I am responding to a letter in the Jan. 29 paper ("Road salt destroys more than it helps"). Everybody realizes the damage that salt does to vehicles, roads, etc. And nobody likes salting, and nobody ever will. But salting is one of those necessary evils that has to be done.

Until an alternative method comes out that's reasonably priced, salt is going to stay with us. With the budget cuts going on, there's no way that we can spend millions of dollars on salt alternatives. And you just can't stop salting - otherwise you will be racking up more damage from cars sliding out of control, not to mention the loss of life and injury that could be sustained. As for stopping military aid to fund salt alternatives, you can't do that.

You could stop funding missile production and military production, but I don't think that's the way. The next time you're begging the president to send troops, they aren't going to be equipped or trained properly. If we stop funding the military to find salt alternatives, we're going to have Russian tanks driving through MSU, not salt trucks. I'd rather see the salt trucks.

Chris Rinard
general management sophomore