Why subject students to the 'insights' of these people?
Let me get this straight: Two of Central Catholic's finest are arrested for roughing up a fellow football player with the family jewels, an act called "tea bagging." Later they cut a deal that requires, among other things, that the middle-schoolers at not one, not two, but three schools have to sit still, keep straight faces and hear about what the two lads have "learned" ("Hazing Ends in Probation," Feb. 5)? Do I detect a penal trend here?
A few weeks ago Schenley High School students were pulled from classes one day so they could go to an assembly at which 11-at-11 WPXI's own joustin' Gina Redmond was getting her "community service" out of the way by lecturing high-schoolers on her "experiences." Ms. Redmond pleaded no contest last year to slapping a WTAE producer.
Stop the madness!
It is a bizarre value system that allows people charged with really, really, really stupid crimes like these to take any more of anyone's time, particularly that of students engaged in the pursuit of knowledge, in repaying their debt to society. Couldn't the soup kitchens or the old folks or, for that matter, the roadsides use a few more of those hours? Or do we seriously believe that the athletes and the talking heads, because of their ubiquity on the playing fields or on the tube or in the courtrooms, really have something to teach the rest of us?
I will give the young footballers one thing: They've enriched the mother tongue, haven't they?
THOMAS E. PANDALEON
North Point Breeze
Relief for our consciences
As we consider war with Iraq, we who advocate nonviolent solutions to conflicts are troubled that our taxes fund the weapons that kill humans. We cannot in good conscience pull the trigger, nor can we pay for others to do so in our names.
In 1940, Congress legislated a mechanism for conscientious objectors to perform alternate service in place of military service. People who conscientiously oppose war are not exempt from service; instead, they serve our country in life-affirming ways.
Congress must provide a mechanism for those of us who cannot in good conscience participate financially in war. We seek to pay our full share of taxes so that none funds war. The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill would let us pay taxes with clear consciences. The military proportion of income taxes paid by conscientious objectors would go into a separate Peace Fund. Legislative analysis shows this bill would be a money maker when war tax resisters become taxpayers, and when people voluntarily living below the poverty level to avoid paying war taxes can earn more money with clear consciences. Religious freedom would increase.
Let Congress know that you support the Religious Freedom Tax Fund Bill. For information, visit www.peacetaxfund.org.
TIM PEARCE
Squirrel Hill
Why highlight smoking?
I am writing regarding the Feb. 4 story "Smoker's Children Get $2.7 Million: She Was Hit by Truck After Cigarette Break."
"Smoker's children"? Not "victim's children"? I just wanted the PG to know that I think its way with words is not only disrespectful, but unprofessional as well.
I am an employee of PJAX, and Kathy Shaw was my co-worker. I am the last known person to speak to Kathy that tragic night. Her last words to me were, "I have this rotten cold, I'm going to my car to get a cough drop; if everyone shows up for work tonight, I may end up going home." Another co-worker gave Kathy an umbrella because it was raining, and she had a long walk to the car. If she had a cigarette while she was out there, we will never know.
Smokers and nonsmokers walked the same path, each and every day, between parked trucks, in the path of moving trucks, in a dimly lit lot. There was no safe path to take; there were no walkways, no stop signs, no pedestrian entrance, no flashing lights, no speed limits that were enforced. The only safe way to get to that building from the employee parking area would have been to fly.
There have since been improvements made, such as lighting, fencing, guard rails, stop signs. It's a shame that it took the loss of a "smoker's" life to bring light to the real problem, which was getting to and from your car safely while working the night shift.
Besides being a smoker, she was a daughter, a mother, a grandmother, a co-worker, a friend, a neighbor, but mostly a victim.
TERRI HAWKINS
Fombell
Trailer eyesore
I applaud the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership for its proposal to beautify and enliven five historic Downtown alleyways, starting with Strawberry Way, which runs from Liberty Avenue to Grant Street ("Art Panel Wants to Enhance Five Downtown Alleys," Jan. 30). Not only is Strawberry Way much traveled by pedestrians during the lunch hour, it is also heavily used at the beginning and end of the business day by office workers and others as a shortcut to the Port Authority buses that pick up and drop off on Liberty and Penn avenues.
The article suggests that overflowing trash bins are the main problem with the alleyway. The trash bins are not the problem; the problem is the trailer that AT&T has parked for at least the last two years in the middle of the alley between its building and First Lutheran Church, near the pedestrian light on Grant Street in front of the U.S. Steel Tower.
The trailer is surrounded with a chain-link fence and has attached high voltage cables housed in an unpainted plywood enclosure. The trailer blocks the entire alley except for a narrow sidewalk barely wide enough for two people. Trash collects inside the fence surrounding the trailer.
It's hard to understand why the city allows AT&T to continue to park its trailer next to one of the city's main thoroughfares, near a beautiful old church. Whatever reason AT&T had to initially bring in the trailer, it would seem that after two years it could have found space within its building to house the equipment within the trailer.
MICHAEL J. HOSLER
Marshall
Welcome support
I, for one, could not be more pleased with the Jan. 23 editorial "Opportunity Knocks: The New Hazelwood Can Integrate the Expressway." As president of a community and economic-development organization that for more than 35 years has advocated the Mon-Fayette Expressway, I welcome the consistent, positive Post-Gazette editorials for the expressway project.
There is not a major project in the history of our region and our nation that has not had opponents and critics. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has done a remarkable job to work with those who have constructive criticism. Time and time again, they have sought to address concerns raised with practical and sometimes innovative solutions.
We can have a project that is an asset for all of us and, just as important, a project that is the foundation for the economic revitalization of the Mon Valley region.
JOSEPH V. VESELY
President
Mon Valley Progress Council
Monessen
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