Open Forum

Some people in the area have had their nose to the ground and picked up a whiff of $12 million in public money available for airport improvements. This money is apparently in a well pipe or something. Because, to extract this money the locals need to prime the pump with an additional $2.5 million. Buckets of priming funds are to be provided by the good citizens who live in the county in which the airport is located, and for whom the airport project will allegedly benefit. A consulting company hired for the purpose of helping to convince us to carry buckets to prime this wonderful money pump recently stated, "The direct benefits of a second runway would be $25 million recaptured in lost local revenue." I am having some difficulty with the logic of that statement. According to my way of thinking to "recapture" something it would have had to be "captured" in the first place. If it had once been captured how did it get away?

How many people do you think will hop in a company jet, land at Brainerd, rent a car and buzz out to the Westgate Mall for a day of shopping? If we were to follow this alleged money stream I think we would see that it flows north and west, to the golf courses and resorts in Cass County. Is Cass County going to also carry buckets of money to the priming pump?

How many of you have been out in Lum Park or perhaps sitting on the deck on a Sunday afternoon after the races are over and the jets are taking off from the airport to deliver race crews and owners to their next destination? Loud wasn't it? Image that and multiply it when the new runway gets here.

Denny Schmidt

Brainerd

Right-to-know law

"Women's rights" advocates would have us believe that the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion 29 years ago on Jan. 22 was a simple and safe solution to unwanted pregnancies. The truth is, abortion is anything but simple and safe.

Here are the facts being kept hidden from women: Abortion is widely practiced as a method of birth control; in 2000, 42 percent of Minnesota women having abortions had previously had one or more abortions. Abortion is painful and hazardous. Common complications include cervical lacerations, hemorrhage, infection, and uterine, bladder or bowel perforations. Permanent infertility, increased risk of breast cancer and death are possible.

In spite of the dangers to women, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers persist in advocating an absolute right to abortion, for any reason, throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Polls show that the majority of Minnesotans oppose such an extreme position on the issue. The next legislative session begins Tuesday, Jan. 29. Now is the time for mainstream Minnesotans to tell their legislators that women need to be told the truth about abortion and urge them to pass a Woman's Right-to-Know law.

Clara Kedrowski

Little Falls