I can't help but wonder, did you think about the content of the editorial "Guns, Naturally: Parks Shouldn't Be a Preserve for Firearms" (Feb. 28), or did you copy it from a script? It is completely illogical.

First, remember, laws will not, have not and never will prevent criminals from obtaining firearms. Only law-abiding citizens follow laws. That's what makes them law-abiding! Criminals, on the other hand, don't follow laws. Therefore, if someone wanted to bring a firearm to a national park and start shooting people, the only thing the current law is going to do is make sure there are plenty of people to shoot at who can't shoot back.

Second, law-abiding citizens with firearms are no more a threat to park rangers than law-abiding citizens are to your local or state police.

What were you thinking when you wrote that?

CHARLES GAEFKE
West View

Regarding "Guns, Naturally" (Feb. 28 editorial): Hunters and recreational users of public lands out West have long complained about the inconsistencies among the management policies of various federal land agencies.

The peacefulness experienced on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands is not at all diminished by the ability to carry a loaded firearm.

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo has proposed to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to consider removing the 25-year-old ban on loaded firearms within national parks. The main purpose of this proposal is not so one can bring a loaded gun into a museum; rather, it is so that people who decide to travel through a national park, such as Yellowstone, can keep a loaded gun in their car based on their current state concealed weapon laws and so that they may be protected as they hike into the back country.

Park rangers and law enforcement personnel, including the National Park Service, carry loaded firearms. Rangers are given specific training on both how to handle a gun and how to properly defuse any potential conflicts, including how to properly approach a situation when another firearm is present.

If other federal land management agencies have been encountering people with firearms with little or no problems for decades, the conclusion drawn in the editorial that somehow national park rangers will be more endangered is simply illogical.

After living and recreating in Idaho for the past five years, I think this is a proposal that is long overdue.

HEATHER WESTENZWEIG
Coraopolis

Your recent story about Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission CEO Joseph Brimmeier's suggestion to build a toll road over the Parkway East is just the latest example of absurd transportation planning that has taken place in this region and state ("Would Toll Lanes Unclog Parkway East?" Feb. 28). Looking beyond the merits of this seemingly far-fetched idea, it is truly baffling that it was never discussed with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is responsible for the parkway. Last time I checked, Al Biehler, head of PennDOT, was a member of the Turnpike Commission. I wonder if they have ever met.

Of course we are still in the midst of trying to figure out how to come up with the $1 billion or so in annual new funding that the Governor's Transportation Study determined was necessary to repair and maintain our existing roads, bridges and public transit systems. The best our Legislature could come up with, Act 44, uses a complicated and convoluted system of borrowing money, transferring funds and responsibility to and from PennDOT and the Turnpike Commission, and tolling Interstate 80, which Pennsylvania has no authority to do. I have heard that proceeds from the sale of the Brooklyn Bridge are also involved.

In the midst of this funding shortfall, local leaders are still trying to find the $3.5 billion needed to construct the last leg of the decades-on-the-drawing board Mon-Fayette Expressway.

If this is what passes for transportation "planning" in Pennsylvania, is it any wonder that our roads, bridges and public transit are all in such sorry shape?

FRAN BERTONASCHI
Hazelwood

Your recent article regarding the WQED debate on the "BODIES" exhibit ("Panel Debates Ethics of 'BODIES' Exhibit," Feb. 29) led to my rethinking the ethics surrounding the whole issue. One perspective not addressed is that of necrophilia. While commonly understood as a sexual attraction to corpses, necrophilia has a broader and deeper connotation. A reference from Wikipedia provides the following insight:

"For psychologist/philosopher Erich Fromm, necrophilia is a character orientation which is not necessarily sexual. It is expressed in an attraction to that which is dead or totally controlled ... it is not biologically determined but results from upbringing. Fromm believed that the lack of love in Western society and the attraction to mechanistic control leads to necrophilia. Other factors include: the impact of modern weapon systems, idolatry of technology and the treatment of people as things in bureaucracy."

While my own conclusion, that the base of the Carnegie Science Center's decision to host the BODIES exhibit was pure greed, abetted by a masterful marketing effort, the element of necrophilia, as explained above, cannot be gainsaid. And it is attributable both to the center directors and to those bamboozled into viewing and supporting the exhibit.

More to be lamented is the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese's position on the matter as reported by the Post-Gazette on Sept. 15 ("Diocese OKs Cadaver Exhibit") -- a squishy casuistic "go-ahead" for area Catholics to attend the show. How similar to Fromm's take on necrophilia is Pope Benedict's analysis of the "culture of death," which "makes of man a thing, so to speak, [and] turns him into merchandise."

ROBERT JEDRZEJEWSKI
Tarentum

After reading about Carnegie Mellon University professor Marcel Just's report ("Cell Phones and Driving Don't Mix," March 6), I could only say one thing ... give me a break!

His study shows no difference between using a cell phone vs. using a CB radio, such as truckers, police, fire, taxis, Port Authority buses and ambulances do every day. If we remove cell phones, what about CB radios? Also, many police and taxis have computer systems in the car, some of which are used while the driver is in motion. How many police and taxi crashes have you heard about lately?

Mysteriously, the study does not report anything on the negative effects of some of the driving patterns our female motorists do when they are putting on makeup first thing in the morning. Has any politician offered a ban on that? How about changing a CD while driving?

The truth is, a good driver in good driving conditions can talk on a phone and drive -- or use a CB radio and drive or listen to a CD and drive. This who-ha-ha is nothing more than bad drivers using a cop-out.

SAMUEL J. HURST
Carrick

The letter writer is a taxi driver and a member of the Allegheny County Transit Council.

We are deeply troubled to read that the "megalomanic" UPMC is again throwing our money around to buy a hotel in Monroeville ("UPMC Buying Palace Inn Site for $19 Million," March 6).

This $19 million could be better spent on replacing UPMC's billing system or lack thereof. As subscribers to UPMC for Life, we are daily fighting with the billing department to correct the many inaccuracies in our accounts. We are sure that many subscribers of this service are encountering the same difficulties we are. UPMC has the annoying habit of turning accounts over to collection agencies before they ever send the bills to the patients. We recently received a collection notice for $6. Something needs to be done!

In the past we have paid several accounts twice or three times due to the shear "muddle" that is a UPMC monthly statement. Often we receive upward of 12 statements on a single day -- many from a year ago. Many UPMC facilities have no method of making copays at the time of appointments.

If UPMC's goal is to conquer the health-care world, it needs to look at what the bottom line really is -- the patients! It make us sick to see all of the advertising in the media.

We are at the crossroads of canceling all of our treatments because we are unable to pay for services that are continuing to soar out of sight!

JUDY and PAUL MEYER
South Park

When U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter recently visited the Allegheny County Jail to see the undocumented immigrants housed there ("Specter Visits Undocumented Immigrants in Jail," Feb. 20 Web), his reported comments suggested that all aliens housed in the county jail are criminals. In fact, the great majority of these detainees have violated the immigration law but not the criminal code. They are waiting for immigration hearings, not criminal arraignments.

These are people who have overstayed tourist visas or have come across the border to seek wages to feed their families. They have worked hard and have not committed crimes. A reasonable immigration policy would distinguish between the hard-working immigrants who have much to contribute to our culture and economy, and the few who actually commit crimes, and not confuse the two as Sen. Specter has done.

EVALYNN WELLING
Squirrel Hill

When I heard about Ben Roethlisberger's new contract with the Steelers, my first thought was "outrageous" ("Steeler Quarterback's 8-Year, $102 Million Deal Puts Him in the CEO Range of Annual Compensation," March 4). But then I thought, "Well, if the Steelers are willing to pay him that much, he deserves it. Anything voluntary."

Then I thought, "But it's not entirely voluntarily. If the Steelers were forced to pay the full cost of Heinz Field, they wouldn't be able to pay their players such high salaries. Neither would any other sports team accepting tax dollars. I, as a taxpayer, am paying part of his salary involuntarily."

And that's where it stands now.

NICK KYRIAZI
Deutschtown

I am writing in response to the March 3 article "CMU's Robotic Juggernaut Shows Off Its Stuff."

The cheerleading description by the PG was reminiscent of coverage of a demolition derby, with the "Crusher" presented like some monster car from an action thriller. From "titanic abilities" to "Rambo on wheels," this was an unashamed journalistic apology for the wars of the future.

One only has to look to the past to question the insanity of spending billions on robots for future wars. When I was in high school we pondered those who would never come back from war, or worse, who would return with half a body and mind. Who would stand up 40 years later and say that was worth the cost?

By the war's end we had lost more than 58,000 soldiers and killed 2.2 million Vietnamese. After the war, another 38,000 were killed by unexploded bombs and land mines.

It is not idealism or naivete to imagine that something besides a monster that eats hard, cold cash must be created to keep our world out of harm's way. Research is required, but not in the area of killer robots.

Research is urgently needed to lead us out of our present economic depression, environmental disasters and in the much-needed area of medicine, rather than designing machines that ape humankind's most violent fantasies.

VINCENT SCOTTI EIRENE
Manchester

The idea of a graduated state income tax being "the only long-term answer to many of Pennsylvania's problems at all levels of government" does make me shake my head ("We Can't Have It All," March 5 column by Clarke Thomas). Our state has kept its 19th-century-style state government with strong governors and mayors with old-fashioned political parties controlling jobs. Fortune 500 companies and young college graduates are still leaving our state.

Now is the time to adopt a more economically competitive system of state government -- not just another amended state constitution. In Pennsylvania it is easy to say, "Any change is difficult to make," but a totally new state constitution must be created for our state to progress.

Our young people and skilled workers need a growing economy at home.

WALTER E. HOPKINS JR.
Pleasant Hills

I don't know if Dr. Cyril Wecht has ever overbilled anyone for his time ("Defense Rests Case, Calls No Witnesses," March 12), but I believe that he has given his time to people where he did not bill anything at all.

When I was a student at Mt. Lebanon High School during the 1960s, a young Cyril Wecht addressed our student body concerning the dangers of substance abuse.

A few years later, when I was a student at the University of Pittsburgh, he visited our pre-med group with solid advice about pursuing a career in medicine.

I'm sure that Dr. Wecht participated in many such events while he was raising his family, updating his education and building a national reputation as a forensic pathologist.

But on the occasions that I saw him, he impressed me as a busy but gracious speaker who was only too happy to provide other people with the benefits of his knowledge, his experience and, of course, his time.

JOSEPH CARDUCCI
Mt. Lebanon

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