Public safety can benefit from RAD via local decisions

I am writing in response to a letter published on Oct. 12 about the Regional Asset District's recently released budget and funding for municipal public safety functions ("Vital Health and Safety Services Are Refused RAD Funding").

The Allegheny County sales tax has two applications: The county and municipal governments receive half of the tax for tax reform and to pay for local government services; the other half of the tax goes to fund a grant program to pay for regional parks, libraries, sports, cultural and civic facilities. Thus local sales tax funds are, in fact, available to local governments to pay for public safety services if they choose to use them for this purpose. Last year the municipal share of the tax was $75.2 million.

The Regional Asset District board takes its responsibility to allocate its share of the 1 percent sales tax very seriously. Each year, the board makes a thorough review of the grant eligibility requirements including consulting with the district's citizens advisory committee and holding public hearings.

There are many worthwhile organizations in the community. However, funding municipal safety activities was not the original intent of the grant program and expanding into new areas would dilute the funds needed by the community's libraries, regional parks and attractions that can no longer depend on support from other government sources.

The district budget does support arts and cultural organizations, but it provides only a small portion of the budgets of these organizations, which raise substantial private funds while providing programs for millions of people in the region.

RICK PIERCHALSKI
Chairman
Allegheny Regional Asset District
Downtown

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One lucky grandma

Regarding the Oct. 17 article "Grandma Cleared in Airport Gun Trial": Oops! Grandma forgot she had a loaded gun in her closet -- and it fell out of the closet into her bag?

While I am sure she meant no harm, that is exactly how children get killed with guns. Good thing one of her seven grandchildren never decided to play in Grandma's closet.

MARI MURPHY
Carnegie

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Vehicle shutoff

A recent accident occurred when a school bus went out of control after the driver suffered an apparent heart attack and the vehicle wandered into the path of a Port Authority bus ("School Bus Driver Dead After Crash: Heart Attack Suspected in W. Mifflin Collision," Oct. 10). There have also been instances where a truck or long-distance bus crashed after the driver fell asleep.

For some 90 years now, street cars and, more recently, railroad locomotives have been equipped with so-called "dead-man" devices, whereby the operator is alerted and/or the power is shut off and the vehicle is brought to a stop if safety procedures are not followed.

Maybe the time has come to require such devices on all heavy commercial vehicles.

ARTHUR S. ELLIS
Upper St. Clair

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Catering to casinos

The casinos will be making millions upon millions of dollars and the state representatives (who are to represent the working people) put in a clause to allow smoking in these establishments because they could lose up to 30 percent of their returns if smoking were banned.

If this is true for the casinos, it is also true for private bar owners who pay their child's tuition, gas, electric, car payments, medical, insurances and all other daily expenses with the receipts of their only livelihood.

These private owners paid thousands of dollars in taxes and licenses for their establishments, and who is being represented by our elected officials?

MARY ANN McQUILLAN
Spring Hill

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Who else should go?

If the late Mayor Bob O'Connor were still alive, Dennis Regan would likely be sitting pretty in his Grant Street office, and we would be none the wiser ("Mayor Places Top Officials on Leave," Oct. 13). Who else has been assigned a job he or she doesn't deserve, isn't qualified to do or is abusing his or her power for personal gain?

Thanks to police Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly for taking a big risk and bringing these issues to light. Who's next?

JEFF PICONE
Regent Square

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Christian courage

They appear to be a throwback to a forgotten time. They eschew fossil-fuel hog machines for the old-fashioned horse and buggy and try to avoid as much as they can of modern American materialist culture. But what is most old-fashioned and dated about the Amish is that -- unlike the bigoted so-called Christian group that had to be bribed not to picket their funerals -- they not only profess but they also actually practice the most fundamental of Christian values: love and forgiveness.

"Amish Extend Hand to Family of Killer" reads the headline of an Oct. 7 story that quotes an Amish elder as saying: "Who will take care of their family? ... We must set something up for these children's education." Another article reports that one of the murdered Amish children, a 13-year-old, had begged her assassin to kill her and let the other children go.

Can you imagine such expressions of Christian courage, compassion and forgiveness from today's self-appointed heirs of the teachings of Jesus, the likes of gay-baiting Jerry Falwell or the revenge-crazed born-again U.S. president, who has the blood of hundreds of thousands on his pious hands?

In the same edition we read that our commander in chief's Guantanamo prison guards "laughed at others' stories of beating detainees" ("Marine Cites Guard Abuse") and of eight of his Marines who, when their plan to kill a suspected Iraqi insurgent went awry -- according to testimony -- simply went and killed his neighbor instead ("Medic Says Marines Shot Iraqi in Head"). Isolated incidents?

Doesn't the buck stop at the office of our nation's torturer in chief?

ROGER HOLLANDER
Sewickley

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Santorum and ID

There are many reasons why the re-election of Sen. Rick Santorum is not in the best interest of Pennsylvania citizens.

One that has received little attention is his support for the teaching of intelligent design in public school biology classes. Intelligent design, a synonym for creationism, is a religious belief system. As such, it can have no role in the public school curriculum.

Individuals who wish their children to learn of intelligent design are, of course, free to indoctrinate them at home or in their churches.

If our children are raised to replace the scientific evidence for evolution with a faith-based dogma, they will become less competitive with those from other nations where rigorous evidence is honored over faith. At a time when deficiencies in science and mathematics education are already apparent among U.S. students, a further weakening of the public school curriculum by promoting the teaching of intelligent design will lead to serious problems vis-a-vis our international competitors.

It is noteworthy that no European country has experienced the politicization of evolution that has occurred in the United States.

Unfortunately, Sen. Santorum has been a leader in this process. He does not deserve to be re-elected.

RONALD BENTLEY
Mt. Lebanon

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Politics over all

Though Mark Foley has given up his seat in Congress, the fact that his party appears to have hidden the facts of his past performances indicates that we have stepped over the line of what's best for America and stepped deeper into the realm of what's best for retaining political power.

And we had such a nice thing going for us -- at least up to 1994. That is since the "Contract on America" was sworn to by, as it has turned out to be, the not-so-conservative Republican Party. Or is it "nutso"?

RICHARD RICH
Pine

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To those who would ban guns: How do we stop illegal gun users?

Yes, something needs to be done about school violence. I don't have any answers, just two questions.

If and when all guns are banned in this country, by what mechanism will all the criminals with illegal guns be persuaded to voluntarily show up someplace to exchange their guns for grocery coupons or whatever? Also, will there be a policeman within view everywhere I go to protect me from those not interested in free groceries?

Many want to ban all guns. Fine. But those of you who will do this, please answer these questions first.

TOM KERIN
Bethel Park

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