities in transportation funding, proposed electric-vehicle fee, the language of gender equality

When it votes Friday, the Minneapolis City Council should spare from demolition the home of Linden Hills writer Brenda Ueland, and vote to conduct the study recommended by the city's senior planner and its Historic Preservation Commission to determine whether the house should be protected as a National Historic Resource ("Big battle to save a little house," Feb. 26). If this was Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Conn., or Henry David Thoreau's cabin by Walden Pond, would we be so quick to tear it down?

I receive letters daily from writers and historians around the world testifying that Brenda Ueland was the 20th century's equivalent of Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville — great American authors who died in relative obscurity but whose significance has only grown since their death. Ueland was a world treasure, and she lived right there on West 44th Street.

Minnesota memoirist Patricia Hampl writes, "Minneapolis is a literary center. We should act like one, honoring this essential writer."

Norwegian TV and film director Erik Richter Strand writes, "There is now a growing interest in Ueland's writing here in Norway, books and films being prepared about her life (both documentaries and fiction) … . To eradicate this particular property would be an irredeemable violation of Norwegian-American cultural heritage. It would violate the legacy of one of the most influential female writers of American modern literature, an act of ignorance I fear we would come to deeply regret."

Council members should stay the execution and do the study. Future generations will thank them for doing so.

Eric Utne, St. Paul

The writer, founder of the Utne Reader, is Brenda Ueland's step-grandson.

A big part of how Republicans won a majority in the Legislature was by appealing to rural and exurban Minnesotans angry that they weren't getting their fair share out of state government. As an example, Rep. Linda Runbeck was quoted in the March 22 Star Tribune as saying that "Minnesotans in all corners of the state are subsidizing operating losses for light rail trains they don't want and may never use." The article Tinklenberg objected to merely pointed out that the basis behind the Republicans' gripes — that the Twin Cities are getting fancy infrastructure at the expense of everybody else — is the opposite of the truth.

It's notable that metro DFLers quoted in the article, like Sen. Scott Dibble, agree that it's OK for outstate Minnesota to get more road funding per person, since it has a lot more roads. Tinklenberg's beef should be with the divisive, inaccurate rhetoric coming from the GOP, not the newspaper trying to correct it.

I am astonished by the responses from people to the proposed annual fee from the state of Minnesota on electric vehicles (Readers Write, March 23). This is not a latent attack on these alternative transportation choices, as some would have you believe. It a response to the fact that these vehicles move on the very same roadways as gas-powered vehicles and that drivers of these vehicles should bear some of the burden of maintaining those roadways.

Another point to consider is that a gas-powered vehicle that travels 12,000 miles per year and averages 20 miles per gallon will pay $172 to the state in gas tax each year. I think the proposed $85 fee is a small charge each year for electric vehicles to use Minnesota's roadways.

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Thank you for printing "Let's take the word 'women' out of 'women's rights,' " by Kolina Cicero (March 22). While we're at it, whatever happened to inclusive language? Time after time, females 18 or over are commonly referred to as "girls"; males, however, get referred to as "men." I do not consider the word "man" as being inclusive of both males and females. I use the words "human" and "humankind" instead. Cicero is correct in stating that language is extremely powerful. Language forms attitudes; attitudes become actions, which then, right or wrong, become part of the bedrock of our culture.

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I agree with Kolina Cicero that women's rights are human rights. I do disagree with taking the identity of women from advocacy for equal rights and from news articles specifically noting women's achievements. I've observed over the years that half of our humans already have more than equal rights.

It appears that news organizations don't consider stories of women's achievements to be worthy unless they are labeled as women's victories, and I truly doubt that they will "waste" space with accompanying pictures. Call me pessimistic, but we have to agree that in the past, women's accomplishments have not even made the news (unless one survived going over Niagara Falls in a barrel). I want WOMEN plastered all over the news so our daughters and granddaughters can see all of the possibilities open to them.