Nonsmokers, withhold your money in protest

I would like to remind Smithfield Cafe owner John J. Petrolias ("We Fought a Law Unfair to Our Businesses," May 28 letters) that County Council has access to the taxpayers' money in defense of our interests because that is what we put them there to do. It is their job to represent the residents of Allegheny County, more than 75 percent of whom are smoke-free.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that R.J. Reynolds cares about you or your business in the least. Its interest in this case was entirely self-serving, as can be expected from an industry that knowingly kills its customer base while finding ways to advertise to keep those suckers coming from the next generation.

Just like the addicted smokers who panic at the thought of having to spend an hour or two abstaining from their habit to eat a meal, perhaps you have bigger problems than tobacco. Is the quality of your food not enough to keep your customers coming back? Any self-respecting chef would want his customers to be able to taste and smell his dishes.

So, since we have boiled the American Way down to who has the deeper pockets, I'll speak through mine. My wallet will stay closed to establishments that continue to encourage smoking. Perhaps someone out there with deep enough pockets to advertise can help to organize a smoke-free protest. If the 75 percent of us who do not smoke withhold our entertainment dollars from these places for just one weekend, perhaps then they will choose to listen to the majority.

MARCI MALESKI
Sheraden

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Casino conundrums

After reading all the articles concerning the traffic headaches to the new casino, I wonder if it will be worth the trip. It will probably be easier to get to The Meadows. I do agree with casino developer Don Barden concerning the Rooney family's interest in the area. They are also interested in developing this area for their own financial gain.

It has disturbed me from the beginning that the "powers that be" chose Mr. Barden's casino and its location in the first place. The mixture of sparkly casino and family-oriented science center sounds very sleazy.

I was also perplexed by Carnegie Science Center board Chairman Howard J. Bruschi's comments in his May 25 letter ("PITG Gaming Should Be Required to Take Action on Our Concerns"). He states "We are not opposed to the casino as a neighbor" in one sentence, and then says one of the problems is "proximity of the casino will cause mixing of gambling patrons with a family and school-based science center audience." Isn't that inconsistent?

Maybe we should rethink this whole thing and put the World War II Memorial next to the science center ("WWII Memorial Now Only Lacking a Home," May 25). Wouldn't that be a great family experience? After visiting the science center, parents or teachers could take the children to the memorial to teach them about the sacrifices their great-grandparents made to keep our country safe.

DEB PISOWICZ
Pleasant Hills

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Give Gravel his due

The Page 2 Portfolio last Thursday was about Republican presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul ("An Article About Presidential Candidate Ron Paul," May 24). You included letters of readers who complained that the Post-Gazette has not been informing its readers about Rep. Paul.

I can also include former Sen. Mike Gravel in that censorship. Others have been noticing Sen. Gravel after his splash at the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina last month. I would hope they are also sending you letters. The sad fact is that no candidate is speaking truth to power like Mike Gravel, although Ron Paul is a close second.

It is ironic that in the May 24 PG you also had a story about a possible initiative and referendum law in Pennsylvania ("Pa. May Get 'Initiative and Referendum' "). Mr. Gravel's main reason for running for president is to push for his National Initiative for Democracy, which he and others took more than a decade of work to design. This is also a citizen ballot initiative and referendum law, but at the national level that would also include every state and local region. The National Initiative is also more rigorous than other initiative laws in that it provides for citizen deliberations on proposed laws.

It is ultimately up to us, the people, to make sure government is honest and fair. Ballot initiatives give the people the power to be real watchdogs over our elected representatives and provide another much-needed check and balance on government. Please let the people decide whom to vote for by informing us of all our choices.

DON GRBAC
Valencia

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No compensation

Daniel J. Zajdel of CNX Gas Corp. made serious misstatements in his letter concerning coalbed methane ("Here's the Other Side of the Coalbed Methane Story," May 6). Mr. Zajdel claims that Pennsylvania farmers and landowners have been compensated for the coalbed methane gas that is under their land. This is not true at all.

Most Pennsylvania farmers and landowners sold their coal to mining companies in the early era of Pennsylvania's industrialization (the coal rights for our farm were sold in 1899 and 1906). At this time the buyers of coal paid no extra compensation to the surface owner for something that neither party considered a resource. Coalbed methane was considered a dangerous nuisance to be vented to the atmosphere in the process of underground mining. Our state courts did not even determine who owned this gas until 1983.

No one could look at the language of these old coal contracts and conclude that the surface owner intended to sell anything other than the coal to be mined. Certainly, the landowner in 1899 did not contemplate that he was giving the right to gas companies to come on the surface of his property and expropriate the surface land for 30 years to drain the water from under his property, damage the surface and drill for gas in coal!

Drilling for coalbed methane gas on landowners' property without their approval represents a tremendously unfair taking of surface owners' rights.

KURT and DEBRA LIMBACH
Bolivar

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Congressional Democrats have allowed themselves to be bullied

Last week, the Democrats in Congress blew another chance to stand up to our homegrown incompetent president of the United States, George W. Bush. Whenever they voted "Yes" to the funding of the war in Iraq ("Congress Passes War Bill," May 25), they sold the American people down the drain ...

This man has constantly lied to the American public during his term in office and nobody has seriously challenged him.

In one week's time, he has castrated the Democrats in Congress and has made a former president of the United States humbly apologize for stating the truth.

Is there any American out there who will stand up to this "bully"? Maybe my letter will give courage to other Americans to stand up and be heard.

VINNY SHONKA
Avalon

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Grief lies ahead

Regarding the story "Bush: Bloody Iraq Summer Looms" (May 25): Was this comment made with pride, trepidation, conviction, resolution or callousness? Hard to fathom the leader of the most powerful country on Earth looking ahead with anything but grief.

Congress has passed a war bill committing sons, brothers and husbands to yet more violence and mutilation and death. To what end? Where is this all going? Guns and more guns and more guns have never won a war. The foolhardiness of this involvement in Iraq will end finally when we realize that too many people have died for an unjust and illegal war. Until then, are we simply content to read the rhetoric and accept stupidity as the norm and death as its inevitable result?

Where is compassion and reason in all this? I fear it is all lost to a bad mistake made a few years ago when saber rattling seemed impressive and truth unbelievable.

ANN BOYD
Indiana Township

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Voters ignored

Apparently the Democratic leadership of Congress does not understand the difference between stop and go. I thought the last election sent a strong message to them that the American people wanted the war in Iraq to stop and the runaway spending by the federal government to stop. Under the Iraq war funding agreement with the Bush administration, the war goes on and the spending goes on. Nothing stops.

DONALD L. McBRIDE
Worthington

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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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Dems back down, despite voters' wishes

Pity the poor Democrats. With a majority of the nation with them that a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is needed and with the president's approval ratings in some polls at below 30 percent for his handling of the war, they cannot seem to muster the courage, as the party in control of both houses of Congress, to stand firm on a funding bill that requires a timetable for withdrawal ("Congress Passes War Bill," May 25).

Makes one wonder why we even have elections -- I guess they are just symbolic after all.

JOSEPH BUTE
Pine

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We're not 'perpetuating the war' in Iraq

Your May 22 editorial "Bases of Futility" laid the claim that U.S. Contingency Operating Bases will "perpetuate the war." What war?

Previous PG editorials led readers to believe that Iraq was officially an insurgency, since the previous U.S. "war of occupation" was successfully completed in 2003. If there is a war, it is a civil one, and America is aiding an allied government.

Rebellious Islamic fundamentalist insurgents, largely puppets of Iran and often led by al-Qaida commanders, are fighting to remove far more than U.S. forces. They wish to first eliminate the nascent Iraqi democracy, and then destroy Israel, the Middle East's only "other" democracy, establishing a regional religious caliphate. Only America's finest stand in their way.

Many Iraqis on the street want U.S. forces to remain to help protect their new democracy and to help rebuild damaged infrastructure as Iraqi security forces train, resist and eventually defeat the insurgency.

"Perpetuate the war?" No. Perpetuate Bill Clinton's "engagement and enlargement" national security policy, spreading democracy and capitalism across the globe to ensure a peaceful future for our children? Definitely.

Draw a line in the sand against viral fanaticism and its terrorist henchmen, turning Iraq into "their" Vietnam? Absolutely.

JEFF THIERET
Harmony

The writer is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Air Force.

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Dichotomy regarding the unborn

The schizophrenic attitude of the law toward unborn children was in evidence in the May 22 article concerning the woman who is accused of "crimes against her unborn child," that is, the unlawful disposal of the corpse ("Woman Who Placed Fetus in Freezer May Face More Charges"). As stated by the accused woman's lawyer, "The fact that she's being prosecuted for this causes me great concern for any woman who might have a miscarriage."

Does anyone accuse an abortionist of "crimes against" an unborn child when he or his facility disposes of the dead body of an unborn child? Why is this woman accused of a crime while an abortionist gets paid for doing the same thing?

E.A. SVIRBEL
Whitehall

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Money trumps 'family values' excuses

Proponents of same-sex unions have missed the boat entirely. Somewhere along the line, they lost sight of the fact that the issue is not, and never has been, about "family values." The issue is about economics.

The gambling lobbies know this better than anyone else. Despite the irreparable damage that gambling will do to families in our region as a result of lost wages, absence from home and other gambling-related addictions, very few political or religious leaders cried out against slot machines in Pennsylvania. The gun lobbies know this as well. Despite annual increases in school and family violence as a result of easy access to handguns in our country, very few political or religious leaders are crying out in favor of stricter gun control legislation.

Psychologically, spiritually and economically, gambling and guns pose a far greater and more immediate threat to family values than same-sex unions ever will. Unfortunately, gambling and guns are also both big businesses, making big dollars at the expense of countless families.

Perhaps advocates of same-sex unions need to adopt a new strategy. Perhaps they need to find a way for our leaders and their business associates to make big money from the promotion and licensing of same-sex unions. Then our "family values" champions would be forced to identify a different, less lucrative scapegoat.

KEITH G. KONDRICH
Swisshelm Park

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Yes, spare the geese

Thank you for your May 20 article "County Blocking Proposed Goose Kill." I congratulate Allegheny County for not following the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommendation to kill Canada geese in the area.

In society, our first reaction to wildlife problems is to destroy the wildlife. What we must understand is that due to urban sprawl, we are taking up land that was once their homes. They have nowhere to go other than to coexist with us.

Working with wildlife instead of working to eradicate it is always the best option. Humane alternatives to controlling Canada geese populations are more effective and sustainable.

WILLIAM M. McMULLIN
Kalamazoo, Mich.

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