Readers Write (May 14): Minneapolis Veterans' Medical Center, teacher compensation, water quality, bird deaths by glass, plastic-bag bans

As we write this, we are about to attend the military service and burial of our son, Craig, who passed away May 4. We could not let this day pass without expressing our heartfelt thanks to the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center and the doctors, nurses and hospital staff who cared so well for our son during his desperate fight against brain cancer. We know the criticism that veterans' health care has been under recently. We want to voice a contrary view of sincere appreciation for the caliber of care and support our son received during the many months he was treated for this terrible disease. We cannot begin to fully estimate the hundreds of thousands of dollars that our son's care undoubtedly costs; we can only state that his family and wife were never billed a nickel.

So as we leave to attend our son's service, we want to say again how deeply appreciative we are for the quality of health care and support our son received. We thank our government and the wonderful professionals of the VA Health Care System for caring so well for our son.

The net effect for teachers from increasing benefits costs, particularly health care, is simply declining take-home pay. This was true 10 and 20 years ago, and it plays out again, as analyzed by the Star Tribune on May 13.

Along with rising costs, the writers calculated an inflation-adjusted 2 percent decline of take-home pay over 11 years. Even so, the front-page headline was a misleading "Cost of teachers' benefits soars." Regardless of the subhead that follows — "Salaries are stagnant" — the overwhelming message is: Teachers are costing us taxpayers a wad of money.

While a headache for budget-balancing legislators and school district officials, take-home pay is the true story of sustainability in any profession. And 11 years of teacher salary stagnation or actual decline is an exit sign for prospective and current teachers. This is a societal tragedy, and a clear failure of government-mandated stewardship of public education, our most valuable resource.

Children, and the teachers who shepherd them, should not be undermined, compromised or condemned by the chaos of the marketplace.

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Wow — where to start? I applaud the Star Tribune in publishing multiple pieces on the important issue of water quality on its May 13 opinion pages, and I especially appreciate the courageous work of the Dodge County Concerned Citizens in working against contamination of groundwater in Minnesota ("At ground zero of the groundwater crisis"). I recently saw the eye-opening documentary "Cowspiracy," which quotes the statistic of 116,000 pounds of animal excrement that is produced every second worldwide and how livestock operations have created 95,000 square miles of dead zones in our oceans. Animal agriculture is also having major effects on climate change and overall worldwide food supplies.

It takes 18 times as much land to supply a typical American diet containing meat, dairy and eggs, compared with a diet of plants only. One thing all of us can do, as difficult as it is to change our dietary habits, is to eat less meat, dairy and egg products, a change that has been shown to be healthier but that also would lead to less need for more animal feedlots and toward more sustainable land use and protection of our precious water.

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When you have more dessert than people to eat it, dividing it up is easy. Seven cookies, divided among eight people, changes the dynamics of the discussion completely. Local officials will find the same issues in managing groundwater resources ("Debate over deep wells brings tensions to the surface," May 10). Today, southwest metro suburbs each get a full helping of water. Cooperation will be difficult when City Councils have to start telling residents and businesses "no" to more water use, or spend large amounts of money to fix the problem. One only needs to look at the situation around White Bear Lake to see the same dynamic in action today.

The writer is a former member of Bloomington City Council.

Furthermore, empirical evidence collected by scientists demonstrates that hundreds of millions of birds are killed annually by striking windows in the U.S. alone. Before arrogantly dismissing hard data, you might consider that your personal absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In addition to being on the edges of buildings, where you are less likely to notice them, many birds that strike buildings are collected and disposed of by street cleaners. Many more are taken by urban scavengers.

It is time for Minneapolis to join the ranks of other progressive cities such as San Diego, New York City, San Francisco and Portland, which have already made steps toward reducing the death toll of our cities on native wildlife.

Good for St. Louis Park! ("Plastic bags might get the boot," May 12.) I'm tired of seeing plastic shopping bags stuck in the trees, littering paths and polluting our lakes. As an Edina resident who lives near the borders of St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minneapolis, I have plenty of choices of where to shop, and I'll vote with my feet. If St. Louis Park enacts this ban, I will make it a priority to bring my business to St. Louis Park stores.

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Why stop with bags? How about Tupperware, plastic garbage cans and kids' toys? They use a lot of plastic, as do cellphones and computers. Does this mean my paper will be an unprotected soggy mess, and I won't be able to savor the Star Tribune's editorials on the environment? Then there is Air Force One, which burns 5 gallons of gas to the mile. A round trip to Hawaii would consume about 47,000 gallons of gas, enough petroleum to make about 23,000 pounds of plastic bags. What's next, our toilet paper?