When will this city really go after litterers and vandals?

Regarding the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership's latest annual report with its "did you know?" recurring theme: Do the PDP and City Council know that the Clean Sweep Ambassador program to pick up litter and to remove graffiti is not enough? The city has both anti-littering and anti-graffiti laws that should be enforced.

When was the last litterer or graffiti vandal arrested and made an example of? What are the PDP and City Council doing to pressure the city to enforce existing anti-litter and anti-graffiti laws? What are the PDP and City Council doing to crack down on the perpetrators -- the mostly young, loitering, intimidating street thugs who have laid claim to many of the city's most prominent venues and who are becoming increasingly violent toward each other and innocent pedestrians?

City meter maids and PDP ambassadors are a constant presence on the city's sidewalks. Why can't they somehow be recruited, at least as eyes and ears, to stop littering, loitering and graffiti before or as it is happening?

GERALD SCHILLER
Penn Hills
Editor's note: The writer is a Downtown property owner.

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Bolivia and drugs

Dan Simpson's July 21 column ("Bolivia at the Crossroads") gives an accurate analysis of the economic, political, social and security turmoil Bolivia faces today. However, the Bolivian drug trade cannot be ignored.

The drug trade in Bolivia, the world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru), accounts for a large portion of political and judicial corruption, poverty and riots in the country alone. Furthermore, the drug trade is beginning to increase again.

With this continuing turmoil, Bolivia needs to welcome the pipeline as a legitimate and much-needed source of foreign investment. This revenue will help with the ongoing disputes with the coca growers and in turn can lead to stability across the board.

MELISSA MILLER
Research Assistant
National Defense Council Foundation
Alexandria, Va.
Editor's note: The writer is a student in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

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About real hunters

In your July 26 letters, it amazed me to read that Richard K. Mock could tell that John Kerry was not a hunter by his campaign ad ("Some Hunter"). What does he base this on? Is it the fact that you don't hear about Kerry shooting 80 or so pheasants released from pens as Vice President Dick Cheney did? Is he a real hunter? A real hunter kills only what he eats and leaves the rest.

JAMES MALASKY
Penn Hills

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Not a fix-it man

The way pundits are describing John Edwards' career, you would think he was in the same category as Mother Teresa! He "fought for the little guy" and "took on the evil insurance companies, hospitals and physicians."

In the process, though, he amassed a fortune. Meanwhile the physicians he attacked devoted years of education and endless hours of sacrifice of their own lives to caring for patients and saving lives, for a small fraction of his pay.

Patients who are harmed by physician negligence should certainly be compensated. But this should be based upon good medical science, not junk science and the pulling of juries' emotional strings. John Edwards specialized in cerebral palsy cases, a disorder that most often occurs due to factors outside the control of the physician. Edwards used the misfortune of these poor children to enrich himself.

Edwards' career represents what is wrong with our litiginous society, not what is right. Billions of health-care dollars continue to be siphoned off the health-care system for the benefit of a few attorneys. It would be a mistake to place a personal-injury lawyer in charge of "fixing" our health-care system.

EUGENE A. BONAROTI
O'Hara
Editor's note: The writer is a neurosurgeon.

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Bias and blinders

On July 22 yet another letter appeared in this space accusing the Post-Gazette of bias and of harboring some agenda to see John Kerry elected ("Biased Agenda"). I see these all of the time. It's interesting that you choose to print them.

I suppose that the writer feels that the PG is too leftward leaning because it doesn't continually print only the views of the current administration in Washington, and even dares to print some criticism of it. He apparently can read the paper only on days that I miss it.

I certainly wasn't aware that columnists such as Charles Krauthammer, William Safire and George F. Will were card-carrying liberals. When I searched for the "racist" comments to which the letter writer referred, I was surprised to find that The Associated Press, Reuters and even Fox news didn't report them, unless he considers the remark from the NAACP leadership -- that the policies pursued by the Bush administration were racist -- to be a racist remark in and of itself.

The PG biased? Well, not from the viewpoint of this (dare I say it?) liberal reader. That the PG is still willing to employ writers who aren't afraid to operate under the standard of what a free press is supposed to be -- a vocal watchdog and even critic of politicians, rather than acting as their shills -- is truly refreshing. Perhaps if the writer of that letter is so convinced that a journalist's job is to print only things that he agrees with, he's reading the wrong paper.

J. KNIGHT
Brighton Heights

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Policing taste

Ah, so Gregg Montgomery and Bob Carozza want the government to regulate the singing of our national anthem ("Stop Awful Renditions of Our Anthem," July 21 letter)! They would presumably find a $100 fine appropriate for breathing between "land" and "of the free" or otherwise interrupting a musical phrase. Or $500 for any melisma or cadenza during the phrase "home of the brave." Perhaps a lengthy prison term awaits any arranger who defiles our national hymn with a saxophone or (gasp) an electric guitar.

Why stop there? The government should regulate all musical expression. FBI agents should attend classical concerts to monitor musicians' use of rubato and dynamics. They should place listening devices in restaurants and private homes to force small children and singing waiters to pay royalties on "Happy Birthday to You" (Summy-Birchard Music, a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, holds the copyright until 2030). All forms of music that originated in Detroit, Chicago or Nashville should be strictly prohibited.

As you can imagine, I'm being sarcastic. As a musician, I would be offended by regulation of musical performance -- if it weren't so stupid and impractical. Thanks to Montgomery and Carozza for presuming their taste in music to be objectively correct, and for presenting this forum's most bone-headed idea.

S. ANDREW SMITH
Squirrel Hill

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Please don't write off reading

In regard to the recent National Endowment for the Arts report on the decline in leisure readers ("Americans Are Reading Less and Less," July 9 and "Read Me," July 20 editorial), two important factors have been overlooked: reader savvy and publisher oblivion to what readers want -- good stories featuring characters they care about.

In their drive to force their established authors to produce more product more quickly, and their push for "the next John Grisham," publishers have been blindsided by the phenomenal success of unusual best sellers with exceptional plot (Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code"), characterization (Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones"), charm (Jan Karon's "Mitford" series and Sue Monk Kidd's "The Secret Life of Bees"), common-sense humor (Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series and Ann B. Ross' "Miss Julia" series) or overall storytelling (J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" children's series).

No longer do so many people get taken in by flashy marketing and dole out $26 or more for the latest Stephen King, Danielle Steel or Anne Rice, only to discover their latest is "just like very other book they wrote, but the characters' names are changed." And discriminating readers are increasingly more likely to rely on the recommendations by their friends or by the ratings from other readers on sites such as Amazon.com.

So to publishers I say: Give the unique, the quirky, the wacko, the quaint authors a chance. And while you're at it, get rid of the extraneous swearing. People hate it.

To jaded readers I say: At the risk of sounding like a library shill (which I am), check out your local library. Try before you buy; you won't feel robbed by a disappointing book you didn't have to pay for. Ask the librarian for book recommendations, sit in on one of the library's book discussion groups or participate in the adult-reader incentive programs such as "reader raffles" in which patrons receive a free entry for each book they read.

To the NEA I say: Next time, please include nonfiction as "leisure" reading. Just look at the exponential success of recent well-written and enjoyable biographies by David McCullough and Walter Isaacson, numerous World War II accounts and the current political offerings ranging from Sean Hannity to Michael Moore.

And to everyone I say: Don't write off reading!

ANN M. LITZ
Adult Programmer
Community Library of Allegheny Valley
Natrona Heights