Bridge investigation
The refusal of the National Transportation Safety Board to hold public hearings on the Aug. 1 Interstate 35W bridge collapse is only the latest example of how the neoconic Bush administration and its appointed public officials will politicize any and every critical public issue to try to achieve their own selfish ends.

I realize this issue may not be at the top of the agenda to those living outside Minnesota, but it might affect you someday, too. My take is that the neocons will do anything to try to salvage the fast-fading reputation of Minnesota governor Tim "No New Taxes" Pawlenty, President George W. Bush's choice for governor of Minnesota and now a possible nominee to be Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

If the hearings prove that Pawlenty's appointed (and fellow neocon), the now-disgraced Minnesota Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau was negligent when she also served as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation and that her alleged negligence might have contributed to the bridge collapse, it undoubtedly would cast a huge shadow over Pawlenty's vice presidential aspirations and become a national Republican scandal right in Pawlenty's own backyard since the GOP (Greedy Old Plutocrats) will hold their nominating convention in St. Paul on Sept. 1-4.

(It took Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman less than one day to refuse to challenge the National Transportation Safety Board's decision to opt for closed hearings; if Coleman's re-election opponents, Democrats Al Franken and Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, do not climb all over this, they should quit.)

So, whether you live in Minnesota or elsewhere, I urge you to contact each member of your congressional delegation and demand they do whatever may be possible to open these very important hearings to the public. Today's I-35W bridge collapse hearing is tomorrow's Brooklyn Bridge, George Washington Bridge, San Francisco's Golden Gate and Bay bridges, Washington D.C.'s 14th St. Bridge, Massachusetts' Mystic River Bridge, Delaware's Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Florida's Key West and Tampa-St. Petersburg causeway bridges, you get the point - not to mention other possible infrastructure "malfunctions."

In sum: If you are for open government as a key element of democracy, now is the time to speak out and demand open public hearings by the National Transportation Safety Board on the I-35W bridge collapse.

Will Shapira
reader

Ethanol industry
Russia's Itera Ethanol LLC invested in the huge $265 million Clearfield, Penn. ethanol plant to be built this year. Our imported oil addiction results in an ever-growing export of dollars to the two largest oil exporters - Russia and Saudi Arabia. The United States imports two thirds of our oil and consumes nearly one third of the world's oil production yet we only have three percent of the world's oil reserves. Saudi Arabia and Russia are the largest oil exporters and have the world's largest oil and natural gas reserves. It is no coincidence they have the world's largest dollar reserves and it's no coincidence they have dollars to invest in our ethanol industry.

Corn used for ethanol production does raise the cost of food, but we must keep those increased costs in perspective. The vast majority of food costs are advertising, distribution and retailing, thus inflationary pressures caused by our ever increasing dollar exports for oil have the biggest impact on food prices.

Our best hope to get off our imported oil addiction is through expanded use of conservation technologies and renewable fuels technologies. Americans obviously do not want to recognize their own personal complicity in our biggest losing trade of dollars for imported oil. Oil we then wantonly waste because of our energy inefficiencies. . Could some corn used for ethanol possibly cause this mess?

Russia does not want another arms race with us because it is far more profitable to use their dollar reserves to buy our banks and infrastructure.

Orrie Swayze
farmer/ AFI board member

No health care? No equality
In this country, we are not equal. I will never go to Harvard for graduate school, even though many of my undergraduate professors suggested I should, because I will never be able to afford such an education. I have lived below the poverty line my entire life. I am not equal to my rich neighbors or employers, because when I get sick, I don't have the option of going to the doctor. My boyfriend cannot get the screw that is coming loose in his ankle fixed because he does not have health insurance. How are we equal? How can anyone even make such a claim? In this country, you are only "equal" if you are lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family. How can someone ask if health care is a right? How can people profit off other peoples' deaths? I hope to leave this country some day, and never look back.

Thea Holmberg-Johnson
University student