Readers Write (Nov. 5): Teachers, the election, printing opinions on the Washington NFL team's name

I'm sure that many teachers besides me flinched while opening the Sunday paper (Nov. 2), not just at reading the blaring, broad-brushed headline "Worst teachers in poorest schools," but also knowing full well how capricious evaluations of our teaching performance can be. In truth, we can be the perfect teacher for one student and fail completely with the student seated behind. We can be fortunate to have a supervisor evaluate us during a "good" hour, when we look sharp and skilled and effective, thanking our lucky stars we were not observed two hours later as we struggled to meet even our most minimum objectives. Our teaching tool kits and personalities can be a great match for some students and startlingly ineffective for others. We all have been, at one time or another, for hopefully not more than a few students, the "worst teacher."

I waited in line to vote on Tuesday morning. Friendly, hassled people told me where to go and what to do. I shared a table with two others and filled in the little circles on my ballot using a pen borrowed from one of the judges. My ballot was initialized by another two judges. The church basement was filling up. And it was only 7:03 a.m. That's when the scanner crashed. It took about an hour to vote.

In 2000, Oregon became the first all-vote-by-mail state. This means that all registered voters receive their ballots via postal delivery and can vote from their homes.

Counting votes in Oregon just has to cost less than counting votes in Minnesota. With vote-by-mail, there's no need for facility rentals or to hire the people who work that day. There's no reason for voters to take time off work (and we all have better things to do than stand in line).

Let's make Minnesota the next vote-by-mail state in time for the next election.

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After reading James Lileks' Nov. 2 invective against campaign yard signs, I would like to cast a vote in defense of these spindly placards of preference. Among the numerous advertising vehicles employed by candidates (and well-heeled PACs of nondisclosed origin), the lawn sign is far and away the most democratic. Most of us can't afford to pony up a few thousand dollars to finance a would-be congressman who will vote how we wish, but lawn signs are a free (usually) form of expression available to anyone with a yard or even a window. To me, they are less an endorsement of Candidate X or Y than an indicator that somewhere in the general proximity of this sign there resides a voter who is paying attention.

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I proudly fulfilled my obligation to vote on Tuesday and hope all Minnesotans did so to complete a key role in our democracy. In voting, I felt good about my knowledge of most candidates until I flipped the ballot over and saw the list of 30 judges running unopposed this year for the Court of Appeals and various district courts. I had to stop and wonder what my vote would mean if I darkened the box for each of these incumbent judges. I know nothing about them (should I feel guilty for not spending enough time to research all of these people?), and I certainly do not feel qualified to check their boxes as a "vote of confidence" for their past performance.

In the end, I concluded that this is pretend democracy and that we have taken the idea that "the only good officials are elected officials" way too far. We need qualified judges on the bench who have demonstrated experience, ethics and understanding of the law to be selected by a knowledgeable board. Instead of putting judges on a ballot to receive the voters' uninformed stamps of approval (most of the judges have been in office as gubernatorial appointees, anyway), why not have a bipartisan, expert board appoint all judges? Then instead of putting them on the ballot, have the same commission conduct performance reviews with uniform standards to determine if they should continue or are replaced after each election.

Difficult? Maybe — but the simple solution we have now is just pretend democracy that has no accountability for performance.

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We had a similar idea in the Minnesota Legislature that proposed changing gubernatorial elections from two years to four years. This idea had been proposed before but never adopted. The reason for not adopting this proposal was that one political party or the other was figuring that this would hurt their next chance to elect or maintain a governor. We proposed delaying its effective date until a later election. That change produced passage by the Legislature and gave the voters an opportunity to make the change — which they did. So delaying the effective date for a change that eliminates the midterm election would make the change far more likely to be adopted by Congress and approved by the voters — a change we really need.

The writer is a former member of the Minnesota Senate and U.S. House and a former mayor of Minneapolis.

A Nov. 4 letter writer took exception to the Star Tribune's printing both sides of the argument over the Washington Redskins name. Apparently, if you do not agree with him, you are a "clueless guy." I might call him a "whiny, crybaby liberal," but that would be as wrong as he is, so I won't.

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I am adamantly opposed to the Washington NFL team's name. I am also strongly in favor of the opinion page printing material that I disagree with. Letters that represent diverse points of view are important. I don't want my letter censored and not printed because it is unpopular or because somebody with that power disagrees with it, so I expect the same standard to apply to commentary that I disagree with. I do not see this as a "journalistic low," as the Nov. 4 letter writer stated, but as freedom of speech and freedom of the press.