I read the article about principals of the Pittsburgh Public Schools receiving bonuses for their schools meeting criteria for improvement based on state regulations ("66 City Principals Getting Bonuses," Oct. 16). This is a huge mistake giving these principals these bonuses. The people who deserve the bonuses are the teachers within the schools. They are the unsung heroes of students' improvements.

If principals are good, they are the disciplinarians of their schools. They are not in the classrooms to instruct the students to improve the scores. To list those principals who did not get bonuses seems to me to be cruel and nonproductive. There must be a better way to spend these thousands of dollars in the Pittsburgh Public School system.

CAROLYN M. HESS
Edgewood
The letter writer is a retired Pittsburgh Public School art teacher.

Obama's gun record

Barack Obama's high-profile surrogates are asking gun owners and hunters to trust Sen. Obama with their guns. But he has not earned that trust.

As state senator, Mr. Obama advocated handgun bans and 500 percent tax increases on all firearms and ammunition. He voted to ban single-shot 20-gauge shotguns, calling them "assault weapons." He even voted four times to allow the prosecution of a father who defended his family in his own home with a handgun.

As U.S. senator, Mr. Obama refused to sign the bipartisan congressional brief recognizing the Second Amendment as an individual right. He publicly supported Washington, D.C.'s, draconian gun ban. He voted for Ted Kennedy's ban on commonly used hunting ammunition such as the .30-30. In fact, Mr. Obama's steadfast contempt for gun owners and hunters earned him the endorsements of radical groups with stated goals of banning guns and all hunting.

These surrogates support Mr. Obama because they share a political party. That's understandable. However, it is shameless for them to misrepresent Mr. Obama's record to American gun owners. Barack Obama voted against gun owners and hunters on the most basic issues affecting our freedoms. He even called us "bitter." Anyone suggesting otherwise isn't shooting straight. Those are the facts.

CHRIS W. COX
Executive Director
NRA Institute for Legislative Action
Fairfax, Va

Inaccurate balance

As a frequent reader of your paper, I'm writing to ask that you stop compromising accuracy in the name of "balance," especially with respect to your recent coverage of the economic crisis. Sometimes one candidate's stance -- in this case, Barack Obama's -- is legitimately and factually better, and you shouldn't shrink from reporting that merely to appear balanced.

The economic crisis is very real to me as a graduating college student looking for a job this year. It is obvious to me that Mr. Obama is the right man to set our country back on track because of his clearly articulated economic plan for the future, his first-rate economic advisers and, most important, his genuine and natural leadership abilities that can unify Washington in action.

Sometimes one option really is just better than the others. As a respected and influential newspaper, you should not be afraid to report that.

EMILY ROSS
Brookline

Things aren't so bad

Reading the Oct. 17 article "Michelle Obama Trying to Stay Focused," it is my opinion that after all these months on the campaign trail, going from city to city, state to state, the Obamas have realized that it isn't as bad out there as they thought or were made to believe. I think most of us are a product of our environment. When sitting in the same church pew for 20 years listening to hate-filled rhetoric week after week from a preacher who obviously dislikes his own country and the government running it, one can start to believe in such things. But after months of traveling and meeting those same folks whom they were told were ignorant and hateful week in and week out, they found that this wasn't the case.

Two paragraphs in that article caught my attention. When Mrs. Obama was told that the Halloween mask of her husband's face was the No. 1 best seller, she seemed momentarily stunned. "No. Good grief," she said. Then she said she has been "amazed at how decent and kind and open people have been, and that's 99 percent of my experience." I think this campaign (2008) should show America that we have evolved into the 21st century, albeit slowly, and that things aren't as bad as some portray it to be. Go out and meet new people, make new friends, make your own decisions and determine your own thoughts and feelings.

Sure there are still elements of division, but through communication and openness we can start to put those elements behind us and move forward.

WILLIAM BENDIG
Overbrook

Who are we?

"Who is Barack Obama?" is the mantra of both the McCain campaign and McCain pundits such as the PG's Jack Kelly. After nearly two years of constant campaigning, dozens of debates and thousands of hours and reams of media attention from both sides of the aisle, do we really not have enough information about Mr. Obama to know what kind of person he is?

Aside from our hopes and beliefs we know incontrovertibly that: Mr. Obama wrote, not "authored," two books that sold and influenced millions; he came from relative obscurity to launch a presidential primary campaign that defeated one of the best-organized and financially supported political machines of our lifetime; his campaign has inspired so many Americans as to sometimes be condescendingly referred to as a movement; he has amassed an army of small contributors 2.5 million strong; and he comes from a quintessentially American melting pot background that in his particular case is unique in our entire history.

Perhaps the real question is: "Who is the American voter?" Is the typical American voter someone who can be persuaded though innuendo to imagine the worst about a candidate in spite of the words he speaks, the deeds he does and the life he lives? The trajectory of Barack Obama's historic campaign for the presidency belies this cynical notion.

DAVID SIMPSON
Beaver Falls

PICKING SIDES: Barack Obama

John McCain and I graduated from military academies as "mavericks." Sen. McCain graduated fifth from the bottom of his class, but I graduated in the top 10 percent despite my lack of military bearing because class standing is based on military and academic standings. The only way to graduate at the bottom is to be a total nonperformer in all areas. What has Sen. McCain done to improve his dismal educational background and his professed unfamiliarity with computers and economics? Haven't we suffered for the last eight years with a president clearly unable to engage and judge his expert advisers? I'm voting for the smart one this time -- Barack Obama.

ROBERT HAVRILLA
North Side

PICKING SIDES: John McCain

I support John McCain because the election of Barack Obama will signal the end of the United States. The destruction of America began with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. He created a federal government with powers far exceeding anything imagined by our Founding Fathers. It continued with Woodrow Wilson, who declared the era of Jefferson to be over. FDR added his brand of socialism in the 1930s. When Obama implements his Marxist policies, the coffin will be sealed on our republic forever. Kiss America good-bye, people. Welcome the United Socialist States of AmeriKa.

DENNIS SOPCHACK
New Kensington