Conservatives have shown disloyal opposition

Thank you to columnist Charles Krauthammer for a lesson in American democracy ("It's Nonsense to Suggest the Country Is Ungovernable," Feb. 20). The country is governable provided we elect leaders willing to govern.

I agree that President Barack Obama, as Mr. Krauthammer says, failed to "sell" the country on the need for health care reform. But the blame is not solely the administration's. Mr. Obama wrongly trusted our supposed leaders from both sides of the aisle to actually govern in the best interest of the country. Instead we got sausage cooked up by a mess of interests -- not in the best interest of the country. So, let's agree that the system worked. All parties in leadership failed.

What distresses me most is that conservatives seem to seek out every real and imagined cause for impugning this White House. Where is the respect for the office? Where is the civil benefit-of-the-doubt that perhaps Mr. Obama may be right about some things? To me theirs is not a loyal opposition. On the contrary, it is a disloyal opposition that punishes those who break rank and unhesitatingly judges negatively.

Get off the soapbox and get to work creating the future for this country. That means changing -- it may even require accepting that some ideas from this administration may be right.

JIM LENKNER
Park Place

Ideas and labels

I read Walter Gibson's Feb. 23 letter ("People Who Protect"). I almost choked on my second cup of coffee. I looked in the dictionary for the definition of conservative and liberal. It reads as follows. Conservative: tending to preserve established traditions or institutions and to resist or oppose any changes in them. Liberal: implies tolerance of others' views as well as open-mindedness to ideas that challenge tradition and established institutions.

Mr. Gibson needs to do a quick recheck of his history. Abolitionists were certainly not conservative. Suffragettes were certainly not conservative. And the most ardent supporters of the Civil Rights Act were definitely not conservative. According to the above definition, conservatives were opposed to any change to traditions and institutions.

The current understanding of who is a conservative and who is a liberal is generally associated with political parties. Republicans are labeled as conservatives, and Democrats are labeled as liberals. Those labels have not remained the same throughout history. If the Founding Fathers had been conservative, we would still be a British colony. But at least we would have universal health care.

RICHARD L. DICKMAN
Delmont

Still laughable

During one of the mayoral debates before last November's general election, one of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's opponents stated that the city's neighborhoods are not treated equally when it comes to city services. Mayor Ravenstahl took great offense to that assertion. I laughed out loud! As a lifelong resident of Troy Hill, it is quite obvious to me that Troy Hill does not receive the same services that the more affluent neighborhoods receive.

For example, in the summer, Troy Hill gets street wetting while more affluent neighborhoods get actual street cleaning. Then there is this winter. Friday of last week, a city plow came to remove some of the snow. Did the city remove the hardened snow wall that at that time was making our main business street resemble a luge track? Did it remove the 3- to 4-foot mountains (which later melted somewhat) along most of our streets? Did it clear the sidewalks in front of the many city-owned properties, or along Troy Hill Road, which many residents must walk daily? No!

The snow was cleared where North Catholic High School, the mayor's alma mater, parks its buses! Where was this snow dumped? There now is an even higher mound of snow on the sidewalk where our residents get off the Port Authority bus. Does this institution pay the city taxes that we homeowners pay? I'm still laughing out loud.

MARY ANN HARSCH
Troy Hill

Call to the young

Can anyone tell me where the tweens and teens have been hiding during this month of record snowfall? Are they all inside playing a virtual snow removal game on their Wii or Xbox?

Ask your family, friends and co-workers who live in the city and suburbs and they can probably testify that neighbors and friends have gone over and above the call of duty to pitch in and help each other dig out, shovel sidewalks and driveways or snow-blow a path for those trapped in their homes. But the help came from adults, even senior citizens, who were looking out for each other.

Were there any sightings of 13- to 18-year-olds who happened to have days off from school? The city and boroughs were concerned about having the sidewalks clear for the kids to walk to the bus safely. Why couldn't those older school students get outdoors and pitch in to shovel?

Can anyone remember the days when a huge snowfall provided an opportunity of entrepreneurship for ambitious young people to make some money by lending a hand to a neighbor by shoveling for them? There are many widows, elderly, sick and handicapped residents who are on their own, and our young people should have it ingrained in them to look out for others rather than leave the work to adults.

I would love to hear about some neighborhood kids who helped someone out this winter. Our sidewalks and driveways could have been cleared in no time !

JOANN CANTRELL
Cranberry

The untold stories

On Friday night, Feb. 5, on my way to work in the North Hills, my son and I came across a woman and her two children whose vehicle was stuck in the snow. We offered them a ride, but another couple from the area had already offered to ride this young mother and her two children home. Later that night, my son picked up an older couple stranded in the snow and drove them home.

The next day, my son drove me home from work due to the snowstorm. When we arrived at our street, a very tall tree had fallen and completely blocked our road. After I walked home, I told my husband about the tree. Knowing there were many trees down and that Ross Township would be busy with trees and downed electric lines, my husband walked up the road with his chainsaw and cut up the enormous tree so that the plow truck and residents could get through the street. My son, his friend and other residents of our neighborhood helped my husband remove the tree after it was cut up.

Although I live in the North Hills, I am sure there are many untold stories of neighbors helping neighbors in the city of Pittsburgh that were not told by the media.

LINETTE AMMER
Ross

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