Letters to the Editor

Protesters on Hwy 55 deserve support

In most of the articles about Highway 55 in the past year, the Minnesota Department of Transportation has this arrogant attitude that could best be summed up in a recent quote by Dan Dorgan, a MnDOT project development engineer, "Regardless of the outcome of the (law)suit, construction will begin this summer." If I should find myself in court in the future, maybe I should try this, "Your honor, however you would like to rule on this matter, it is of little importance to me. I will do what I want."

What I think he's trying to say is that judges have no power, procedures are optional and that a few elite movers and shakers will decide how our once-fair city will look. That may have been the way things were done 100 years ago, but not now and certainly not 100 years from now.

MnDOT representatives continually talk about how much community support they have, like they're trying to believe it as much as they're trying to get us to believe it. If this was such a positive, well-agreed-upon project, why do I hear so many stories about fighting this road that I could write a very thick book?

With the daily arrests, the news media like to emphasize the additional cost to the project. I'm paying for those arrests. Did I agree to any of this? No. Did the citizens of Minneapolis ask for their beloved Minnehaha Park to be ethnically cleansed? They are cutting those trees and chipping them, a 200-year journey from sapling to mighty oak reduced to wood chips in a half hour.

Instead of just waving or honking, the next time you drive by, park the car, get out and thank these people. They're trying to save your park for you, your children and maybe your grandchildren.

Robert Yorga,Minneapolis

Wagner is antidote to mundane Daily

Each day I turn to the troubled pages of The Minnesota Daily, and each day I stumble across the banality that is the editorial/opinions section. Yet, hidden there among the neo-conservative rhetoric lies a glimmer of satirical truth -- Pete Wagner. Thank you, Wagner, for continuing to uphold what the Daily once was, for holding the torch of resistance, for believing not all of us out here in the University community are future GOP contributors.

Although one can almost guarantee the constant whining of knee-jerk conservatives who "can't believe Wagner still works for the Daily," Wagner continues the journey down the rocky road of political cartooning -- without compromise, without remorse. Really, thank you, Wagner. Thank you.

David Marston,junior,cultural studies and comparative literature

Who's the lazy fool?

Thanks to Brian Close for warning us about those "abrasive, lazy fools," in his July 26 opinions column, "Don't let people get away with idiocy." I'll bet he hasn't heard this one: A disc jockey showed up to a wedding reception and expected the restaurant it was being held at to provide him with a cart to haul in his equipment. Guess the abrasive, lazy fool didn't think he should come to a job fully prepared and not expect someone else to do what he was hired to do.

Close, we all have our own idiocies. You might want to look at your own.

Lewis Horner,graduate student,mass communication