Busy bringing each other down

Perhaps the Democrats ' superdelegates have a real use after all. If the death spiral of mutual denigration finally destroys the candidacies of both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, perhaps superdelegates can form the nucleus of a movement to draft a viable Democratic candidate.

-- David W. Cole, Baraboo

Good for the First United Methodist Church leadership for steadfastly upholding their mission of providing overflow housing for homeless men, even though it means losing convenient, free parking.

And shame on Fred Mohs for trying to blackmail them into compromising their commitment to serve the needy in Downtown Madison by taking away the free parking he has provided for 18 years.

He wants them to move the shelter, presumably so the homeless will be out of sight in Downtown Madison. Instead he should put his energy into helping to solve the problem. For instance, he could help fund the Interfaith Hospitality Network 's "Housing and Hope " project, which seeks to provide apartments for the very poor at affordable rent.

Thanks to the Wisconsin State Journal for the articles that brought these issues to public attention. Homelessness and poverty are issues that cannot be ignored.

-- Mary Powell, Madison

Preserve Great Lakes shipping industry

A recent letter writer asked if the Great Lakes states "owned " the water. The waters of the Great Lakes are international waters and their conservation is overseen by two provinces in Canada and the states that border them. Nearly all of these entities have entered into a pact to work together to preserve this unparalleled resource.

There is a huge shipping industry on the lakes in which bulk carriers haul coal, iron ore, wheat and more from one end of the Great Lakes down the St. Lawrence Seaway to foreign ports. The fact that lake levels have been dropping to record low levels because of regional drought has had a drastic economic impact. In many harbors the water is so low that ships cannot enter them with a full load, necessitating two trips to deliver their goods and escalating costs to shipping companies. Also, Great Lakes fishing supplies markets all over Canada and the United States.

So if you look at the big picture and consider their economic importance, it is not "selfish " to preserve the water resources of the Great Lakes. It is imperative that Wisconsin join in the cooperative international effort to preserve them.

-- Marilyn B. Hurst, Madison

End U.S. and U.N. Middle East meddling

As an Arab-Israeli conflict grad student in the 1970s, I've watched and experienced some Middle East history unfolding on a daily basis. A Forum columnist March 2 unfortunately failed to acknowledge one important fact: In 1948, the United Nation 's Charter did not allow it to "create " the state of Israel, yet it did.

Meddling by the United States in Middle Eastern affairs over the past 60 years has resulted in our current disastrous relationship with so many of its peoples and states. Until our leaders, both political and religious, can recuse themselves from the process, allow the governments to negotiate for themselves and stop supplying billions of dollars in arms to all sides, there won 't be a sliver of hope for peace.

Israel must stop expanding and acknowledge the Palestinians; 60 percent of Israeli citizens already want to do so. The Palestinians must stop terrorizing Israel and come together to create a Palestinian state. Will this happen? Perhaps, but only if they help each other.

The hatred and rhetoric must take a back seat. I 've watched and waited for almost 50 years, and it has become worse now than anytime I 've ever seen.

We can only hope that a new U.S. president may be able to make the needed changes to end this nightmare for the sake of the Palestinians and Israelis -- and the rest of the world.

-- Lyn Young Lorenz, Poynette

Hamas ' radical views preclude peace

One Sunday Forum letter sounded more like a press release from Hamas than a plea for respect or understanding. Respect goes both ways, and we all should remember the dancing in the streets and celebrating by the Palestinians after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Somehow refusing Israel 's right to even exist does not rate high on the respect list. As for the Palestinians ' economic plight, one suspects that the millions of dollars given to the PLO might have produced a stable and prosperous Palestinian state had not Arafat turned down statehood at Camp David and "administered " the money into thin air, which obviously never made its way to the average Palestinian.

-- John A. Schrandt, Madison

Land for peace deals never work

Last week eight young Israeli men were murdered at a Jewish Yeshiva or seminary in Jerusalem by a Palestinian member of Hamas. This massacre of religious students seems to have raised hardly a murmur of outrage in the American media or pubic.

How is peace possible when it is obvious that one side has no interest in peace. Rather, the Palestinians seek to kill as many Israeli citizens as possible.

Despite this massacre, the Bush administration is seeking a legacy in forcing both sides to reach a peace accord. This will fail, just as a similar move by the Clinton administration did eight years ago. The pull-out of Israel from the Gaza Strip in 2005 has not brought peace, but rather an opportunity for Hamas to shell Israel from the Gaza Strip.

The whole premise of "land for peace " is fundamentally flawed. It was flawed in Munich in 1938 when the Czechs were forced by Britain and France to cede the Sudentenland to Hitler for "peace in our time. "

-- Jorgen N. Goderstad, Madison