Whose 'higher power' to choose?

How wonderful that America is blessed this week by visits from both Pope Benedict and the Dalai Lama. These two charismatic individuals bring messages of hope based in spirituality and the love bestowed upon us by a higher power.

In stark contrast is the message of hope being conveyed by presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. The Illinois senator's message would suggest the only higher power we should put our faith in is government, with an expansion of socialism and radical redistribution of wealth by means of confiscatory taxation.

Unfortunately, it seems many Americans prefer Obama's message to that of the Pope or the Dalai Lama.

-- Mark S. Peterson, Verona

The article regarding the possible hunting season for wolves in Wisconsin was very interesting. It left me with questions as to why anyone would consider allowing this to happen.

As the article stated, wolves were hunted almost to extinction because it was feared they were threatening the deer herd in Wisconsin. There must be some truth in this. If wolves do kill deer for food and decrease the deer population, do we really want to stop this from happening? With chronic wasting disease and the growing deer population, why disturb a natural solution to some of these problems?

Man does not always hold the answers. The fact that wolves had to be put on the endangered species list because they were almost extinct proves it.

-- Nancy Bruns, Madison

Kudos to police for finding lost child

We visited relatives in Madison in early April. While walking back from having ice cream at the Terrace, we became separated from our 6-year-old, prompting a frantic, 15-minute search.

A Madison Police Department bicycle patrolman stopped to help, and a large contingent of police officers joined the search. Within minutes our son was found four blocks from where we'd last seen him.

We were very impressed by the professionalism and efficiency of the Madison Police Department, and express our heartfelt thanks for their help.

-- Mike and Dawn Noordijk, Holland, Mich.

Appointment doesn't assure impartiality

Please explain how appointing judges assures their impartiality and fairness. That's bunk. By that measure, Robert Bork's impartiality and fairness should have made him a shoo-in for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was, after all, appointed to the court by the president.

More darkly, the State Journal's position ignores the trend at both the federal level and in states where judges are appointed. Regardless of the selection process, seating judges has become a political battleground because many courts have grossly overstepped their boundaries.

Justice Antonin Scalia, among the most conservative of Supreme Court justices, was confirmed by the Senate by a 98-0 vote in 1986. Fast-forward to the more recent past: Clarence Thomas barely took his seat (52-48 in 1991), John Roberts was confirmed by a 78-22 vote in 2005 and Samuel Alito was confirmed by 58 to 42. No Madison liberal would call any of these learned gentlemen "impartial and fair."

Appointing judges does not ensure their impartiality or fairness. It guarantees only that an elite governing class -- liberal or conservative -- has the power to maintain and defend its legal hegemony over the masses. I trust voters John and Joan Cheesehead to elect justices they deem suitable.

-- Joseph T. Leone, Brooklyn

Gore overzealous, but outcome is good

While I applaud efforts to clean our environment and conserve the world's natural resources, I do question Al Gore's claims of total disaster for life on Earth as promised in his persistent pronouncements on global warming.

Consider just one of Gore's fears when he claims "worldwide flooding" by melting of existing ice. Does he know that floating ice does not raise the level of water when it melts?

Does Gore know that close to 70 percent of the world's surface is water, and that an increase of just one foot in elevation would require over 64,000 cubic miles of water?

Gore may be right about one thing: The Earth is warming, ever so gradually and unevenly. A natural climatic cycle probably caused all of the ice that covered the world as recently as 25,000 years ago to disappear.

I don't believe man has a great deal of control over drastic changes in the world's climate. However, if Gore's obsession with global warming will motivate action to produce and maintain a cleaner environment as well as bring conservation of natural resources, I applaud the effort.

-- Charles A. Sanna, Madison

Electors need critical thinking, fair media

Regarding the Supreme Court justice election debacle, I was leaning toward the idea of a committee of knowledgeable people appointing them, as is done in many other states. But those appointments could be unduly influenced by special interest groups, too.

Instead, maybe we should push for approximately equal financing and media exposure for all candidates.

In this year's state Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Barack Obama outspent Sen. Hillary Clinton, and the media have been very one-sided, which many political pundits have admitted. We should pressure the media to give equal exposure to each candidate and be more ethical in their treatment of these public servants.

Teaching critical thinking should be a greater part of our schools' curriculum. Something or someone who looks and sounds great and is in your face constantly may not live up to the hype, as the advertising industry shows. We need to learn to be more discerning in decision-making about elections and everyday life.

-- Georgianna Stebnitz, Madison

Berliner attests to post-war challenges

While not an expert on war or occupation, I can relate to the current situation in Iraq, having lived in Berlin, Germany, during and after World War II.

Regardless of how or why we got into the war in Iraq, we are there, and it is unreasonable to expect to rebuild a war-torn country within a relatively short time. Today, more than 60 years after World War II ended, we still have troops in Germany and Berlin.

It took many years to start rebuilding Berlin, over 90 percent of which was destroyed, and rebuilding continues still.

It was different in Berlin after the war. There was no insurgent terrorism. But the German people were completely disarmed. Why the Iraqi people were not is still a mystery to me.

During the first three months of occupation of Berlin, the Russian troops gutted all railroads, factories and machinery, and jailed or even killed anyone with any kind of weapon. Eventually Berlin was divided into four sectors.

We lived only a couple blocks from Check Point Charlie, an American border point to East Berlin. There were frequent incidents before the wall was built, and they continued after the wall was built.

It's not easy to rebuild a war-torn country, especially when the fighting goes on. Perhaps we cannot compare Iraq with Germany, but right or wrong, we are in this war and, in fairness to the Iraqi people, we must see it through.

-- Waltraud M. Stewart, Madison