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PrintLast Sunday, Lee S. Wishing III, administrative director of the Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College, slammed "Buy American" by using a single example ("Buying Trouble," Forum). It was Duferco Farrell Corp., losing a customer, Wheatland Tube Co., because Duferco doesn't use American-made steel.
In his piece, Mr. Wishing violated one of the center's precepts, as cited on its Web site: "In short, the Center provides truth-seeking answers to today's major issues, a vision for individual freedom and hope for the future." His essay contains what can only be described as repeated egregious lack of truth-seeking.
Wheatland stopped buying rolled steel from Duferco because it imports slabs. Wheatland officials believe that under the federal Buy American provisions, its products must be produced with American-made steel, or its customers can't buy the pipes with federal stimulus funds. Duferco purchases most of its slabs from OJSC Novolipetsk Iron & Steel Works (NLMK) of Russia, a part-owner of Duferco.
In his essay, Mr. Wishing contends Duferco furloughed 600 workers as a result of Wheatland's decision. That's just not true. A little truth-seeking by Mr. Wishing would have revealed that months before Wheatland's decision, Duferco already had furloughed half the plant's 600 union workers.
Also, Duferco could buy American slabs. It just refuses. NLMK also owns a mill in Portage, Indiana.
Wheatland has informed Duferco that it would modify specifications to use NLMK 8-inch slab from Indiana. Duferco's response: shipping slabs from the NLMK mill in Indiana to Farrell, a distance of 375 miles, is prohibitively expensive. So Duferco must continue transporting steel thousands of miles from the NLMK mill in Lipetsk, Russia. Somehow that doesn't smack of the truth.
But Mr. Wishing didn't bother telling that part of the story.
TOM CONWAY
International Vice President
United Steelworkers
Downtown
What we want
Gov. Ed Rendell wants more of our money via an income tax hike during the worst economy in 80 years. Good luck with that ("Rendell: Raise Income Tax," June 17).
Here's how he might get it done. Give us what we want instead of what you want. People generally will pay more to get what they want.
Two specific suggestions. For years, the vast majority of Pennsylvanians have asked for a smaller Legislature with far fewer perks and far more accountability and integrity.
For years, we've asked to be treated like adults and allowed to buy beer, wine and liquor where and when we want, free of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and the sort of silliness reflected in the recent Supreme Court decision that Sheetz has to serve beer in its stores in order for us to carry six-packs out.
Doing these two concrete things -- one hugely important, one hugely symbolic -- would go a long way to showing us that the Executive and the Legislature are capable of listening and -- all-important these days -- changing. I won't hold my breath.
JOSEPH P. MCHUGH
Franklin Park
Unfair to family
Columnist Tony Norman's attempt to justify David Letterman's comments on Sarah Palin's daughters is a discredit to your newspaper ("Sarah Palin's Made-for-TV Outrage," June 16). To exploit the problems of a young woman who made an error in judgment is, at best, in poor taste. Bristol Palin carries the burden of her error in judgment and should not be attacked by the Lettermans or Normans of this world.
The demeaning of the Palin family on any subject is only due to the popularity of Sarah Palin and the prospect of her running for higher offices. If the liberal left like Norman want to critique anything, it should be on her qualifications as a politician, not her family.
DON OPACIC
Franklin Park
A book for Palin
In his June 14 column, "Palin Power," Jack Kelly describes a recent public appearance by Gov. Sarah Palin in Auburn, N.Y., for which 20,000 people turned out. This, along with her dust-up with David Letterman and her walk across the stage at the GOP fundraiser which, according to Kelly, drew more attention than Newt Gingrich's keynote speech, constitutes evidence of her potential to be a party leader?
I would feel much better knowing that Gov. Palin, who demonstrated a frighteningly thin knowledge of American foreign policy in 2008, is reading at least one book this summer from the very helpful list, "What to Read on Iranian Politics," compiled by Suzanne Maloney, Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution.
KATHRYN LEE
Wayne, Delaware County
Bush's success
The recent elections in Lebanon and Iran appear to show the growing strength of the work of former President George W. Bush in the Mideast. Democracy is growing, although Iran needs assistance to break free of tyranny, in a region that many argued is doomed to intolerance, ruling classes and distrust of outsiders. Cracks in this wall are appearing to open the region up.
While the media and Washington pols do not give Mr. Bush credit for this change, can anyone remember when democracy was so open in this region?
Let us hope President Barack Obama continues the Bush policy for democracy in the Mideast and voices opposition to other totalitarian countries that threaten us.
JERRY ROBBINS
McCandless
Gingrich's past
A recent Gallup Poll has found that Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich are in a statistical tie as the most popular figures within the Republican Party and that Mr. Gingrich is the likely front runner to be their presidential nominee in 2012.
For those who have forgotten Mr. Gingrich's shaky past, I'd like to remind them of two critical things that tarnished his record.
First, while he was ranting about the immorality of President Bill Clinton cheating on his wife with Monica Lewinsky, he was doing the same thing with a former congressional aide. Earlier, he had dumped his first wife as she lay gravely ill in a hospital.
Second, he basically was responsible for shutting the government down at one point in the early 1990s for a brief period of time. I don't know what the Republicans are thinking, but I liked John McCain more as a person and don't think that Newt Gingrich is the answer to their problems.
TOM BURNS
Rosslyn Farms
Communities unite on lost or stolen guns law
On June 3, Wilkinsburg Council took a stand against illegal handguns when it voted unanimously to pass a law requiring gun owners to report their lost or stolen handguns to the police. Wilkinsburg joins Pittsburgh and a growing group of Pennsylvania communities approving this common sense measure.
Requiring reporting of lost/stolen handguns is a practical tool that helps law enforcement officials identify illegal traffickers and keep handguns out of the hands of criminals. Police organizations across the state support "lost/stolen" and have begged the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass this legislation. More than 70 Pennsylvania mayors have joined the National Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
Although there is a growing, statewide movement with widespread citizen support for "lost and stolen," our state Legislature appears more concerned with pacifying the National Rifle Association than with protecting its citizens and police. Its failure to enact lost/stolen reporting statewide has resulted in numerous Pennsylvania elected officials concluding that we must take action at the local level.
Reporting lost/stolen handguns is not an attack on 2nd Amendment rights. We cannot and will not let the NRA lobby drive the agenda for street safety. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has pledged to defend without charge any municipality that is sued for passing "lost and stolen."
As council members of two communities that have stood up to the NRA and passed "lost/stolen" reporting requirements, we implore other councils in our region to join us and do the right thing. It is a fight we can and must win -- one council, one mayor at a time.
DOUG SHIELDS
Pittsburgh City Council
President
BRUCE A.KRAUS
Pittsburgh City Councilman
JASON COHN
Wilkinsburg Borough Council Vice President
DENISE EDWARDS
Wilkinsburg Borough
Councilwoman
