The time for more troops was long ago

If we weren't before, we are now truly through the looking glass!

Everyone, with the possible exception of Rummy, Cheney and McCain, has told this president that escalation is a really bad idea ("Bush, Cheney to Forge Ahead: Faced With Opposition in Congress, President Says He Will Send More Troops to Iraq," Jan. 15).

By "everyone," I mean the majority of the American people, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, the commanders on the ground and even the Iraqis. Yet this president has chosen to ignore all this sage advice for political reasons.

The time for more troops was almost four years ago, and then it needed to be hundreds of thousands more, not tens of thousands more. But the president chose to ignore that advice as well.

It's time that Congress rein in this mad hatter of a president by exercising its constitutional authority to hold the president accountable for a change of course that allows for our troops to come home.

Stop the madness!

J. ERIC PERSUN
Bridgeville

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Inept Mr. Bush

President Bush has had another "brainless storm" -- send another 21,500 troops to Iraq. The new buzzword around the country should not be "surge," it should be "impeach."

It's time this president is held accountable for his ineptness. We have grounds for impeachment for "bugging" a campaign office or having an affair, but not for causing the deaths of thousands of American soldiers? Mr. Bush was told by top generals at the start of the war that they needed more troops. He did not listen to them and fed us like we were mushrooms.

The generals told him Iraq is in a civil war and we need to start withdrawing. Again, he doesn't listen and is sending the larger number of troops that was needed three years ago.

You are not going to change Iraq. The Middle East has been fighting since before Jesus was born, and the Sunnis and Shiites have been killing each other for more than 1,300 years.

Also, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates wants another 92,000 soldiers and Marines. Can you say draft? The military has been struggling to meet recruitment goals and has continued to lower standards. Do you really think it will meet 92,000 without a draft? To those still riding around with Bush stickers on your car, why don't you drive to the nearest recruiting office and enlist?

Please join me in praying that our brave soldiers come home safe and soon.

JOHN SCHNEPP
Reserve

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Chart average wages

The U.S. government "touts" frequently and periodically the low unemployment rates by percentage. Why doesn't it publish once in a while the average monthly hourly wage rate over the past few years to show any trend?

FRANK R. BAILEY JR.
Grove City

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Time-wasting issue

State Rep. Dan Frankel is wasting his time and the taxpayers' money by revisiting the motorcycle helmet issue ("Frankel Wants Motorcycle Helmets," Jan. 9). He should focus his efforts in the Legislature on reducing or eliminating our property taxes, reducing the high cost of our public schools and figuring out a way to pay for the looming crisis in state pension benefits.

Furthermore, if he were sincere about wanting to reduce the number of deaths on Pennsylvania's roads, he should look at the fact that 90 percent of fatalities occur to occupants of enclosed motor vehicles, rather than at the measly 10 percent involving motorcycle operators.

Perhaps it is time for the Pennsylvania Legislature to enact a mandatory helmet law for all operators of enclosed motor vehicles. Then the police can enforce a new safety law that demands every car, truck and SUV driver and passenger to wear a PennDOT-approved safety helmet.

JEFF HARRIS
New Sewickley

The writer is president of Beaver County ABATE (Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education, www.abatepa.org).

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Existing laws work

The successful raid of a substandard Lancaster County commercial breeding operation ("Dog Law Snares Kennel Owner," Jan. 9) illustrates that the existing dog laws in Pennsylvania do work when they are actually enforced. This in turn proves that newer, more stringent regulations are not needed.

More staff, training and the funding for both are the key to properly enforcing any well-written law or regulation. Gov. Ed Rendell's new Dog Law Advisory Board's proposed regulations are overly burdensome and serve no useful purpose. They will only harm the small- to mid-level hobby breeders, who are the backbone of the purebred dog fancy and still the best source for well-bred, healthy and socialized purebred puppies.

GINA GROSS
Brookline

The writer is a member of the Greater Pittsburgh Labrador Retriever Club and Golden Triangle Obedience Training Club.

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The many victims

I glanced at the article on another Nazi Holocaust victim ("Holocaust Survivor Recounts Painful Stories to Help Others Understand," Jan. 9), and I thought "no one ever mentions the black Germans who were victims."

There is a book, by Hans Massaquoi, "Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany," about the fact that they too were victims of racist Germany.

There is also America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee, which will give a chilling insight to the holocaust of African Americans and Africans before captivity. My point is that there are many victims of racial hatred who should be mentioned.

America never wants to discuss the "holocaust" that Native Americans suffered along with African Americans. This kind of education may help to dispel myths and lies and create an atmosphere of enlightenment and understanding.

GLADYS NESBIT
Penn Hills

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The arena is for all

In response to Lin Steffanus' Jan. 9 letter ("Awaiting More Taxes"), in which she expresses her fear of paying increased taxes to support a "sporting venue that I'll never step foot in," I ask Ms. Steffanus and others who view a new arena as a $300 million hockey rink to consider this:

Have you ever stepped foot in the arena to take your children or grandchildren to an ice show? How about to see a concert performance by your favorite artist? Did you ever attend a loved one's graduation from college at the arena? Did your sons ever beg you to take them to a truck-and-tractor pull or motocross event? Have your daughters ever asked to see Elmo and "Sesame Street Live!" at the arena?

I have heard different estimates that there are between 140 to 200 events annually at the arena. As a Penguins season ticket holder, I can account for only 41 of those being hockey games.

The region needs to understand that while the Penguins are at the forefront of new arena plans, a new arena should be at the forefront for all in the region.

JEFF YOT
Beechview

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Always our money

In regard to the Jan. 13 article "Union Says Transit Cuts Are Too Deep": Since when does the union for the bus and trolley workers and Gov. Ed Rendell run the mass transit system in Pittsburgh, or in any city? This is like the inmates running the asylum.

Many buses have hardly any passengers on them. The bus drivers are overpaid, bottom line. The money Mr. Rendell gave to the Port Authority last year was taxpayer money. It's always taxpayer money.

The solution is to privatize the bus service. Then, a decent wage would be paid to all labor and the rider cost would be lowered.

Run the Port Authority like a real business, not like the "pork project" government bureaucracy that it is. Please leave the senior citizens out of this. Most of them use Access anyway.

RALPH MARTIN
North Huntingdon

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The ideal ticket for Democrats would be led by Al Gore

I hereby endorse Ruth Marcus' suggestion ("The Audacity of 'Nope,' " Jan. 7 column) that Barack Obama wait out this election and propose instead a ticket this year of Al Gore for president, with Mr. Obama as his running mate, two men whose integrity is unquestioned.

With Hillary Clinton as their secretary of state, we Democrats would have the ideal ticket with a man who has already won an election supported by a black and a woman, an all-American platform.

JOAN MORSE GORDON
Oakland

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We receive more letters than we can fit into the limited space on the editorial page, so we'd like to share some additional letters with our Post-Gazette Web site readers.

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It's criminal to ask others to die

That loud "thunk" many of us heard last week was another mudball hitting the barn. George W. Bush threw another one up, hoping it would stick. He's been slinging mud at the wall for three years now, and we have 3,000 deaths to show for it.

Twenty-one thousand more sacrificial lambs will go to Iraq, and the president can only hope they will stem the tide of civil war. Otherwise, many of them will die terrible deaths and bring home terrible wounds for no reason.

It's criminal to gamble with other people's lives, and it's criminal for anyone, who wants soldiers in Iraq, to stay here while other people die. I'd ask Rush Limbaugh to be the first to stand in line to volunteer.

I'd like to urge my fellow citizens to write letters to their representatives and senators asking them to stop the war.

GREGORY M. DISKIN
Squirrel Hill

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We can learn much from embryonic stem cells

The Diocese of Pittsburgh's Susan Rauscher, in her Jan. 12 letter ("About Stem Cells"), writes that embryonic stem cell research has been proved fruitless and that adult stem cell research is the "standard bearer for effective stem cell medicine."

What Ms. Rauscher fails to consider is that irrespective of whether benefits come directly from studying embryonic stem cells or adult cells, the ability to study embryonic stem cells adds knowledge to the entire field of stem cell research and embyronic cells have inherently more potential for research activities.

As Ms. Rauscher knows, the embryos used for this research are already slated for destruction. Her use of the phrase "intentional destruction of human embryos" is a clear misrepresentation, engineered to sway people away from this path-breaking and vital research.

AMESH ADALJA, M.D.
Butler

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A minimum-wage increase should be a given

It's disgraceful that there's even a debate about raising the minimum wage; it's more disgraceful that it's opposed in some quarters.

In the last few years, our legislators, judges and government executives have all demanded pay increases. Yet many of these people represent the same interests that oppose an increase in the minimum wage even though:

1. The federal minimum wage has now remained unchanged for almost 10 years, the longest stretch in its history.

2. Since Congress last voted to increase the minimum wage, the cost of living has gone up by 25 percent.

3. Congress has increased its annual salary by $31,600 during those years.

4. A full-time minimum wage worker brings in just $10,712 a year, less than half of the poverty level for a family of four. The proposed increase to $7.25 an hour would help approximately 13 million low-income people, most of whom are women. The $4,400 annual raise is equal to about 15 months' worth of groceries.

It doesn't cost jobs; studies have consistently found that cities and states with higher minimum wages often retain or even increase job levels.

Contrary to what we hear from the Chamber of Commerce types, 86 percent of small-business owners report that raising the minimum wage would have no effect on them.

BRADLEY GELDER
Point Breeze

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When the urge to rename something strikes, think of visitors

I'd like to ask the leaders of Pittsburgh to quit changing street, bridge and infrastructure landmark names. You're making it difficult for those of us who've moved to another city, but still enjoy coming back, to find anything.

It used to be we could tell all our friends to visit Pittsburgh and about how easy it was to navigate the bridges simply by following the street numbers. Well, you can't do that anymore. Now it's not the Sixth Street Bridge that connects beautiful PNC Park to the Cultural District and the nearby Renaissance Hotel. It's the Roberto Clemente Bridge. Everyone loves and misses Roberto, but couldn't we just erect a memorial that doesn't change an easy-to-use street name?

Plus, it used to be simple to direct out-of-towners to dearly departed Three Rivers Stadium and its successors by saying "go through the Fort Pitt tunnel on 279 and follow the signs to the North Side." Well now you can't. You have to go to the "North Shore," then follow a convoluted path past the science center through General Robinson Street to PNC Park. Lakes and oceans have shores. Rivers have banks. This incorrect "shore" description also eliminates a very nice nickname PNC Park could've had: The Bank on the Bank.

Then there's the Homestead High-Level Bridge, which last time I checked was still pretty darn high-level. Now it's the Homestead Grays bridge. I love the idea of honoring the Grays, but why take away a name that was accurate and useful? Couldn't Homestead's historic team get a better, nonbridge or nonstreet memorial?

I'm no Luddite, and I'm glad Pittsburgh's changing into a city that looks to the future and not just the past, but, please, for all of us out here in the wilderness, use some common sense when thinking about renaming major thoroughfares that worked pretty well in the first place.

JEFF YODERS
Chicago, Ill.

The writer is a former Pittsburgh resident.

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