Pittsburgh's 250th birthday is clearly upon us. We have a year of exciting events to look forward to.

A line from Kate Dewey's Jan. 6 Forum piece "Past as Prologue" struck me and, I think, bears scrutiny. She wisely suggests that we "cannot afford to be insular and parochial." Yet, I wonder if our approach to the 250th has not been just that.

Who besides ourselves are we inviting to the celebrations? A good Pittsburgh birthday party usually involves good friends and family in equal measure -- people who care about us and who we care about.

Whom are Pittsburgh's "good friends and family?" Let's start with family. Our parents come from every distant shore -- we are a child of the world. Clearly Eastern Pennsylvania is our oldest sibling, if a bit estranged. Since our birthday is also the birth of the gateway to the west, the cities and towns of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys are our younger siblings. We have close cousins in every industrial and post-industrial region in America and distant ones in similar regions around the globe.

Our friends -- people who have been touched by Pittsburgh, its story and its people -- stretch the world over. It seems to me that, in celebrating ourselves, we are celebrating them, too. Perhaps we should let them know that, and specifically invite them, to rekindle our deep historic relationships. We have a lot of candles to blow out and could use their help. Roll out the carpet and roll out the barrel!

KEN THOMPSON, M.D.
Shadyside

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Your Jan. 4 account of the Iowa caucus results was very revealing ("Obama, Huckabee Win; Turnout Breaks Records -- Edwards Edges Clinton for 2nd Among Dems; Romney Distant 2nd in GOP").

You characterized Gov. Romney's finish at 9 points behind Gov. Huckabee in the Republican race as a "distant" second-place finish. Yet, on the Democratic side, an 8- point loss by Sen. Edwards, and an identical 9-point loss (third place) by Sen. Hillary Clinton, were called "close" by your reporter.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, I think your hidden agenda is showing.

JAKE JACOBSON
Richland

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The Jan. 1 article "Firm Seeks Big Stake in U.S. Infrastructure" presents the Carlyle Group plans to privatize vital public projects (water, roads, airports, bridges). They have raised $1.15 billion and plan to have foreign investors buy into the funding, all for investor profit. The Carlyle Group is well connected with former President George H.W. Bush and many former government and business leaders as members.

This fails the sniff test at all levels. The rationale states that governments lack the funds to do the jobs and that privatization can do them better while earning profits for the investors. What is unsaid is the lack of government funding is due to all the tax cuts given away to major corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

The mantra of neo-cons says that government is unable to govern. They get tax breaks and with less government funding the government can't provide needed services, hence the need for privatization.

Privatization, especially under this administration, has failed miserably and requires investigation for criminal activity.

The corporate takeover of our republic always must be held in check. Funding of political campaigns and candidates is clearly "buying the government" at the expense of true freedom.

The profit motive is in general good for business but bad for government. A government elected to provide essential services is responsible for these services and is also accountable for their success. Privatization is not.

We have to stand up and say "No" to privatization and "Yes" to governmental funding for all our essential services.

OLIVER J. DRUMHELLER
Monroeville

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In the Dec. 30 Post-Gazette, Ron Francis was quoted as saying, "I applaud his [U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire's] efforts to honor the sacrifices of our veterans." Mr. Francis was also quoted as saying that inconsistency on the Iraq issue "demonstrates his lack of military experience."

Thousands of extra troops and thousands of unnecessary deaths must be the formula that Mr. Francis thinks makes sense for this pitiful president and his immoral decision to send our women and men into his dad's unfinished war.

I wonder who in Mr. Francis' nuclear family volunteered for this misguided mission into Iraq? What chicken hawks in the Republican Party sent their sons and daughters into this war? Where is Jenna and Barbara Bush when we need them to patrol the trenches in Iraq? If this is such a purposeful cause, the president should lead by example and have his kids suck sand and don the weapons of war.

Going forward, Mr. Francis and Melissa Hart should know that Rep. Altmire has brought more inclusion, optimism and participation into the 4th Congressional District than has been here for many years.

While I may not agree with everything that Rep. Altmire has voted for or against, I respect a person who is not intimidated to vote his conscience for his district.

Jason Altmire deserves to be re-elected to Congress.

BARRY S. PITEK
Aleppo

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In his Jan. 1 letter, Douglas A. Bauman lets his fear of government regulations overshadow the largely positive benefits of compact fluorescent lights, grossly misrepresenting certain facts while simply ignoring others ("Infrastructure: Congress Bans the Light Bulb").

Coal-fired power plants, such as those that dot Western Pennsylvania, pose a far greater and tangible mercury threat to one's health.

To wit: At the Armstrong Power Station, just upriver from Mr. Bauman, about 150 kilograms of mercury were released in 2006 to generate about 2 million megawatt hours of electricity. Using these figures, over the expected lifetime of a standard 100-watt bulb (1,000 hours), about 7.5 milligrams of mercury are released. During the same 1,000 hours, a CFL with comparable light output is responsible for about a quarter of that, or about 1.9 milligrams.

Most CFLs contain less than 5 milligrams of mercury. If the bulb is not broken, it is never released. And with a little effort and assistance from the Internet, disposal of a broken bulb need not be as hazardous a task as Mr. Bauman's letter suggests.

JAKE KROHN
Shadyside

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I'll accept Valerie Winschel's challenge to prove that the Second Amendment instills an individual right of the people to keep and bear arms ("Not a Right," Jan. 2 letters).

Ms. Winschel should check out the use of the word "people" in the First, Fourth, Ninth and 10th amendments. The use of the word "people" in all these amendments (in addition to the Second Amendment) refers to individual rights.

Why would Ms. Winschel somehow believe that the Second Amendment differs in its reference to "people" than the other amendments? It is also interesting to note that the framers thought so highly of this "right of the people" that they made it the Second Amendment of the original 10.

GILBERT DADOWSKI
Moon

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Michael Kerlin's "In Search of Peace?" (Dec. 30 Forum) was filled with more than its share of animus. He reported trembling at the "implications" of the pope's peace message, "The Human Family, A Community of Peace"; suggested parallels of genocide and secret informers; and mentioned those hair-raisers: inquisition, torture and paranoia. It sent me scurrying to the text.

He takes the pope to task for not focusing on the real problems of the day -- the environment, poverty, war -- though Pope Benedict XVI clearly devotes four major paragraphs (more than one-fifth of the total message) to these issues as they affect both individual families and the human family. He also makes a strong statement about the need for demilitarization.

Mr. Kerlin's major discontent, however, has to do with his perception of the pope's "implicit" anti-homosexual agenda. True, Pope Benedict's message does speak of the natural family as a community of love and life -- of the love of a man and woman whose union produces children. Schoolchildren know that conception or fertilization is the result of the union of egg (female) and sperm (male). To call pointing to that reality homophobic defies reason.

The union of male and female, alike but different, points to the creative force, the yin and yang of life. Achieving that integration of differences is at the heart of harmony and peace. Anything that circumvents the ability to learn to integrate those differences undermines the ability to learn to live in peace for the entire community. Peace that is achieved without the trials and tribulations of finding that convergence is hardly worthy of the name. At best it is acquiescence; at worst -- apathy.

DOLORES S. JARRELL
Peters