Bravo to Mayor Coleen Seng! She had the guts to tell the City Council she’d veto the Wal-Mart project if it were passed.

I can’t understand why so many people are stuck on Wal-Mart. We have been to both Wal-Mart stores here in Lincoln. Several instances we have found their prices to be higher on the item we were shopping for.

Let the little guy have a chance. He has to make a living!

Allie Hargens, Lincoln

GOP must wake up

I’m a former Nebraskan, now serving in the U.S. military in Japan, and I still enjoy reading the Lincoln Journal Star online to keep up with what is happening in the state I love.

I hope Nebraska Republicans are getting concerned about our esteemed Sen. Chuck Hagel and his atrocious voting record. His “Iraq is turning into Vietnam” comments sent me over the edge (by the way, I don’t see the Vietnamese voting for their leaders in democratic elections).

Now he has voted against the Patriot Act putting our country right back where it was before 9/11. It’s time for Nebraska Republicans to send a real conservative to Washington, because this anti-war liberal dressed as a Republican must go!

Jon Schroeder, Yokohama, Japan

Thomas off the mark

Cal Thomas’ Dec. 19 column made some good points about the importance of parental involvement in their children’s lives and how parents can help kids make healthy choices about sexual behaviors. However, Thomas overlooked the fact that young people are making better — not worse — sexual health decisions.

Nationwide, the teen pregnancy rate declined by 30 percent between 1991 and 2002, because of fewer teens having sex and more sexually active teens using contraception effectively. Thomas based his column on outdated information, citing data as old as 1991. For recent national and statewide data about preventing teen pregnancy, visit www.teenpregnancy.org.

Thomas also missed the mark when criticizing “sex education” programs in public schools. Research clearly demonstrates that providing young people with medically accurate information on contraception does not increase sexual activity and does not contradict abstinence messages.

If we all care enough about our youth, we will support and promote comprehensive sexuality education — both in our schools and in our homes.

LeeAnn Pancharoen, Lincoln community educator, Planned Parenthood of  Nebraska and Council Bluffs

Conservative views

My conservative friends, both of them, seem pleased by the president’s admission that he authorized secret mail and phone taps of U.S. citizens and by his claim that it was necessary in order to preserve our freedom.

Earlier, they tried to defend the administration’s use of torture against alleged terrorists. (It isn’t torture, said former government lawyer John Yoo, unless there is impairment of bodily functions, or the prisoner dies.)

They don’t seem concerned about the abuses that took place at Abu Ghraib prison, nor about the administration’s efforts to minimize them. They keep adjusting their reasons for supporting the misbegotten war in Iraq, having backed away from their initial arguments that weapons of mass destruction there threatened our security.

 Fear of possible threats can distort our national judgments and lead to offenses against both common decencies and constitutional safeguards, but my two conservative friends, who used to fear big government, now seem to revel in the growing power assumed by President Bush and his administration and its claim that such power is necessary.

 An older conservative opinion was expressed by the British statesman, William Pitt, who said: “Necessity is the argument of tyrants.”

Charles Stephen, Lincoln