Readers Write (Oct. 20): Presidential debate, Anoka, wolf hunt, therapy, political ads, Benghazi

After listening to Mitt Romney's arguments in Tuesday's debate as to why he should be president, I have decided that I, too, should run for president ("Heat, but still too little light," Oct. 18). Mine, too, is a five-point plan:

1) Lower all taxes to 0 percent.

2) Everyone gets wonderful, well-paying, fulfilling jobs.

3) All children get 4.0 grade averages, and get into the college of their choice.

4) Pollution is reduced to zero, and no more climate change, except in Minnesota, where the citizens kind of like the warmer weather.

5) World peace, forever.

What -- you say this isn't a plan, it's just a list of goals? You say I need to explain how I plan to get to these goals? I don't think so. If it's good enough for the presidential candidate of one of our two leading political parties, it's certainly good enough for me. Do I have your vote?

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Seems the media thinks the debates are worthy only if the candidates are aggressive, interrupting each other and getting into each other's space. The last debate would have been worth watching had Judge Judy served as the moderator. At least she commands respect.

RUBY NAGEL, HENDERSON, MINN.

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The Anoka Halloween Parade committee rejected a request to march in the parade by Justin's Gift ("Halloween parade rejects gay-lesbian youth group," Oct. 11). A student is quoted in the article as saying she felt that the committee was injecting issues of sexuality into the parade. "Sexuality shouldn't matter to anybody except for the person whose sexuality it is." Isn't it the group that is injecting the sexuality into the parade? If it shouldn't matter, then why do they feel the need to parade it?

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How many wolves should we have in Minnesota ("It's a fragile restoration for wolves," Oct. 18)? I don't know -- none is not good, nor is millions. How many to cull (that is to say, kill) must be somewhere between.

Shooting them? No worse, I guess, than starvation and disease in the aggregate. But live leg trapping? A horrible way to die. Just picture your little Fido caught in one and chewing its leg off to escape.

MARK THELEN, ST. CLOUD

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GRETCHEN MENZEL, WYOMING, MINN.

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I appreciated the editorial commending California's recent passage of a law to bar debunked treatments that would purport to change minors from gay to straight ("A ban on therapy to 'pray away the gay,'" Oct. 16). It's an important recognition of the fact that these practices do not work.

Being gay isn't something to be changed, because there is nothing wrong with it. Further, these methods are proven to cause severe harm. That is why I introduced a bill last session to bar use of any state tax resources for ridiculous "pray the gay away" therapies. Unfortunately, my bill was not granted a hearing by Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairman David Hann. I offered the language of my bill as an amendment to a larger health bill in the full Senate, but it was defeated on an almost strictly party-line vote.

I will pursue this legislation until it is passed into law. These therapies are rightly characterized as child abuse. It's time that we begin to understand that people come in different shapes, sizes, hues and orientations, and that each of us is a blessing.

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How refreshing it has been to view the political ads from Jim Graves, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen, a Republican. They've given us a glimpse into their personalities, families, values and what they plan to do while in office if elected. They seldom mention their opponents. What a contrast to the many negative ads from other candidates which concentrate on tearing down the opposition without saying what they themselves stand for.

DAVID PANSCH, BLOOMINGTON

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Michael Gerson's criticizes the Obama administration for an inadequate security that enabled the tragic attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya ("And the war came. And the president demurred." Oct. 14).

This is not intended as a criticism of Reagan. It merely suggests that Obama critics such as Gerson and Mitt Romney put the Benghazi tragedy in the perspective of the 1983 Beirut massacre. There was bipartisan shock and sorrow, and no criticism of Reagan as being soft on terror.