PAWLENTY 'UNALLOTS'
State is doing what the rest of us have to do
Good for you, Gov. Tim Pawlenty! With one of the highest-taxed states in the union, your move to use unallotment to balance the budget was only doing for Minnesota what Joe Citizen has to do daily.
And House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher's statement that Pawlenty has "... done more damage to Minnesota than through his entire career" is contemptible. Do your job, and stop using politics at my expense!
JOHN E. RICE, EDEN PRAIRIE
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On Feb. 19, 2008, Gov. Pawlenty imposed a hiring freeze on state government. Yet it has been reported that since that date the Pawlenty administration has hired 5,100 state employees to fill 4,827 vacant state positions -- hardly a freeze at all. State employees earn on average a little more than $53,000 annually.
If Pawlenty were a competent manager, his freeze would have saved in excess of $500 million over the biennium -- more than enough to have prevented his recent cuts to local government aid to cities and counties and the property tax increases that will result.
Pawlenty's administrative incompetence will cost property taxpayers -- especially in outstate Minnesota -- a bundle. Thank you, Tim.
JOHN ELLENBECKER, ST. CLOUD
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Gov. Pawlenty took his eyes off Minnesota a long time ago and took aim at a much bigger prize. He had to make draconian cuts to Minnesotans so he could show the GOP and powerful party donors what a "true conservative" was capable of doing. I think he was too cute by half this time, and, when he finally steps up and runs for the president, he will have to show potential voters what he did in Minnesota. A cold Mississippi probably won't win him that prize.
R. JACKSON, DEEPHAVEN
SACK CARTOON ON ISRAEL
Share the blame so we can move forward
The June 16 letter by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann seems to suggest that Israel should be free from all criticism and blame for the violence in Gaza and that the Palestinians are solely responsible for the continuing conflict. The June 11 Steve Sack cartoon suggests the opposite.
In reality, neither Israel nor Hamas is perfect; both are responsible for the continuing violence. To settle any conflict in a positive way, both sides must first admit their wrongdoing.
How will this be possible when we keep clearing one party from blame? Declaring one side to be correct and righteous eliminates the possibility for a moderate outcome to be reached, which in turn deadlocks negotiations, allowing the fighting to continue.
ALEX COLE, BURNSVILLE
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a conflict over land, yet Rep. Michele Bachmann doesn't think that Israel is "responsible for stopping the peace process by failing to stop its settlement construction."
Article 49 of the 1950 Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War unambiguously states that "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Doing so is contrary to international law.
Military occupation, by definition, includes the use of force. When you violently colonize territory, violating the human rights of the inhabitants is an obvious byproduct. If Israel genuinely wanted peace, it would offer a credible exchange of land for peace. To date, this has never happened.
NIGEL PARRY, MINNEAPOLIS
OH, SAY CAN YOU SING?
Anthem is meant to remind us of our origin
I'm not a flag-decal guy, but last Sunday, a beautiful day, I decided to observe Flag Day by displaying the Stars and Stripes at our house. Picking up the Star Tribune at the front doorstep Monday morning, I realized that the flag was still there. I'd left it out all night -- in defiance of flag etiquette, not illuminated by a spotlight.
With Old Glory still on my mind, I was prepared to agree with Michael Kinsley's June 15 commentary piece restating the old saw that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a lousy national anthem, at least for a mass singalong. I'm in the camp that prefers "America the Beautiful" for its stirring melody and poetic lyrics. I chuckle internally when our banjo band's leader earnestly introduces a patriotic medley that includes "This Land Is Your Land" -- as Kinsley points out, most folks don't know that Woody Guthrie wrote that because he was annoyed by "God Bless America."
But I have to take issue with Kinsley's assertion that "There is nothing in the American myth (let alone reality) to suggest that we are braver than anyone else." I don't think Francis Scott Key's lyrics suggest that we are braver than others; the words honor the courage shown by citizens who are called upon to lay their lives on the line.
Think of the Americans storming the Normandy beaches, being outnumbered in Korea, being sniped at in Vietnam, currently being ambushed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Regardless of whether one agrees with the national leaders and policies that sent them there, one must acknowledge their courage. That isn't diminished, either, by recognizing that our enemies have shown equal bravery -- sometimes suicidal.
"The home of the brave," for me at least, brings to mind people I've known or heard about who have shown inspiring courage in life situations. Family members, for example, who have fought cancer with dignity and good humor.
I agree that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is a challenge musically, but realize that its lyrics -- like July 4th fireworks displays -- are meant to remind us that our country was born out of armed conflict with a larger force that sought to oppress us. So I've always cut Frank Key some slack.
DICK PARKER, ROSEVILLE
IRANIAN ELECTIONS
Minnesotans have a unique perspective
I feel Iranians' pain when they can't trust their government to accurately count their vote. However, at least the Iranian government didn't resort to double counting some districts' ballots.
One thing is for sure. The results are quicker when you have a supreme ruler and not supreme courts selecting the people's choice for them.
JAMES M. BECKER, LAKEVILLE
HUNGRY WHISTLEBLOWER
We're misusing the word 'discrimination'
What's worse? The degradation of the word discrimination to the point that it now applies to the inability to purchase a cheap hamburger while riding an unlicensed scooter through the drive-through, or the difficulty of determining if one is reading the Star Tribune or the Onion?
TIMOTHY PIEH, NEW LONDON, MINN.
