Readers Write (May 10): Vikings stadium, public housing, political images

The Star Tribune, by virtue of nearly daily front-page stories about the Vikings stadium for the last few months; Mayor R.T. Rybak and seven members of the Minneapolis City Council; the Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature who voted to approve the stadium bill, and Gov. Mark Dayton, who lobbied for the bill, all pretend to favor democracy but have just done everything in their power to prevent the people of Minneapolis from voting on the stadium as the city charter says they must.

May the Vikings never win another game. May they never win a playoff. May they always have a season like the Twins' last and current ones.

BRIAN MCNEILLl, Minneapolis

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Dayton says that "the voices of the people of Minnesota were heard tonight" ("Stadium deal clears House," May 8). Candidly, that is very selective hearing.

HENRY PABST, SUNFISH LAKE

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Republican "no taxes" ideology has been turned on its head by, of all people, Republicans -- who, it would seem, have found a way to raise taxes to support a development subsidy instead of, say, funding education or legitimate infrastructure projects.

Democrats think they are doing us a big favor by voting for jobs, which will, after the stadium gets built, all be low-paying -- food vendors, janitors, parking-lot attendants.

Meanwhile, the explicit requirement of the Minneapolis charter requiring a vote of the taxpayers has been flim-flammed out of existence through a mayoral sleight-of-hand and careful lawyering. The profound lack of interest by a majority of Minnesotans has been drowned out by the juvenile mob of hooligans roaming around the State Capitol in their overpriced purple jerseys like the pigs in Orwell's "Animal Farm" chanting nonsense until they get their way.

Whatever deal the conference committee comes up with will not pass the smell test and will leave the state with a damaged reputation for thoughtful management of public resources. Game over.

GEORGE HUTCHINSON, MINNEAPOLIS

Go Vikings! To Los Angeles. Then maybe we can focus on things that matter.

BOB CRESS, MINNEAPOLIS

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So what if the Vikings move to Los Angeles? Even if all NFL teams were located in Nebraska and all the games were played there, most people would watch the games the same way -- from their easy chairs in their living rooms. They'd never know the difference.

It's not valid to say it's our team. The players just work here.

"Whoo-hooo! General Mills just signed a Stanford Ph.D. in chemical engineering!"

DOUG SMITH, MINNEAPOLIS

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I appreciate the concern for those who have been smoking most of their lives and how difficult changes can be (editorial, May 8), but the priority needs to be to provide a healthy living environment for nonsmoking residents of public housing, especially children and the elderly.

I provide assistance to people every day all over the United States who are very ill, often going to the emergency room because of breathing problems -- and for no other reason than that a neighbor is smoking and the smoke is filling their home. Some have told me they have to sleep in their cars because the smoke is so bad.

I would encourage the Minneapolis Housing Authority to completely stop the smoking as soon as possible (if not immediately). It can be life-or-death for some.

JACQUELINE PETTERSON, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

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I want to coin a new term: a "Romney moment."

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney can't react quickly to a question or situation, because he either has no convictions or his convictions are so scary he can't let us know what they are.

No thinking Republican or true independent can vote for Romney. You won't know what you're voting for.

BECKY CARPENTER, MINNEAPOLIS

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Who would have thought that the DFL Party could be so misunderstood? Today I had a message from our credit card company to call immediately about possible fraud. I feared that someone had used our card to run up horrific charges.

The charge in question was for the "MN DFL." I started to laugh and asked the person from Bank of America is she knew what that meant? She said no, so I explained.