Plenty to blame for crisis

The United Auto Workers and the automakers must share the blame for the shape the auto industry is in.

The UAW has been so greedy for years, and the industry hasn't produced the quality product they should have. Now foreign automakers are putting the squeeze on our own.

Also, the American public isn't very loyal to our own products.

-- Don Ladwig, Elroy

I was surprised by the writer who complained about parking enforcement at the zoo. His ability to park for hours for free while tailgating and attending Badger games is now being affected by a Wisconsin statute enforcing parking for zoo visitors.

He said: "It's just another mechanism, used by the powers that be, to run the tailgaters out of Vilas Park." If this is the case, good for them. Go party and park somewhere else.

What about the families that want to enjoy the zoo and can't find parking? What about the zoo, which relies on attendance and support to keep it going at no cost? Does a tailgate party support this?

There are plenty of streets for parking. There are even plenty of places to park and tailgate, but of course he'd have to pay.

Maybe we can make everyone happy by letting him park there for seven or eight hours, and he could can pay the zoo $50. The money could be used to cover revenue lost while his car sits in a parking spot. But if we did this, there would still be a 5-year-old who might not like it.

-- Julia White, Sun Prairie

Don't fear one-party Democratic rule

Forum columnist Nicholas Voegeli is concerned about one-party rule. I am not. Although Republicans have a well-documented record of voting as a bloc, Democrats do not.

Maybe it is that record of voting as one that is worrisome to Voegeli. I wonder if he was worried about one-party rule when it was the Republicans in control?

Following the election, everyone now knows that change has to come. The "same old, same old" mentality no longer works with the problems this country is facing.

And unlike Karl Rove and Dick Cheney's predictions and hopes, a government controlled solely by one party won't stand the test of time.

-- Norma Johnson, Fitchburg

Voegeli's points show partisan agenda

Three of the four Sunday Forum essays were well-written and thoughtful, but I was discouraged reading the piece by Nicholas Voegeli.

First, Voegeli wrote that there must be a "balance necessary for a stable democracy."

He misreads the writers of the U.S. Constitution by substituting a "balance" of contending parties for the balance of power between the three branches of government.

With hundreds of federal judges chosen by Republican presidents for 28 of the past 40 years, there is no danger that a "stable democracy" is in peril because the Democratic Party won the election.

In fact, the last time the Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority and the presidency, after 1964, it took all their effort to enact Medicare over nearly universal Republican opposition (which called it socialism).

Second, Voegeli's partisan buzz words call into question the purpose of his piece. "Even Democrats must occasionally fight wars" is a prime example.

A check of the historical record will show that both World War I and World War II were conducted solely under the administration of Democratic presidents.

-- David Franker, Madison

Article made Johnson a victim twice

I am the owner of Snicks Sportsmans Bar in Monona. Mark Johnson used to stop in for a drink every once in awhile.

He was always respectful of me and did not cause problems in our bar.

It upset me to read the article "Slain man had troubled past" on Nov. 6. What about the suspect in Mark's murder? Did he have a troubled past, and what led him to the beating death of a young man?

Mark was the victim. It seems to me he was victimized again in the article.

-- Monica Quale, Stoughton