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PrintOnly trustees can change benefits for state employees
Someone should inform House Majority Leader Sam Smith and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Brett Feese that they are delusional in their belief that they determine the benefits awarded state employees by the Pennsylvania Employees Benefit Trust Fund ("Same-Sex Benefits for State Workers Under Study," July 22).
As a state employee, I understand -- apparently better than do the Republican legislators -- that the benefits are decided by trustees of the PEBTF as my agents. These trustees now want to study the feasibility of extending benefits to employees who are in committed relationships other than conventional marriage, that is, domestic partners. It's a very worthwhile idea, and the trustees should be free to do that without the two legislators meddling.
The decision to study this issue sends a strong and valuable message to state employees that we can make free choices about the nature and quality of our lifestyles and be supported by our employer.
Smith and Feese could learn that such benefits' support for domestic partners is commonplace among firms in the private sector, which have learned that these are valuable in attracting and retaining qualified workers. The PEBTF trustees can bring Pennsylvania into the modern world by extending such benefits, and I hope they do so quickly.
The two legislators -- and the Post-Gazette ("Sunshine and Secrecy: Wrong Motivation Prompts the Right Fight," July 22 Editorial) -- carp about the $900 million paid to the PEBTF as a cause for public interference in this matter. You are all forgetting that the money is not a gift from taxpayers onto which legislators can impose their narrow sanctimonious agenda. The $900 million is payment to us as a negotiated term of our employment. In other words, we earn it, and we're entitled to wise and deliberate decisions on its use by the trustees who represent our interests.
It's particularly ironic that Reps. Smith and Feese, purveyors of the stealth pay-raise, opened their brouhaha by seeking an injunction in court to open the meetings of the trustees to the public. The PG then supported such openness as in the public interest.
But you better serve Pennsylvania's employees and voters by continuing to shed public light on the Legislature's lack of deliberation over their recent, whopping pay raises.
JOHN BITTNER
Crafton
Diverts attention
My immediate reaction to the July 19 editorial "Storm Front: Hurricane Alley Is Hardly a Paradise" was what a waste of precious editorial space! The thrust of this editorial was to warn those in Pennsylvania who might consider moving south that our weather is not so bad after all and that Florida is not really the Sunshine State but rather the Hurricane State.
One of the first life lessons taught me by my parents was that you rise and fall based on your own merits, not by degrading others. I doubt seriously that southeast newspapers dedicate any of their editorial space to comparisons to Pennsylvania weather.
It appears that you don't grasp that weather is not a major consideration for the droves of people exiting Pennsylvania.
Consider our placement on all the recent wrong lists where we are near the top: highest state gasoline taxes, top for the worst highways, second-highest paid legislators, largest number of full-time legislators, second-highest state college/university tuition, highest corporate income tax, highest property tax to name a few. While on the good lists such as job creation and quality of education we are at or near the bottom. These issues affect us far more than the weather.
I do my part regularly by communicating on issues via phone, letter and e-mail with state legislators, Congress, the governor and the president. I also attend and speak out on issues at township and other meetings in my community.
Again, the Post-Gazette's responsibility is to use its editorial and investigative powers to bring focus to important issues no matter which political party is at fault.
Finally, just to set the record straight, our average 65 days of sunshine per year make just about any state but Pennsylvania a Sunshine State.
RICHARD A. MANSON
Cecil
Development's scary
I appreciate the balance of information that Diana Nelson Jones tried to include in her July 21 article "In Beechview, a Latino Community Takes Hold." Unfortunately, I feel we were portrayed as unaccepting of our new population simply because it is Hispanic.
In my opinion, the biggest issue was not addressed. A real estate developer purchased the majority of our struggling business district. The community was promised an upscale shopping district. But we have been given a blighted main street.
Supply and demand says that you lower prices to increase demand. But our reality is that established businesses have had their rents raised and are now closing. How do we survive if this house of cards is blown over by a strong wind?
It is both frightening and frustrating to have someone from outside of our community execute a takeover and control a community's economic survival. It is happening in Beechview. What would you do if a developer selected your community next?
SHERRY HAZUDA
Beechview
We aren't Rambos
I must object to New York Times guest columnist Sarah Vowell's characterization of the Minuteman Project ("Let's Hear It for the Real Minutemen, July 25 Perspectives) as "a nutty experiment" carried out by "random guys with guns stalking ... the Rio Grande" of which "no serious person" would approve.
I suggest a look at the group's Web site and a little more research. The Minutemen actively avoid contact with anyone crossing the border, neither approaching them nor signalling them. They have a zero-tolerance policy of getting rid of anyone displaying a Rambo-like attitude. And while some of the members who are licensed to carry a firearm in the states involved do carry, it is repeatedly stressed that everyone must adhere to all the applicable laws.
According to their Web site: "If we are to send the message loud and clear to President Bush and Congress, it is imperative that we stay within the law. If one single individual steps over the line for their personal gratification, we are all stained with that irresponsible behavior, and labeled forever as a fringe element that embarrasses all who are counting on us to make this historic statement."
TOM THOMPSON JR.
West Newton
Trashiest city
Rob Rogers ("Blue Collar Surprise," July 24 Out and About) is kidding when he calls Pittsburgh clean, right? Perhaps if one is imagining the city to have tons of residual airborne pollutants, which surely have diminished, then it is clean.
But look down: The streets and sidewalks are carpeted with cigarette butts and the detritus of fast food fills every nook and cranny. I have seen more litter tossed from the vehicles in front of me while driving through Pittsburgh than I have ever seen anywhere else.
This is a beautiful city with lots of potential, but it is not clean by any stretch of the imagination.
KATE SNOW
Bloomfield
Follow his deeds
This observation regards the substance of Sister Liguori Rossner's letter regarding Sen. Rick Santorum's teaching ("Not Moral Messages," July 21).
Those who hear only our junior senator arguing for life and social values are deaf and blind to the consequences of his self-serving, short-term political actions. Would that his power to vote did not affect all citizens (especially the unborn and young).
This would-be emperor has no clothes. Our gratitude to the perceptive person whose voice cries out against the masquerade.
KENNETH L. JONES
Jeannette
Let kids play football in Westinghouse Park
I have just read "Neighbors At Odds Over Rules in Park" (July 25) about Westinghouse Park and found it disturbing.
My family lives near Westinghouse Park. We have lived here for 17 years. What disturbs me about this controversy about the park is the emphasis on all the wrong things. Here is a park where you don't let your kids run barefoot because they could easily step on a used syringe -- where we hear gunfire almost every night and see what looks like open drug dealing by day.
And now people are screaming about the quality of life because a few kids are playing ball? This is sad and ridiculous.
Sure it's noisy sometimes, but it's good, not vicious, noise. Sure, they're careless about gum wrappers and potato chip bags, but what kid isn't?
I would much rather have them doing something like playing ball than a few other things I can think of. Ball-playing is not high on my list of what takes the quality of life down in a neighborhood.
VIRGINIA LAYEFSKY
Point Breeze
