Athletic code is child's first real contract

The Waunakee athletes partook in an illegal behavior, one both they and their parents stipulated they would not participate in when they signed the school athletic or co-curricular code. That 's the first contract child and parent enter into together, the first lesson parents can use to teach children the value of standing behind their word.

Much like borrowing money from a bank, if you don 't live up to your word and make payments, your credit rating suffers. For the parent who hid the athletes in a shed, and the athletes who participated, their "credit rating " and their names on a contract mean little.

Today 's teens have entirely different role models than people did even 10 years ago. The Spears sisters, Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan and Michael Vick and their ilk say if you 're pretty, thin or good enough, you can get away with anything.

Teens need a stronger message to not participate in illegal behaviors and to stand by your word. High school athletes are the heroes and role models for the younger kids in a community like Waunakee. With that standing comes the responsibility of living up to the esteem in which they are held.

I know the worst moment in those football players ' lives was when they had to inform their coach of their illegal behavior. Perhaps they and the parents should have thought of others in the first place.

-- Mark McLaughlin, former health educator and coach, Madison

Why punish kids who model good behavior?

I found myself nodding in agreement as I read Susan Lampert Smith 's take on the teen drinking situation. I heard that most of the Waunakee football team was at that party (party information spread via MySpace and Instant Messenger).

I know how important football is to Waunakee. As soon as my kids shared the story, I told them those kids would never be punished during the football season. As it played out, I was right.

Regarding the kids who attended who were not drinking, they go to be with their friends to socialize, to be designated drivers if necessary and to show their friends that it is possible to have fun without alcohol.

One student who was busted at one of these parties was playing cards with a few other kids who also were not drinking. He tested 0.0 on the Breathalyzer, and did not run away as others did but cooperated with the police. He was a member of a state-bound basketball team at the time.

For his honesty, cooperation and show of maturity, he was found in violation of his school 's code of conduct simply for being there. Luckily for him, it was a first offense as an observer, not a participant, so he received a warning.

This does not seem right. We ask our kids to rise to the challenge, and when they do, they get the same punishment as those who made poorer choices. I hope schools will take a look at their codes and rethink the consequences for those kids who are simply "there " and modeling behavior that their peers need to see.

-- Val Sellers, parent, Monona Grove High School

Sports suspension is drinking deterrent

As a high school teacher and varsity coach, I could not disagree more with Susan Lampert Smith 's column. First, playing on a high school sports team is a privilege, not a right, and schools are responsible for promoting safe behavior.

Regarding community service, what about the kid who works as hard at practice and does the right thing, only to see a kid who likes to party but did community service come back and take her playing time because she happens to be a better athlete? What message does that send to those following the rules?

Athletes who decide to drink make a conscious decision to attend a party, open a beer and drink it. Drinking involves a thought process -- it 's not just a "mistake. " If an athlete chooses to disregard the code, then he or she needs to accept the consequences. Some kids will get caught and some won 't, so as it is in life. For the majority who get caught, I 'll bet it 's not their first time.

Kicking kids off teams or suspending them for a percentage of their season is working. If an athletic code can serve as a deterrent, and I know from conversations with athletes that it does, then it is worth the parental complaints coaches and athletic directors have to deal with. Kids who participate in extracurricular activities should be held to a higher standard.

-- Angie Murphy, Verona

Airport security goes too far

I encourage Madisonians to check out their airport security for their arrogance, lack of intelligence and patronizing insensitivity. While visiting family here, we took my 93-year-old mother to the Dane County Regional Airport for her flight back home after a delightful Christmas. She is frail, and I was taking her through in a wheelchair.

She stood up to go through the metal detector, and her hip replacement set off the alarm. Two officials from airport security took her aside and told me to stand back. It turned out to be a training exercise for the junior official, who was told how to take the wand up her front and down her back, then up and down her sides.

Then they made her stand first one foot forward, and then the other. Junior ran the wand around her legs. At 93 she is none too steady and I could see her struggle to keep her balance since there was nothing for her to hold on to. Then they made her sit and inspected the bottoms of her feet.

All the time they were calling her "Dorothy, " though I did not recall that my mother had been introduced to them. My mother bore up with no comment, but she did say later that she was "annoyed " by it all. What would their policy have been if she had fallen and broken a hip? Would they have blocked me again and prevented me from coming to her aid?

-- Richard Holbrook, Chicago

Shrewd Iraqis make best of U.S. surge

Who says the "surge " in Iraq is working? The violence is way down, but no political solution is in sight and nearly 900 of our troops died this past year. Look at it from the Iraqi perspective and ask for whom it 's working.

First, the violence is down, because we not only have more troops there, but we have literally hired the insurgents, especially in Sunni areas, to police themselves and quit killing each other as long as our money flows to their pockets.

Second, the shrewd Iraqis have already worked out a pragmatic coalition government. As they stop killing themselves and more U.S. money keeps coming in, since they already have an informal agreement to share their oil revenue, then the main function of the central government and the parliament is to stall while we pay their bills. There 's no incentive to find a political solution or greater unity. They aren 't dumb.

Third, the Bushies are the chumps, the Democrats are the wimps, and our young soldiers are still dying. If we got out, maybe the Iraqis could work things out and spend their own oil money on themselves.

-- Dave Steffenson, Madison

Focus off taxes, on schools, infrastructure

Regarding the State Journal 's Dec. 26 editorial, "Put the focus on job growth, " some will say cut taxes on business and the rich who invest. We 've heard that refrain for years.

The reality is quite different. Forward Wisconsin, the organization charged with attracting new business to Wisconsin, tells quite a different story.

Go to their Web site (forwardwi.com), click on "business taxes and costs, " and you 'll find their documented statement that business taxes in Wisconsin are lower than in 35 other states. Income taxes on the wealthy are reasonable, they say, and business costs for such standard business requirements as Workers Compensation are lower than the average state in the United States.

So let 's cut the nonsense about taxes being the barrier to economic development in Wisconsin. Your editorial was correct: We need far more investment in education, not just at the UW, but in our public school system and tech schools as well.

In fact, we need far more investment in our entire public infrastructure, from roads and bridges to rail, from water and sewerage systems to sustainable energy sources. It 's that public infrastructure that nurtures economic development, from high-tech manufacturing to the latest in biotech and nanotechnology. And that means better jobs for everyone in Wisconsin.

So let 's get smart when we think of state and local taxes and expenditures. Public goods and a strong public infrastructure benefit the people of Wisconsin and also provide the strong platform we need for solid and sustained economic development.

-- David Newby, president, Wisconsin AFL-CIO

Lenders must endure market 's correction

In his Dec. 16 column on the credit crisis, syndicated columnist Steve Chapman showed a profound misunderstanding of American capitalism. He wrote that lenders "shouldn 't be punished for offering creative terms just because the loans sometimes go bad. " One of those creative terms was to ignore a borrower 's ability to repay the loan.

Mortgage companies and banks loaned money in the expectation that rising home prices would ensure that even bad loans could be repaid by selling the property. In gambling terms, they "bet the come. " When the housing bubble burst, those loans were revealed to be what they were: Bad bets.

The American economy is designed to reward those who understand their marketplace, and penalize those who do not. The mortgage lenders who are suffering now are the ones who ignored their own guidelines to pursue larger profits. They expanded their lending practices to include underqualified borrowers. What he sees as punishment is nothing more than the market correcting itself.

-- Jack Schroeder, Madison

No good reason to penalize the wealthy

There are people who believe the wealthy don 't pay enough and that taxing them more will lift this country out of debt. There are flaws in this theory that have to do with the availability of cash.

I am no financial wizard, but when I have any extra money, I either save it or spend it on something useful. The same holds true for the businesses and company owners in this country. If they have extra funds, I believe they prefer to update their businesses to potentially make even more profits. That is a basic principle of capitalism.

That extra profit in turn creates more tax liability, which flows to the government. Not everyone inherits riches. Some have to earn them.

The second problem with that theory is that the government continually redefines the income level that is considered "rich. " Right now, I think it is at $100,000, a lot of money to be sure, but hardly what I would consider rich.

The percentage of tax one pays surely hurts more at the bottom than at the top. A figure from the Government Accounting Office says that the bottom 50 percent of wage earners in this country pay 3 percent of the tax revenues and the top 1 percent pays 40 percent.

I will never be rich unless I get lucky and win the lottery, but I am neither angry or jealous of those who make it. Those who work hard and use the opportunities that this country offers can be successful.

-- Russ Rataczak, Cambria

Free trade policies work against U.S.

The media tell us that Wisconsin has lost more than 16 percent of its manufacturing jobs since 1998.

The United States as a whole has lost millions, not to mention the white collar jobs lost to outsourcing.

This is due to the so-called free trade treaties we have become involved with, as well as the World Trade Organization, which has nearly always decided against U.S. interests.

There is no way we can compete fairly in free trade when we have one of the highest corporate taxes, the highest cost of doing business because of government regulations and higher wages than most countries in the world.

To compete we must have tariffs on imports to equalize the price of the imports, or we must lower our standard of living to the level of the rest of the world, something at which we have made a good start.

Voters should take control and not support political candidates who support free trade.

-- Kenneth M. Hall, Madison