Netlets for Saturday, June 7

Regarding "The October surprise could be a peaceful Iraq?" (Other voices, June 3): The Washington Post, as usual, can be relied upon to sing the Bush administration's current song. Yes, violence in Iraq is down. But is it all due to the military action taken by the US and Iraq's military? Absolutely not.

Muqtada al-Sadr has, since August 2007, held a cease-fire that forbids his followers from using their weapons except in self-defense. This cease-fire significantly reduced violence in Iraq, although the "surge" is generally given credit for it.

Al-Sadr has held this cease-fire (with some but not many of his followers refusing to obey him) through the Maliki and U.S. attacks upon Basra, Sadr City and Mosul. He has, in addition, organized a huge and peaceful march through the streets of Baghdad to allow Iraqis to express their wish that the United States end its occupation and leave their country.

Iraq's elections will let Iraqis decide if they want Maliki to remain in power and the U.S. military to stay as long as "necessary" (for what? for their oil to be all gone?) or if they, with Sadr, want the United States to leave now, to close all bases, and to allow Iraq to assume the sovereignty we keep pretending they have.

The United States seems not to notice that Al-Sadr and his large numbers of supporters are following in the footsteps of Gandhi and the Rev. King. We and the Maliki government, however, continue down the neocon path of violence-to-achieve-oil-money-and-peace-sort-of-perhaps.

BERNICE VETSCH, ST PAUL

Strong and flexible backbones We are appalled that someone who has been around as long as Koryne Horbel ("Feminist leader says no to Obama," May 31) disregards the lessons of 40 years ago.

In 1968 many disappointed activists refused to support Vice President Hubert Humphrey's candidacy for president. From those naysayers, with "backbones" (sic), we received Watergate and a disgraced presidency. If things do not go exactly their way, Horbel and her followers, in effect, would support a man who would extend the Bush legacy four more years.

Representing the third and fourth generation of a line of independent women who we remember and honor, we stand together proudly with strong and flexible backbones and ask all of our progressive feminist sisters, the "professional troublemakers," to say "yes" to the individual who becomes the Democratic Party's candidate.

Together we can stop the: bloodletting imperialism, continued tax cuts for the rich, neglect of the poor, inaccessible education and health for a growing number of our elder and youngest Americans, and added Supreme Court members who support many of the Bush "conservative value."

MARGARET SULLIVAN, MINNEAPOLIS, AND KELLY JAY, LAKEVILLE

Post-modern reality recommends Obama Perhaps 30 years ago feminism pitted men against women with little regard for social forces such as racism, classism, homophobia and other destructive ideas which have for too long divided and weakened our country. Today, however, feminist ideas exist in a post-modern reality which fully understands that gender is not the only oppressive force in America. Our country needs a president who comprehends a plethora of issues, including the fact that millions of Americans are disenfranchised not only because of gender. As such, this feminist is voting for Barack Obama.

ASHLEY MERCER, MINNEAPOLIS

Corn is food and fuel The front page of the May 24 Star Tribune has a short section called "Have You Heard?". It includes this item: "The corn required to make the 7.6 billion gallons of ethanol projected to be produced this year would cover an area the size of Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey and the District of Columbia."

That looks like a huge area, but it is only 20 percent of this year's total acres of corn in the United States. The projected 7.6 billion gallons of ethanol is enough to lower the price of gasoline 40 to 50 cents a gallon less than it would be otherwise because of the additional supply.

The author must not have heard that corn does more than just make ethanol. Only the starch in corn is used to make ethanol, the protein found in corn is made into a high protein livestock feed called distillers grain. A bushel of corn, processed in a dry milling ethanol plant, yields about 2.8 gallons of ethanol and 17 pounds of dried distillers grain. The amount of corn required to produce 7.6 billion gallons of ethanol also makes 23 million tons of dried distillers grain!

The debate about food or fuel is pointless; we cannot have one without the other.

JOHN BALL, HUTCHINSON, MINN; CORN FARMER

Reminder to cyclists: Share -- and slow down on -- the shared paths The good weather no doubt has everyone excited to be out walking, cycling and just about everything else. However, I would like to remind cyclists to be careful of pedestrians on shared sections of the city's many recreational pathways.

Last Saturday afternoon my 77-year-old father and I walked down Minnehaha Creek. Between Dupont and Bryant avenues, a biker brushed me on the shoulder in an effort to squeeze between me and another walker going the other direction. A few moments later, a group of cyclists road past going far too fast for the width of this shared section of the path. A mother was walking near us as well, with an infant in a stroller.

The section is short. It's not unreasonable to ask cyclists to slow down for 30 yards. And yet my request that they slow down, with my elderly father at my side and a young family near us, was met with half statements and no apology, as though we had no business walking there.

Perhaps a sign telling cyclists to slow down on shared sections would help. But a level of decency for pedestrians with concern for the elderly and families would help, too. We all share these paths for our enjoyment. Cyclists need safety when they share the road with automobiles. I would hope they would extend the same courtesy here and make room for those on foot.

ENRICO CULLEN, MINNEAPOLIS