There's no ethics issue in the mayor's golf outing

Let me add my thoughts to the "controversy" created by Luke Ravenstahl having played in the Mario Lemieux charity golf event at the expense of UPMC and the Penguins ("Mayor Defends His Golf," Aug. 22).

To maintain a high profile and to advance the public interest, it is essential that the mayor of the city and all other public leaders at every level participate in as many public events, charitable or otherwise, that their schedules permit, regardless who pays the entrance fee. Unless they get tangible personal benefit from attending, the ethics "issue" is academic, if it exists at all.

The networking between public officials and the rich and powerful people who regularly attend such events can do nothing other than help -- in this case, the city (and, by extension, the county and the region) as it claws its way out of the decline experienced over the last few decades.

To those old-time politicos who have been jumping on the "bash Luke" bandwagon, I have this to say. Most of you have been feasting at the public trough longer than Mr. Ravenstahl has been alive. It was on your watch that the region deteriorated and you did nothing. That being the case, before someone decides to investigate all the goodies you have gotten at the expense of the public, your best course of action is to shut up, sit down and give the mayor a chance to prove himself.

THOMAS L. BUTERA
O'Hara

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Give him a chance

How not to bring young people back to the city:

You have a young promising mayor and all you do is knock him for a golf outing. ("Ethics Bogey," Aug. 23). Get off his back and give him a chance.

He is not immature just because he is young. We need more young people with some new ideas instead of the "same old, same old."

ROY LEUCH
Upper St. Clair

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No answer

I was sitting on my porch on Beechwood Boulevard in Squirrel Hill with a couple of friends one weekday this June, when, to our puzzlement, a water tanker with the lettering "City of Pittsburgh" on it came by, spraying what I would imagine (and hope) to be water on the bike lane.

I looked over at one of my friends and asked if he had seen that. He was staring back at me with the same shocked look on his face. So our third friend suggested calling Mayor Ravenstahl's city information line at 311.

Figuring that they must know what was going on, I tried dialing that number. First, however, I was told that I was third in line. After waiting what seemed like the obligatory 45 minutes, I was finally "helped" by a woman who took down my question with great efficiency but not much caring in her voice. Promised that "somebody would get back to me," I further pressed her on how long that would take and was told "within a week." Here we sit, in August, and no response.

I have a few questions for Mayor Ravenstahl: 1) What is the answer to my original question? 2) What is the point in spending my hard-earned tax dollars on an "Information 311" service that so obviously is not working right? 3) Why should voters re-elect you if you're going to waste our time and money in such a way?

EZRA M. REIS
Squirrel Hill

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Control the run-off

Concerning the recent flooding: It is said you can't make the businesses on McKnight Road do anything in regards to their run-off because they are grandfathered. In that case, local governments -- if they want to continue considering more development -- must start looking for more ground for retention ponds to slow the deluge of run-off during storms, including ponds for existing businesses.

With regards to grandfathering, what do we say to the residents below the McKnight Road entrance to Girty's Run? Are they not grandfathered also against anyone or everyone just dumping their run-off at them irresponsibly? Their homes were there long before the McKnight Road business district -- or any development upstream for that matter, including in McCandless and Franklin Park. Those communities have reaped the great tax revenues of the McKnight Road business district for many years without regard to storm run-off.

Now is the time for all the involved townships and boroughs to put a percentage of those tax receipts into fixing this problem before it's too late. They are destroying lives, livelihoods and communities.

If local governments can't come to an agreement on how to do this, then the county government should do it.

To those who say businesses on McKnight Road have the right to do business there, well, the businesses below McKnight Road have the right to do business and earn a living also without being wiped out or living with the threat of being wiped out every time rain is in the forecast.

REMY BURGUNDER
Shaler

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Recognize nurses

I read with interest the Aug. 24 article titled "UPMC Posts Record $618 Million Profit."

Being a retired registered nurse, I was astounded that there was no reference made to the nursing profession and what positive effect this profit might mean for those dedicated professionals. I can only hope that some part of a $618 million profit finds its way to this honored profession to hire and retain good nurses.

Robert DeMichiei, chief financial officer of UPMC, wrote about keeping expenses down and volume up. "We need that $600 million in remainder" (his word) to maintain UPMC's capital spending on buildings, equipment and information technology -- the "lifeblood of a hospital."

The word "lifeblood" is defined in the dictionary as the blood considered as essential to maintain life; the element that vivifies or animates anything. Nurses are essential in all hospitals; they are the lifeblood.

JUDY REED
Oakmont

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Constitution is key

President Bush routinely claims that it is his most solemn duty to protect the American people. However, the most solemn duty of a president, as stated in the oath of office, is to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Witness a war started on questionable premises, plummeting governmental transparency and spying on Americans without judicial oversight.

America without the liberties guaranteed in the Constitution ceases to be America. Protecting Americans is not an adequate reason to run roughshod over the Constitution. At that point, Mr. Bush is no longer protecting Americans, but his mere subjects.

MATTHEW STELMACK
McMurray

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Too much attention

After reading the recent Saturday edition of your newspaper and viewing the picture of John Couey (among others) on the front page, then finding pictures of his victims relegated to the back pages, my wife and I feel strongly that your priorities are skewed ("Man Who Abducted, Raped 9-Year-Old Sentenced to Die," Aug. 25).

The picture locations should be reversed -- front page gives the creep far more attention and recognition than he deserves.

JOHN AND JANET BURTT
Upper St. Clair

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Offensive photo

Regarding the "Service Learning Day" photograph in the Aug. 25 Local News section: The photo of the young woman was offensive on so many levels. What were you thinking? How would you like to see your picture in the paper doing a good deed ... washing toilets? Surely you can do better than that. Shame on you.

ROBIN BRUN
Mount Washington

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If Bush liked the Vietnam War, he should have served there

Regarding the column "The Real Lesson of Vietnam" by Sally Kalson (Aug. 26 Forum): President Bush apparently believes that we should have stayed in Vietnam longer to avoid the recriminations that followed, despite the fact that Vietnam today hardly resembles the scourge that others of his ilk predicted when we finally left them alone.

It's bad enough that he avoids mention of the countless bloodbaths that the Nixon administration needlessly provoked and prolonged and makes the same arguments today about extending the war on Iraq. But the fact of the matter is that, if President Bush truly believes it would have been worth it to extend the Vietnam War, he had every opportunity as a young man to go over and join the fight himself. Of course, as we all know, he didn't. So why should we listen to him now?

MARTIN E. BERTOCCHI
Crafton