Does the bottom line trump appropriate care?

Reading the sad tale of two of Mayview's ex-patients ("Mayview Suspends Downsizing," Nov. 19), I was reminded how the best intentions of legislators often go awry.

While no decent person wants to see people with mental disabilities languish in institutional settings, think about this: Many of these persons have criminal issues that make them a danger to themselves and to others. How long before worse horror stories appear on your front page?

How many of our previously stable old neighborhoods are now being populated with the criminally insane, not to mention supposedly recovering drug addicts and sex offenders? Worse yet, who's minding the store?

Like the current trend of sending nursing home patients into community settings or back to their families, the real issue is the proverbial elephant in the room: Where are all the qualified and, more important, trustworthy caregivers to be found? Nursing homes with human resources departments can't find enough. Moreover, how are they going to be paid and provided with benefits? And don't forget, with "forensic" cases, caregivers need special training in criminal justice or law enforcement.

While I'd like to think the closing of mental hospitals and reduction of nursing home populations represents enlightened, compassionate government, who among us doubts that saving the state money is what it's all about?

R. GRAY
Shaler

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Prime location

Last week Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt offered a compromise regarding the closure of Schenley High School ("A Compromise for Schenley Students?" Nov. 15). Mr. Roosevelt has suggested phasing in his reform plan over a three-year period, allowing current students to stay together until graduation. A happy result for these particular students, not so much for those who may desire to pursue the International Baccalaureate or Technological Studies programs in the future.

Schenley has a magical culture among its students that outsiders must find difficult to appreciate. Schenley is a hub, both socially and geographically. Aside from the amenities that surround Schenley, the current location is readily accessible from nearly all neighborhoods, as there is ample public transportaion to Oakland. My son's morning bus commute from our western neighborhood takes a little over 20 minutes. Conversely, there is no public transportation to Reizenstein.

If school district resources like the IB program are scarce, then they need to be distributed equitably. Parents remain suspicious that conditions are truly as dire as district officials would have us believe. The circumstances described at Schenley are much the same in other school buildings, yet there has never been any suggestion that a health hazard exists in any of them. The difference? One can only assume it's Schenley's prime location.

Parents have been emphatically assured that there are no plans to sell Schenley. Rubbish. Once emptied of students, it would be foolish not to sell Schenley. Is it surprising, then, that Mr. Roosevelt has little credibility with Schenley parents?

DOREEN KARAS
Sheraden

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Buying American

In response to "What's Not Made in China?" by Cristina Rouvalis (Nov. 11): There are many ways to buy American or at least fair trade items of any kind if one just checks the Internet.

For example, the company Pangea (www.veganstore.com) has many fair trade items, and several of these are American. American Apparel in Shadyside and Oakland has American clothes. I bought some affordable American-made jeans from the Union Jean & Apparel company in nearby Ohio.

There are many more companies on the Internet selling all kinds of American products if people just take a few minutes to look.

BILL FRIZLEN
Squirrel Hill

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Superior service

I've flown US Airways many times over the years, but when JetBlue and Southwest opened gates, I wanted to try them. I flew to Boston on JetBlue and was so pleased with my flight. I didn't have to walk through first-class to get to my seat, the plane had only two wide leather seats on each side instead of three squeezed seats, there was no cart to block the aisle if one wanted to go to the lavatory and we were served our snacks by cheerful flight attendants.

Isn't it possible other passengers made that same discovery, and US Airways, instead of improving its service and trying to compete, just closed many gates and moved out of town?

ELEANOR SLATER
Shadyside

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Your school board

This is in response to the Nov. 15 letter "A Better Way" by Joe Poniewaz. Here's a two-word solution to all future strike threats by schoolteachers: school board. These are your elected officials, they live in your neighborhoods. Walk down the street ... stand on their porch ... knock on the door ... and say, "I would like my child (children) to return (stay) in school. Please do the job I elected you to do."

KAREN HARBAUGH
Midway

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Frightful decision

The media have informed us that King Middle School in Portland, Maine, is going to provide birth control pills to 11-year-old girls ("Middle School Opening Center for Birth Control," Oct. 19). This is a moral issue, and the decision is truly frightening.

Schools are not medical dispensaries. Schools are prohibited from dispensing aspirins or even Pepto- Bismol to students.

Parents cannot be ignored or sidetracked on this issue. After all, parental permission is required for ear piercing and sports participation.

More so, students learn times tables, grammar rules for languages, scientific facts and historical dates, yet can't learn abstinence and chastity?

Reviewing that Portland, Maine, school district decision, one realizes how devastating and damaging it is. Let no school district anywhere copycat that glaring error. Furthermore, birth control pills do not prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

REV. JOSEPH L. SREDZINSKI
Greensburg

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On the parkway

Just a reminder to the inbound Parkway East morning commuters to utilize the Edgewood/Swissvale merging lane to its full extent.

PennDOT did a lovely job at making the merge easier, but commuters still want to pause at the beginning and then merge. Ride the merging lane to the end. You'd be surprised how many rush-hour commuters allow you to merge in front of them. Give them a wave of thanks too.

LISA ANDREAS
Trafford

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This measure would help some homeowners

As Edward Ketz states in his Nov. 7 commentary ("Subprime Mortgages Come Home to Roost"), many lenders, investors and homeowners took unwarranted risks when interest rates were low and credit was readily available. As such, he asserts, Congress should not now wipe the slate clean for those who "placed their bets and lost."

However, Professor Ketz fails to recognize that not all distressed homeowners were greedy or careless, and a measured congressional response to this current crisis may be entirely appropriate. In some cases, brokers and lenders failed to adequately disclose mortgage terms and convinced homebuyers to take out mortgages they could not afford over the long run. Others committed outright fraud. In the Lancaster area, 800 homeowners recently learned they were the victims of a mortgage broker's Ponzi scheme and now face possible foreclosure.

Like Professor Ketz, Sen. Arlen Specter is concerned that sweeping legislation may create incentives for irresponsible behavior and harm future home buyers. To be clear, the legislation Sen. Specter has introduced (the Homeowners' Mortgage and Equity Savings Act) is not a "bailout"; rather, it provides targeted relief to current homeowners in bankruptcy. The legislation would, in essence, provide bankruptcy judges with the authority to work with lenders and borrowers to delay or roll back "resetting" interest rates. Many homeowners have not been able to keep up with the increasing payments, and foreclosures among homeowners with such loans have doubled in the past year.

With millions of Americans facing the reality of losing their homes, the complex problem of subprime mortgages merits a thoughtful and moderate response from Congress.

KATE KELLY
Deputy Press Secretary
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter
Washington, D.C.

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