Readers Write (June 6): Gambling, voting, driving, drinking, food stamps

With the totally self-serving agreement between Canterbury Park and the operators of two nearby casinos ("Track and tribe cut deal on gambling," June 5), the state loses and state DFLers win. It's a lot like buying off any like competition.

How does the state lose? By forsaking the tax revenues that could be produced by a racino at Canterbury (in Pennsylvania, for instance, racinos kick in $750 million a year in state taxes). How do DFLers win? Easy.

By an undaunted stream of nontaxed "gaming" profits continuing for their large campaign contributors: wealthy Indians with casinos. The casino operator wins in another way: No need to hire all those expensive lobbyists to prowl the State Capitol every year to shoot down racinos that fully 70 percent of Minnesotans approve of. Heck of a deal.

Probably the most bizarre, Kafkaesque part is the two parties' joint admission that together they will try to squash slot gaming for anyone else -- say, at the Mall of America. Is this imperious or what?

GARY LARSON, OUTING, MINN.

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Today I was standing in line at the license bureau. A young, expectant couple ahead of me was changing the addresses on their driver's licenses.

They declined.

I wanted to tell them that it was the easiest way they were going to find to register to vote.

I wanted to tell them that the future of their new baby will hinge on their voting.

I wanted to tell them that despite all the words we use to honor veterans, or how often we stand up and sing the national anthem at ballgames, or how much we talk about what the government does or doesn't do, the only effective and real way to voice our opinions is to vote.

They will be busy after the baby is born. They will find the process of going to City Hall to register too time-consuming. They will continue to have lots of opinions about our government, but ... the choice they just made will make voting harder, especially if we change the registration laws and demand photo ID. It is, of course, their right not to vote, but then they are letting others decide the fate of their baby.

PAULA CODUTI, BLOOMINGTON

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As Minnesota families get ready for their summer travel plans, new findings are showing that clean-car standards could bring us major relief not just from pain at the gas pump but from all of the problems with our dependence on oil.

The Obama administration is on the verge of finalizing fuel-efficiency and pollution standards for cars and light trucks to achieve 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. A new Environment Minnesota report shows that if our cars met those standards today, we'd slash Minnesota's oil dependence by more than 300 million gallons and cut our global-warming pollution by nearly 3 million metric tons this summer alone.

Not only could you take that summer trip to beautiful places like the Boundary Waters without creating as much of the pollution that threatens those very places, but you could book the family a hotel for a couple of extra days with the money you'd be saving on gas: The average Minnesota family would save $582 at the pump.

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's decision to ban supersized sugary sodas has resurrected the age-old debate over the role of the state in protecting the public health. In recent years, this debate has involved bicycle helmets, car seat belts, tobacco, trans-fats, saturated fats in meat and dairy products, and sugar (or more aptly, high-fructose corn syrup). Public subsidies for tobacco, meat, dairy and corn production added fuel to the debate.

I would argue that society has a right to regulate activities that impose a heavy burden on the public treasury. National medical costs of dealing with our obesity epidemic, associated with consumption of meat, dairy and sugars, are estimated at $190 billion. Eliminating subsidies for these products, as well as judicious taxation to reduce their use and recoup public costs, should be supported by health advocates and fiscal conservatives alike.

Benjamin Franklin claimed that nothing is certain except death and taxes. Ironically, death can be deferred substantially by taxing products that make us sick.

BRADY MUELLER, MINNEAPOLIS

In decrying apparent food-stamp fraud, a June 5 letter betrayed an ignorance, not only of the Bible, but of the teachings of Jesus in general ("No reason to tolerate fraud or carelessness," June 5).

The saying "he who gives a man a fish feeds him for a day; but he who teaches a man to fish feeds him for a lifetime" is not in the Bible. It is usually credited as a Chinese proverb. Jesus, on the other hand, is described in all four gospels as feeding 5,000 people by giving fish away.

Although he hung out with fishermen, Jesus had little interest in teaching anything except how to love God and your neighbor. A quote that really is in the Bible: "Behold the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin.

Yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." And here's another: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Jesus was interested in the spiritual life, which included charity, not in how to earn more money.