Replace generals who admitted a lack of leadership

I was appalled upon reading in "Marines Concede Humvee Armor Delay" (June 22) that Marine Corps Gen. William Nyland and Brig. Gen. William Catto admit that a lack of leadership on their part contributed to a lack of armor protection for Humvees in the Iraq theater.

The officers explain they took their eyes off the ball in obtaining contracts to ensure proper armor for vehicles for the brave Marines who are putting their lives on the line everyday.

It is well known that improvised explosive devices have become one of the biggest killers of American forces in Iraq.

Can you imagine one of those young Marines on the front line telling his buddies that he cost the lives of his fellow soldiers because he "took his eyes off the ball"?

These two officers, because of their own admissions of failure, should be reassigned to positions in which they do not have the lives of our troops in their hands.

ROBERT JAMES
Forest Hills

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Downtown scares

My daughter took her children, ages 5 and 7, Downtown on a recent Sunday afternoon to see "The Sound of Music."

On leaving the theater, they saw a group of youngsters fighting. One's face was battered and bleeding, and in a vicious struggle they scrambled for a gun one of them had dropped on the sidewalk. No police were in sight.

Our politicians and mayor have done a wonderful job of promoting Downtown. The streets are covered with litter. Drunks and panhandlers are hard to avoid. Can anyone wonder why businesses are closing and no one wants to locate Downtown?

Pittsburgh's population has dropped to less than 350,000 from 675,000 in 1950. Our public school system is fair-to-poor and discipline is minimal.

The mayor and his political buddies should have spent more time (1) telling parents that they are responsible for knowing where their children are and what they are doing and (2) urging the school district to enforce discipline so children can be taught.

Money was spent on sports stadiums that had been voted down, and Downtown plans understandably never materialized.

Without a good educational system, a clean city and an efficient police force, what is there to attract people to Pittsburgh?

ALBERT AMSHEL
Point Breeze

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Good luck, Colfax

It is frightening to read Michael Wagner's opinion on the Colfax Elementary School expansion, "A Rush to Expand Colfax Has Not Served Its Neighbors" (June 21 letter).

The city needs more K-8 schools like Colfax and more visionary leaders like Principal David May-Stein. Mr. May-Stein wants what is best for our children and our community.

Studies have shown that the middle school concept is not the best.

A large percentage of the children in Squirrel Hill and surrounding neighborhoods attend private school.

The Linden Elementary magnet school does not have the room to accept all the neighborhood children who apply.

I have a child who will be kindergarten age next year. If we are not comfortable with our local public school (which is Colfax) or cannot get into the public magnet in my neighborhood, my family and I will move. Does the city want parents leaving city neighborhoods because they don't like the choices or cannot get into the public magnet? That is sad.

I say good luck to David May-Stein and his visionary plans to expand Colfax and give us better public schools.

CHERYL SEELEY
Squirrel Hill

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Party of choice

Like Howard Dean, Kevin Robert Mills in his June 11 letter ("Dean Speaks Truth") recycled the tired myth that Republican voters are almost exclusively white and Christian. He did so the same week that the respected and non-partisan Pew Research Center released a study indicating precisely the opposite.

The survey looked at partisan identification by voters from 1997 until 2003. While the indication of a significant increase in Republican strength in that time cut across nearly every demographic group, this was nowhere more pronounced than with Latino and Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing group of minority voters in the country.

Just as striking was the degree to which younger voters identified themselves as Republican more heavily than older voters -- despite the enormous effort expended by the Democrats on patronizing efforts to rally younger voters to their party by trotting out middle-aged actors and pop stars.

Americans, regardless of ethnicity, race and gender, are increasingly turning to the Republican Party as the party of opportunity for all and the party that has offered principled, common-sense solutions to the problems facing the country.

Sadly, the Democrats have offered little more than race-baiting and empty slogans.

America deserves better from one of her great political parties.

KRISTI L. STORTI
Cranberry

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Our city is friendly

I was sad to read Brent Yasko's article "Getting to Even: A Baseball Team Shouldn't Define a City's Fate. But a Pirates Fan in Fenway Can't Help But Feel It" (June 22). Pittsburgh has nothing to apologize for, and we must stop seeing the city we love as a source of embarrassment.

Mr. Yasko touts the benefits of Boston -- new bridges, downtown shopping and paddle boats in the park.

I lived in New England for 24 years and know first-hand the outrageous cost of living in or near Boston (easily $500,000 for an average home), the sky-high costs of auto insurance and home heating oil, frantic traffic patterns, rude drivers and unfriendly people.

We may have a baseball team struggling to reach .500, an aging population and a downtown in transition, but I can't imagine a friendlier place to call home. Pittsburgh has character that comes from a long history of strong communities and people who really care about each other.

I truly believe that Pittsburgh will rise again. It is all a question of attitude.

ARLENE S. GARDOPEE
Butler

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On different pages

I doubt I am the only one who considers questioning Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he claims that the Iraq insurgency is as strong as it was six months ago -- just days after Vice President Dick Cheney stated this same insurgency is in its "last throes" ("Rumsfeld Roughed Up in Congress: Defense Secretary Sticks to his Guns, Insists U.S. Isn't Losing in Iraq," June 24).

Who is misinformed?

Maybe it's time President Bush called a meeting so that this administration can get their stories straight.

IAN BRENDEL
South Side

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Keep scrubs inside

While a June 21 letter, "Hospital Scrubs," states that care is given to patients with various infections, hospitals should take great care to see that scrubs are worn only in the hospital.

Scrubs should not be worn to and from the hospital at all. No stopping at grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, etc., especially on the way to work.

Hands may be washed, but germs attach to clothing and may be passed on to patients. Anyone -- nurse, unit clerk, phlebotomist, unit janitor -- should be included in this prohibition.

Staff members like this because they do not have to wear civilian clothes and this saves wear and tear.

Occasionally, people die because of staff infections, but there is no specific area to blame.

It is time for a change in hospital procedures.

H. R. HANNA
Whitehall

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Rural residents deserve a day of rest from hunters

Suppose there were an annual event during which people felt free to wander around your house, your yard, check out your refrigerator, your bathroom. It went on for weeks. No matter what you said to them, they continued to do this. There was basically no preventing it, and, furthermore, they were armed. Having someone unwanted on one's land feels like this.

In a June 23 editorial, "Never on Sunday?", the Post-Gazette advocated letting people hunt on Sundays. If you, however, had to endure the unsettling scenario described above, wouldn't it be nice to have one day free of this?

As things stand, for most of the fall, I can't walk or ride on my own land because of hunters, who might be anyplace and with serious firepower. Some of them are careful, but some are not. Some of them have crossed several fences, passed postings and have no idea where they are. When a man tells me that he's hunting on a neighbor's land a mile distant, he's ... lost, to be polite.

Now, while the PG is advocating for hunting on Sunday, please, tell me why it didn't advocate that hunters be seriously penalized for trespassing. Hunting out of bounds ought to be something the Pennsylvania Game Commission takes severe exception to. Alas, it does not.

Sitting in a suburban house or city apartment, you don't know what it's like out here in Greater Boondock. You can easily recommend, "Let people hunt when it is convenient for them to hunt. Let them have their day of rest as they see fit."

But what about my day of rest? When can I go out to check my livestock without wondering if I'm going to make it back unharmed? Is that really so much to ask?

CAROLE McINTYRE
Waynesburg