How dare you! How dare the Post-Gazette say that the millions of Pennsylvania voters who cast their ballots in favor of Sen. Hillary Clinton did not "think their votes through" ("O Bummer: Clinton's Pennsylvania Win Promises Only Trouble," April 24 editorial).

The Post-Gazette can question the decision these voters made, the Post-Gazette can question their reasoning, the Post-Gazette can question their opinions, but the Post-Gazette cannot declare that they did not think their votes through! That is just plain arrogance of the worst kind.

Millions of voters across this nation have been following this race for a long time and have spent hours thinking about it. To say that they did not think their votes through is, by definition, wrong. What was not thought through was the decision to accuse Pennsylvania supporters of Sen. Clinton of intellectual laziness.

Today, that behavior belongs to the Post-Gazette.

WESLEY and EILEEN VAUGHN
Butler

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I am responding to Tony Norman's April 18 column "Sleazy as ABC: The Debate That Degraded." I admire and respect Mr. Norman, but he is so wrong. These were questions that Barack Obama needed to answer. It was the first debate in which he wasn't treated with kid gloves, and he fell apart.

What I saw was a presidential candidate who couldn't take the heat. I thought Hillary Clinton was also asked uncomfortable questions. The difference is that we know so much about Sen. Clinton, but very little about Mr. Obama.

I give Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos all the credit for the most revealing debate of the season.

MARILYN WEINBLUM
White Oak

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When the presidential candidates start to debate their plans for replacing the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" program, I can only hope they will look to what is really needed, and not allow politics as usual to rule the day. All the money in the world and all the hard work of many dedicated educators will not be enough to have a successful program if the concept of "personal responsibility" is not first and foremost part of the plan.

With the current economic instability, and the loss of so many jobs and their tax base to foreign shores, we can no longer afford to throw money at every problem without placing some thought and effort into it first.

If a child is not being taught even the most basic concepts of civility and responsibility by absentee or uncaring parents, what good will throwing more time, effort and money into such a program accomplish? Teachers are paid to teach, not to baby-sit dysfunctional kids from dysfunctional families. If it "takes a village" to raise a child, then it takes loving and caring families to make a village.

PEGGY ANN PRECOPIO
Mount Washington

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Seeing Al Gore on "60 Minutes" recently, I was reminded of how the Supreme Court gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush when Al Gore won it hands down.

Look what Mr. Gore has done these last eight years and look how Mr. Bush has ruined our country and our good name these last eight years.

I hope those five people on the Supreme Court are happy. I am not.

Way to go, Supremies.

VIRGINIA SELAI
Coraopolis

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I really loved Mike Smalley's letter about a truckers boycott ("A National Truckers Boycott Would Force Action," March 28).

All of the politicians have said we must get free of oil, but none have said how they plan to do it!

I love the idea of a boycott and wish the people could even do a huge one. However, I fear we will just be the sheep we have become. We will just move along with the flock, taking all this on the chin.

Everywhere you go, the prices of food and gas are being talked about. I would hope things will get started to help the problem.

I think it will get a lot worse. I've heard people say that when gas hits $4 a gallon, something will be done about it. When it hits $4, some will be thinking how they can make it $5.

Do something now!

NANCY LORENZ
Coraopolis

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I think that a retrial of Dr. Cyril Wecht is a huge waste of our tax money and a further example of the present administration's lack of good judgment ("Many Questions Surround Wecht Retrial, Set for May," April 9).

If the government could not make a definitive case before a jury, resulting in a hung jury, why waste the time, money and effort again? Unfortunately, it seems that U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's ego is bruised due to this loss and she is making this a personal vendetta.

Is this an important case because Dr. Wecht is a world-renowned pathologist and very high-profile individual? Would the government retry some unknown with the same vigor? I truly doubt it.

Maybe she just wants to financially cripple Dr. Wecht, or is she looking to the future when the administration changes in January to secure a lucrative job in the private sector?

Whatever the reason, I feel it is a travesty to pursue this case any further.

ARNOLD ROBERTS
Point Breeze

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I am surprised that in all the letters and articles I have read in your paper, few people have spoken out to support a retrial for Dr. Cyril Wecht.

I don't think the federal government would attempt to retry Dr. Wecht if it didn't have a good case.

If he is guilty of the charges, should he be forgiven and not prosecuted because the monetary value of his profits are less than the cost of a trial, or because of who he is? What precedent would that set? Twelve jurors could not find him guilty, but neither did they find him innocent.

J. STAAB
Mount Oliver

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It gives many citizens immense pleasure to see that Dr. Cyril Wecht courageously stood up to and defeated U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan's attempt to victimize another Democrat. This time, in Dr. Wecht, she has met her match.

How more obvious can it be that Ms. Buchanan and her office serve this presidential administration to such an extent that they continue to harass Dr. Wecht for such trivial, mindless offenses that occur in every office in the country?

And she wants to continue this trial again? Please tell me and the rest of the country that she has more important cases to try. Hopefully, we'll have a Democrat as president shortly who will dismiss her for a fairer, more responsible and apolitical prosecutor.

In the meantime, most law-abiding people will hope that Dr. Wecht triumphs over her again. He serves as an inspiration to all who recognize this administration's continued pattern of abuse of judicial power.

MARK ELISCO
New Castle

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I read with interest Laura Lowe's April 22 letter ("Going Elsewhere") about getting a parking ticket for being one minute over.

There are places in Pittsburgh where the "No Parking" signs are never enforced. A person could park under one of these signs for a year and never receive a ticket.

EARL PETERSON
Shaler

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Your April 13 editorial "The Death of Hope: Suicides in Jail Are a Reproach to Humanity" was to the point: "It doesn't take much to generate suicidal despair. ..." Eighty to 90 percent of those sentenced to Allegheny County Jail suffer from a disease called addiction.

Lately we've seen many being treated for this disease prescribed antidepressants. An alcoholic has been taking massive doses of a depressant drug for years. I would assume he or she might thus suffer from suicidal despair. A common symptom of withdrawal from cocaine or amphetamines is depression.

Add to that the stigma, which we seem unwilling to let go of, regarding addiction disease, reinforced for persons being sent to jail, and it's a wonder that more do not attempt suicide.

It is past time that we find an alternative to senseless incarceration of those whose only crime is to have a chronic, yet treatable illness and we might see less suicidal despair and more persons restored to our community and their families.

Oh, by the way, the cost of providing effective care for those with this illness is far less than incarceration and much more likely to prevent recidivism.

REV. DAVID ELSE
Director Emeritus
Center for Spirituality in Twelve Step Recovery
Wilkinsburg

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