Readers Write (Oct. 19): Marriage amendment, worker deaths, Wall Street protests, Vikings stadium, medical data theft

"Bishops begin fight for marriage vote" (Oct. 15) reflects an initiative to educate faithful Catholics to vote for marriage as the union of one man and one woman. It is about time that the leaders of the Catholic Church show some strength on major issues.

There have been too many years of soft sermons avoiding potentially divisive issues if only to maintain membership and donation levels, to not offend anyone.

The leadership could show more support for life, for a disciplined clergy, for social justice, for inspiring sermons -- for so many issues. Catholics who embrace all this could then be united by a well-defined, unique agenda.

By preaching its truth, directed by its pope, the church will be clear to all its members, at the risk of losing those offended by the message.

MICHAEL TILLEMANS, MINNEAPOLIS

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Last week, three Minnesotans at work doing what they do every day tragically lost their lives. Craig D. Carlson and Ronald Rajkowski died when a car plowed into them in a construction zone alongside Interstate 35W in Burnsville.

These accidents give us pause. No family should have to go through the experience of having a loved one leave for work and never come home. It should be a reminder to drive carefully through construction zones, so that workers can do their jobs and return home to their families.

The accidents also remind us why we have construction safety laws in the first place. There are some contractors who say these regulations are too much of a burden on business.

These regulations are there for a reason and need to continue. Safety regulations have fortunately made these recent accidents an uncommon occurrence. Let's make sure accidents like these continue to be a rarity.

HARRY MELANDER, PRESIDENT; MINNESOTA BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL

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The media's attempt to connect an innocuous comment by a proud young car owner to a tragic accident was ignorant and reeked of sensationalism. The driver had no chance to even defend himself -- not that he should have had to. By Friday, the State Patrol had confirmed that speed was not a factor in the accident.

With alarming regularity, the media are yanking comments and photographs from the Facebook pages of people who are involved in accidents or criminal incidents, either as victims or perpetrators.

The moral of this story? Keep your Facebook profile private, in case the media decide that your business is theirs.

JASON GABBERT, LAKEVILLE

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JOHN JACKSON, BLOOMINGTON

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The attempts to compare Occupy Wall Street to anything glorious are inappropriate, and the comparisons to the civil-rights movement are perhaps the worst affront of all.

There are at least three things that differentiate a truly great movement from the basic lawlessness that we are seeing today.

First, during the civil-rights movement, civil disobedience was used by people who had no other choice -- they were literally being shut out of the political process based upon an inherited attribute, as opposed to a bunch of people united merely by the fact that they share the same politically unpopular beliefs.

Third, they violated specific laws that unfairly affected them -- they did not break laws simply to get attention.

Breaking unjust laws is one thing. Breaking laws and infringing on the rights of others just to get attention is another. Go home and grow up.

ROBERT GUST, BLOOMINGTON

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For all those dead-set about using state funds to build a new Vikings stadium, I ask you: What are you willing to sacrifice to make it happen? Higher and/or expanded taxes? Higher fees? Fewer snowplows? Higher tuition costs? Decreased services? Fewer park hours? Closed wayside rests?

KYLE GREENE, SHAFER, MINN.

Why only fines for losing unencrypted data? Why not a misdemeanor ("Hospitals face probe of patient data theft," Oct. 16)?

There's no excuse for not using encryption to secure sensitive data. Need an encrypted USB drive? Fine. Start with a regular USB drive. TrueCrypt (truecrypt.org -- free and open-source for Windows, Linux and Mac) provides state-of-the-art portable drive encryption.

Use a strong password (grc.com/haystack for guidelines), and -- contrary to television and Hollywood make-believe -- the time to break is at least measured in centuries.