Santorum is using emotion to avoid the real issues

I just finished reading the May 24 article by James O'Toole, "Senate Fight Nasty Already: Santorum Says Opponent Snooped; Casey Denies Claim," and I have to admit, it caused me to wonder if Sen. Rick Santorum might be this millennium's version of H. Ross Perot.

I believe it was in 1992 that Mr. Perot accused President Bush (the elder) and possibly aliens of spying on his daughter's wedding. Fourteen years later, we have Sen. and Mrs. Santorum accusing the Bob Casey campaign of spying on the Santorum residence in Pittsburgh. These statements are odd and quite reminiscent of Mr. Perot.

I do not know if anyone is driving by or peering into the windows of the senator's Penn Hills home. That is not really an election issue because it is a personal issue.

Furthermore, the Santorums are nowhere near that residence for much of the year; they could not possibly feel threatened by actions occurring 250 miles from their permanent home in Virginia.

The issue is that the Santorums have politicized their emotions -- false emotions in my opinion -- in order to deflect discussion on the real issues that should concern this campaign.

In an effort to distract voters, they are trying to inject fear, their fear, into the election, where it has no business. Sen. Santorum's extreme reaction makes me question his fitness to hold the office any longer, just as I questioned Mr. Perot's fitness to hold office in 1992.

JEFFREY T. ALTDORFER
Triangle, Va.

The writer, who is from Ross, is an Army officer stationed in Washington, D.C.

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Mr. Hypocrisy

I really do not understand Sen. Rick Santorum's over-the-top, self-righteous indignation at someone "supposedly" looking into his Penn Hills home ("Senate Fight Nasty Already," May 24). In April 2003, Sen. Santorum stated that, in his opinion, the right to privacy doesn't exist in the U.S. Constitution.

So if that is the case, what is he concerned about? Is there something hiding there that might derail his career and/or marriage? After his comment in 2003, I called his office requesting phone bills, medical records, etc. but was denied.

So Mr. Hypocrisy strikes again. Remember, he has also pushed to the limit medical malpractice lawsuits, but his wife filed and won that very same thing.

Please, citizens of Pennsylvania, come November show the country that we have brains in this commonwealth and vote Rick Santorum out of office.

ADAM K. SMITH
North Fayette

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Council spending

More than a year ago, we learned that city Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle used taxpayer funds to purchase books at places like the University of Pittsburgh Bookstore, which she says she gave away to her constituents as part of her literacy campaign.

Now we learn that she has used taxpayer funds to pay for services by a political supporter and a family friend ("Councilwoman's Spending Probed," May 20). It's time for all of the City Council members to be held accountable for their spending.

I applaud the new rules proposed by the Pittsburgh City Council president ("Stricter Council Spending Rules Urged," May 24). I also believe it is time for Ms. Carlisle to resign.

RONALD JOHNSON
Brookline

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Hill not to blame

James Fisher ("For Success Downtown, We Must Fix the Hill First," May 24 letters) has determined that the problem of the Fifth-Forbes area is the residents of the Hill District who go Downtown. He says they are "often on food stamps, welfare and unemployment benefits."

The residents of the Hill figured the problem out some 50 years ago -- when the Hill District was "fixed" then. I am a native of that neighborhood, and some of us have never been on welfare, unemployment benefits or food stamps. We all thought that putting the Civic Arena in the lower Hill would let the city get on with the building of Downtown. In 1957, when work started on the Civic Arena until 1961 when it was completed, some 8,000 people were displaced, along with some 400 businesses -- supermarkets, Lutz Meat Market, a 5 & 10, drug stores, shoe stores, movie theaters, hotels, night clubs, a YWCA and more.

We all know now it is not the Hill District's residents who destroyed the neighborhood's business district, and it's not the Hill District residents who are keeping Downtown from prospering. Some Hill District residents would like to help. What keeps getting in the way is the old caste system.

ARLENE HOLMES-HANKINS
Penn Hills

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Around the world

Congrats to Rob Rogers. When I lived in Pittsburgh I always knew he was a world-renowned cartoonist. It was not until I was in Taipei, Taiwan, reading the China Post that I saw a cartoon that he did (May 24, George W. Bush thinking he is in the driver's seat regarding Big Oil) that I realized how the world looked at us via him.

Politics aside, it is good to see a slice of home away from home.

KEN GIANELLA
San Jose, Calif.

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Biblical comfort

I am writing in response to the May 20 Saturday Diary by Steve Levin about death ("They're Gone, and We're Here"). I too understand the pain a person goes through when experiencing a loss. As the Bible says at Ecclesiastes 9:5: "The dead are conscious of nothing at all." So it is comforting to know that they are neither receiving eternal harm in a fiery hell or separated from their family in limbo.

God never intended for man to be dying and leaving this Earth in the first place. He wanted mankind to be fruitful and live forever on a perfect Earth. But I am pleased to tell you that in Isaiah 25:8 it states that the Sovereign Lord in his due time "will swallow up death forever."

SEAN BRUNSON
Duquesne

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