We are victims of insidious chemical technology. Toluene and other flammable liquids from rock-fracture gas drilling projects are being dumped into our streams. The "upside" is that soon we in Pennsylvania may not have to buy Mideast oil. All we'll have to do is to fill our gas tanks with the garden hose.

For years, chemical pollutants have caused 80 percent of smallmouth bass males in the Potomac River to lay eggs. Endocrine disruptors in our waters from farm pesticides, industrial chemicals and estrogens in urine from human females using birth-control pills are now affecting humans. Genital abnormalities in newborn human males are increasing, as are gynecological problems in girls. Evidence is mounting that leaching industrial chemicals, including those found in kitchen plastics are causing cancer, obesity and cardiovascular illnesses.

Rising levels of toxic selenium and mercury and dissolved solids in our water from coal-fired power plants are seriously affecting brain development in our children.

Our health-care costs, and the incidence of birth abnormalities and life-threatening illnesses, could be lowered if those in Congress would choose to represent the people (an unlikely event) rather than the lobbying chemical polluters.

If corrective measures are not taken soon, we shall have a massive tragedy similar to the thalidomide tragedy of the 1960s, when 10,000 infants in Europe were born with shortened arms and legs or no limbs. Only the refusal to approve the sale of the drug in the United States by one woman, Frances Kelsey, in our Food and Drug Administration, prevented a catastrophe in the United States.

JAMES GARDEN JR.
Jefferson Hills

Don't cry for Rush

I love listening to these Rush Limbaugh apologists crying about how poor Rush got screwed out of buying the St. Louis Rams ("Wrong About Rush" Oct. 21 letters), ignoring the fact that it was his own investment group that dumped him, not the NFL or any of his detractors. "He's never made a single racist statement," I hear them say. That's interesting -- it makes me wonder how someone who does nothing but speak his mind 15 hours a week every week for 20 years can be so misunderstood.

The problem with what Mr. Limbaugh said about Donovan McNabb wasn't so much that it's covert racism; it was mixing his two favorite political bugaboos, the "liberal media" and affirmative action, into a sports show (say what you want about Keith Olbermann, he has never brought politics into any of his sports broadcasts). That sort of tripe may go over well with Mr. Limbaugh's simple-minded "ditto-heads" but not on a sports show -- we don't want to hear it. Besides, he was totally wrong. Mr. McNabb is a great quarterback deserving of all the praise he receives.

When he first got the job with ESPN, I remember Rush saying it was a lifelong dream come true. Yeah, well, it only took a month for him to lose his dream job because of his fat yap. Don't cry for Rush Limbaugh, the man makes millions of dollars a year doing absolutely nothing when you get right down to it. Maybe he can grab his suitcase full of Viagra and take a vacation to the Dominican Republic again to sooth that massive wounded ego of his.

DAVID R. PIERPOINT
Washington, Pa.

Re: temperatures

Who writes the headlines for editorials? The top editorial in the Oct. 12 PG was tricky. The headline "As the World Warms" was flat out wrong. Global temperatures haven't risen since 1998. However, the editorial dances around that issue by implying that global temperatures have continued to rise.

Proponents for humans causing global warming are nearing a panic mode. Many scientists, for different reasons, expect global temperatures to decline in the immediate future. Will that happen? Nobody knows. Global warming deniers don't know. Global warming proponents don't know and computer models don't know.

There's a tipping point, all right. If global temperatures do decline in the next couple of years, a lot of stuff will come tumbling down.

FRED BREWER
Hermitage

Childish rebuke

Regarding "RAD to Investigate Carnegie's Claims of Library Budget Deficit" (Oct. 22): Based on her response to the Regional Asset District's decision to review the Carnegie Library's budget projections, I see that Rep. Chelsea Wagner is from the "Don't get mad, get even" school of policy-making.

Rep. Wagner calls on RAD to reduce the library's funding in order to punish the library for making unpleasant, unpopular, but fiscally sound decisions. Assuming RAD follows her playground rules advice in 2011, Pittsburgh will then face another set of debates about two to three more branch library closings, cutting additional staff and reducing even more hours.

Perhaps Rep. Wagner should have been more aggressive in ensuring adequate funding of libraries at the state level before voting to pass what will be a catastrophic budget for libraries throughout Pennsylvania.

RICHARD KAPLAN
Highland Park

Pathetic priorities

It's unfortunate that Pittsburgh's public libraries do not reside within our stadiums and arenas, because if they did, the county and city would be willing to spend millions on their construction and ongoing maintenance. That the city and county can always come up with creative solutions to fund sports facilities, yet are unwilling to support libraries in the city neighborhoods that need them the most, is a disgraceful example of where our priorities fall.

LARRY HARRIS
Bethel Park

Innocent bystander

On Sept. 24, the first day of the G-20 summit, my son and his girlfriend left her apartment to view the proceedings of the police and the protesters on Baum Boulevard.

My son was an innocent bystander who was detained and then issued a summons arrest for violation of the "Failure to Disperse" section of the Pennsylvania Criminal Code (emphasis intended). On Oct. 21, he had a hearing at which he was told that if he completed 50 hours of community service within three months, his record would be expunged.

As I watched the proceedings on television on Sept. 24 (before I knew that my son had been swept up), I was struck by the two extremes represented at the event. On the one hand were the riot-geared police officers, anonymous and menacing. On the other hand protesters, also anonymous and menacing. In my view, the police represented our country's trend towards fascism and the protesters represented the forces of anarchism.

When a young man is not permitted to stand on a sidewalk and watch a gathering, civil rights have been violated. The rights of the people have been violated and very few have raised their voices in protest. We are a nation of people subtly (and not so subtly) influenced by fear. Fear has silenced us as we fail to notice the erosion of our civil rights.

PAMELA DEASY-GARVER
Moon

Our nation must invest in peace

In 1992 when the Nobel Peace Prize went to 33-year-old Guatemalan indigenous Rigoberta Menchu Tum, I was living in Alta Vera Paz (Upper True Peace), surrounded by Mayans who had suffered the most by far from a 30-year-old civil war. When I brought filmed clips of her receiving the award in Oslo to villages without TV, the impression I saw on people's faces was unforgettable. Nonetheless it took four more years before that long war was ended in December 1996. The Nobel Prize encouraged indigenous Guatemala that peace was possible because "The World" had honored one of their own using nonviolent means as a key player.

The billions spent by Uncle Sam on maintaining a nuclear arsenal is greasing many palms in the United States today. These dollars are a major reason champions for a non-nuclear-arms world are going to have tough sledding right here in southwestern Pennsylvania, where not a few of those dollars contribute to the local economy. A counterbalance is needed. The Ridgeway Center is one. Another is the Thomas Merton Center, which proved its mettle during the G-20 peace march. Not having access to Uncle Sam's deep pockets, the center is bringing to town on Nov. 1 Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the sponsor of a federal Department of Peace (HR 808), which would fund nonviolent responses to conflicts rather than the threat of the nuclear hammer.

"I will accept this award as a call to action," President Obama said on receiving news of the Nobel Prize. "This award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity." That certainly includes Rep. Kucinich, Pittsburgh's Molly Rush and those associated with the Thomas Merton Center. For information about the dinner honoring Mr. Kucinich, go to thomasmertoncenter.org.

REV. BERNARD SURVIL
Greensburg

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