AIRPORT SIGNAGE
New signs alone won't address the problem
It's not the highway signs! Airline tickets should have the Humphrey or Lindbergh designation on them. Then travelers will know where they going and/or where they should be picked up.
PENI GENSLER, PLYMOUTH
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As a frequent flier, I have found the most effective use of signage when entering a strange airport is to have the airline's name listed on the sign.
KEITH REED, ROSEMOUNT
PARK BOARD MEMORIALS
Charge it for all plaques that honor its service
Regarding the Park Board policy to charge families to continue memorial benches, let's be fair to all. Perhaps we should also insist that current and former Park Board commissioners or their descendants fork over $1,000 for every plaque on every park building that memorializes who was on the Park Board when the structure was built. Should they fail to pay up, remove the plaque as it probably costs about $200 a year to maintain it.
DAVID FOSTER, MAIDEN ROCK, WIS.
NO TAX ON CLOTHES
Someone should be advertising this fact
The Mall of America has more than 40 million visitors a year. But do any of these people know that there is no sales tax on clothing? I talk to many visitors, and most aren't aware of that and thank me.
It seems the mall and the state don't advertise that fact. If more people knew that fact ahead of time, they might spend more money here.
JACK CHRISTOPHER, BLOOMINGTON
PALIN STEPS DOWN
Don't blame the comics: They will miss her most
The July 9 Letter of the Day chides the media vultures for humiliating Sarah Palin. Wrong culprit.
John McCain did that when he thrust her -- unprepared and unwilling to prepare -- onto the national stage only to crumble under the withering fire of Katie Couric and Tina Fey. To paraphrase another infamous clown, comics and reporters don't want to destroy Palin. What will they do without her? She completes them.
ALEKS HINDIN, ST. LOUIS PARK
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Once again the media's attention is focused on Palin, but when did it ever cease? Unlike its love affair with Barack Obama, the media launched a witch hunt aimed at Palin and her family that continued even after she and McCain lost.
Why do the media continue to prey on the small-town, uneducated hick politician from Alaska? Could it be that they are threatened by her unapologetic conservative views -- a menace to their liberal views and feminist agenda?
JANET BEZDICEK, PLYMOUTH
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A reader questioning the qualifications of Palin asked: "And since when do we support candidates merely on the basis of whether they can deliver a good speech?" The answer: We elected him as our 44th president last November.
JACK SCHUTZ, COLUMBIA HEIGHTS
FACTS ABOUT GUN CONTROL
Letter writers play down the power of the NRA
The two July 7 letter writers critical of Warren Spannaus and his call for reasonable restrictions on firearms are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.
They alluded to the issue as having little interest or relevance with lawmakers today. Ask any legislator, especially those outstate, and they will tell you it is political suicide to vote against the wishes of the National Rifle Association.
Now for some facts:
• The 91-41 vote against the gunshow loophole amendment in the Minnesota House was on whether it was germane with the bill to which it was attached, not on its own merits.
• According to the FBI, since 1994 there have been more than 1.6 million rejections of attempts by prohibited people (usually convicted felons) to purchase a firearm from a federally licensed firearms dealer. In Minnesota alone, in 2005, there were 2,420 such rejections.
• The House amendment to close the gunshow loophole would not have banned any law-abiding person of legal age from purchasing a firearm.
• Under current Minnesota law, a private, nonlicensed person at a gunshow can sell a firearm -- including pistols and assault weapons -- to any person, of legal age, about whom they know nothing else.
This has nothing to do with wishing "to eliminate public access to all firearms," but everything to do with trying to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
JOAN A. PETERSON, DULUTH;
PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA CHAPTER,
MILLION MOM MARCH
