Readers' views for Jan. 19

Ness correct to revisit housing ordinance

Congratulations are due newly elected Mayor Don Ness, as well as a welcome to the office of mayor.

I saw that one of the first things he wants to do is revisit the wording of the housing ordinance ("Ness to announce his proposed changes to rental ordinance soon," Jan. 16). Good for him. Perhaps while he looks at it again he'll see what I see, that the local law is nothing more than government-sanctioned segregation.

Since when does the government have the right to tell people where they can and can't live and why? The law was created, it seems to me, just because a few people did not want college kids living too closely to each other. I have had neighbors across the street who attended the University of Minnesota Duluth, and I can tell you they were polite and clean. Even when they had parties, I never knew it. I would much rather have college kids than the drug-dealing thugs I have now.

Who's next? Blacks? American Indians? When discrimination starts against one group, such as college students, other groups soon will follow. Duluth needs to get rid of this ordinance now before it's too late.

James Zinmer

Duluth

Good ol' boys need to open their eyes to reality

What is wrong with these people on the St. Louis County Board? Voters already told them they did not want former County Attorney Alan Mitchell involved in county government. That's why he lost his race for re-election ("Board backs Mitchell [for interim administrator post]; critics foresee friction," Jan. 16).

There was no reason why the county should not have picked Deputy Administrator Lisa Potswald to run the show. And if the good ol' boys can't see that, then maybe we should be voting some of them out the next election.

Richard Talbot

Duluth

Ziegler is an excellent addition to News Tribune

I was delighted to see the addition of John Ziegler to the News Tribune's Wave section as a freelance music CD reviewer. Ziegler has been an impressive and talented interviewer of musical talent on KUMD radio at the University of Minnesota Duluth. I have been privileged to hear him conduct live studio interviews and watch him during live performances at Weber. His ability to make the musicians, and the music, accessible to the average listener has always impressed me. His newspaper reviews have that same quality.

The News Tribune should please keep up the good work, and I look forward to more reviews from Ziegler and hope to see an expanded use of his talents, including reviews of live performances. I think Ziegler brings tremendous added value to the News Tribune.

Jack Curtis

Hermantown

Bush, Cheney have set U.S. onto path of dictatorship

In the euphoria following the success of the surge in Iraq, and the hope we can at last see the light at the end of the tunnel, we in the U.S. seem to be forgetting who is responsible for our presence in Iraq in the first place. Who is responsible for the nearly 4,000 young Americans who have lost their lives? The thousands more who will live out their lives with legs and arms missing or who are now blind? And the many who are mentally impaired? Who is responsible for a sovereign country that did the U.S. no harm and that is now destroyed, with hundreds of thousands of its citizens dead, injured or displaced? Who is responsible for America's $9 trillion debt, its reputation around the world in tatters and thousands of new enemies taking aim at us?

Alan Greenspan said recently, "This war was all about oil," not weapons of mass destruction, not mushroom clouds, not cruel dictators and not creating democracies. Paul O'Neil, then secretary of the treasury, wrote in the 2004 book, "The Price of Loyalty," that this war was planned as President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney took office, and they only needed an excuse to execute it.

If the decider and the instigator go back home at the end of this year without a full investigation of the origin of this war, it will constitute the biggest miscarriage of justice in history.

One of the most damaging legacies left by the Bush administration is the challenging of the Constitution and the defiance of Congress without any consequence, thus setting a precedent for the next ego-driven, conscience-deprived president to continue lawlessness and add to it -- a clear and present path to a dictatorship, I feel.

Dorothy Peterson

Floodwood