Break up oil companies

In 1999 the price of oil was around $20 a barrel. In less than 10 years the price has skyrocketed to over $100 a barrel. Oil prices have continued to climb because of the merger of major oil companies in the late '90s.

The only way to control oil prices is with a free-market economy, where competition is the driving force. And the only way to get competition in today's market is to break up the oil companies. The U.S. government needs to protect the consumer.

-- Nathan Kaszubski, Madison

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation thanks the Wisconsin State Journal for the April 24 editorial, "In defense of American farmers."

It was refreshing to see an editorial cut through the rhetoric being spread about agriculture's role in climate change and world food shortages, and instead note that agriculture is part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Wisconsin farmers own 16 million acres of land (44 percent of the state's landmass). We take pride in our role as primary caretakers of the land and continue to make improvements to soil, air and water quality.

The average American farmer produces food and fiber for 143 people both here and abroad. Food costs here make up a low percentage of disposable income compared to the rest of the world. Agriculture also provides an increasingly important role in satisfying our energy needs through bio-energy sources and corn ethanol.

Wisconsin agriculture provides almost 420,000 jobs (12 percent of the state's workforce). It is important to note all of this occurs on privately owned land, at a relatively low cost to taxpayers.

More than ever, we need a strong agriculture industry in Wisconsin. Thank you for pointing that out to your readers.

-- Bill Bruins, Waupun, president, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation

Ethanol's available, affordable, American

Oil costs more than $100 a barrel, and one major disruption could send it past $200. Oil has a stranglehold on our economy, and even though our thirst for oil makes us dependent on less-than-friendly nations, some people want a home-grown product like ethanol to be a whipping boy.

Corn ethanol is not the solution, but is certainly part of the solution. There's also great potential for cellulosic ethanol, which will be studied at UW-Madison. But for now, corn ethanol is an efficient fuel source that is available, affordable and American.

I would much rather support a home-grown fuel industry that displaces some of our oil imports, helps lower fuel prices, improves the environment and creates jobs in rural America, than send my money to build another castle in the Middle East.

-- Jerry Bradley, Sun Prairie

New Union South another boondoggle

Jay Rath's Saturday article on the impending demolition of Union South failed to address the underlying question of why a perfectly serviceable building only a little over 30 years old is slated for destruction.

But if one reflects on the prolonged frenzy of new construction on the UW-Madison campus (and the cavalier disregard of its need or cost), I guess no one should be surprised at the oversight.

So who gave the go-ahead to the latest boondoggle? My guess is they're the same overpaid geniuses who couldn't wait to raze Ogg Hall, then found themselves with 400 homeless freshmen at the start of the school year.

It's this type of clueless extravagance that prompts the Legislature to periodically put the screws to the UW System. At a time when administrators should be allocating funds to avoid tuition hikes, make faculty pay competitive and halt exploitation of adjuncts, they enable this extravagance.

That the new Union South is funded by "segregated funds" rather than the state budget is beside the point. The money still comes from students and their parents.

Finally, I was aghast at the recommendations Rath made regarding the style of the proposed new building, which boiled down to making a duplicate of the Memorial Union. Putting aside the fact that this is a formula for kitsch, the tone of his piece reminded me of Marie Antoinette: "What, you say we're in a recession? Quel dommage. Build me a new palace, and make sure it's neo-Renaissance."

-- Gary L. Kriewald, Platteville

For union, avoid imitation of imitation

A challenge to advise on the design of a new Union South sounds enticing until you read Jim Feldman's comments. He advocates that a 21st century student union should be built as an imitation of a early 20th century imitation of a 17th century building.

The students using this new union will be the ones to develop a new energy system, to implement a cost-efficient, high-quality health care system, to reconfigure the U.S. economy from a consumption-based system to a creativity-based system. Will they look kindly upon an imitation of an imitation?

I invite Feldman to come to Monona Terrace on May 1 to see why Mark Olinger, Madison's director of planning and development, sees it as a great public space. The Wisconsin Institute of Architects is meeting there then.

Feldman should also visit Taliesin and experience the effect various types of spaces in it have on people. Imagine if Frank Lloyd Wright had used the scholarship to the Ecole Beaux Arts in Paris that he was offered and spent his life building imitations of imitations? We would never have had a truly American architecture, nor the Monona Terrace.

A business section article showed how Epic Systems is creating spaces that fit the needs of 21st century workers. The new Union South may not need a tree house like Epic's, but perhaps some small spaces where a few could gather without interruption and with a great view. Let's hope function, creativity, imagination and knowledge of fine design prevails over imitating imitations.

-- Bill Dagnon, Baraboo

Treaties supported by non-natives, too

In Friday's Associated Press article, "Court ruling 25 years ago revived Chippewa spearfishing," you neglected to include the contributions of non-native supporters of native treaty rights. It implied that Dean Crist, an anti treaty antagonist, speaks for all non-natives, outside the DNR.

Many members of the Madison Area Treaty Rights Support Group, including myself, served as non-violent witnesses for peace at the boat landings to document the sometimes violent actions of the anti-treaty protesters. (To read more about the conflict, see "Walleye Warriors: The Chippewa Treaty Rights Story " by Walter Bresette and Rick Whaley.)

The article depicted a two-sided racial battle, but not all non-natives were opposed to the tribe's right to spearfish according to their treaty rights.

The DNR has now come to the same conclusion as that of supporters at the time -- that spearfishing will not reduce fish populations. Other environmental pressures have played a role in reducing fish populations.

The spearfishing conflict did lead to increased non-Indian support for native rights, which in turn led to the alliance that stopped the Crandon mine.

State Journal reporters Susan Lampert Smith and Ron Seely both wrote balanced articles during the time. The AP's Robert Imrie would have done well to read some of their articles from the archives.

-- Maggie Jungwirth, Madison

Native cultures are worth preserving

Thanks for covering the spearfishing anniversary in Saturday's paper. It's good that the U.S. Circuit Court upheld the rights of Native Americans 25 years ago.

Ironically, during that same decade in Central America, right-wing death squads were attacking Native Americans to force them to accept the Spanish language and culture, according to a recent Nova program titled "Cracking the Maya Code." What helped the Maya recover from the attacks of the 1980s was the deciphering of their writing system.

The ability to write in Maya had been suppressed by the Spanish Inquisition, but relearning how to use Mayan hieroglyphs has been a great help to the modern Maya of Guatemala, Belize and eastern Mexico, as well as to scholars worldwide.

We in Wisconsin should learn from the harm done in Mexico and Central America. We should treasure the Native American culture that survives in Wisconsin and do our best to preserve it and learn from it.

-- Mark Midbon, Madison