Regarding "Will Development Create a Stripped District?" (March 10): I am a "gum band" Pittsburgher. I left the city with all my memories 36 years ago and returned in '04 to be closer to family for a variety of reasons. The "Strip," with all its hustle and bustle, is a landmark in and of itself. It is the reason anyone would want to live in that area.

Its funky charm is the reason it has been so successful for all these years. The South Side is similar in that it has a bohemian "feel" and is also a destination for Pittsburghers, visitors and many generations to experience the multi-ethnic flavor of what this great city is all about.

I can identify with the comment in the article regarding Station Square. They dressed it up and now they can't take it out. The feel is so sterile that most people treat it only as a destination for conferences and weddings. The shopping there is sad at best.

I understand that things may have to change, but blending the established history with the new will reflect more kindly for the planners and our city. Pittsburgh is and always has been a blending of cultures. It has shaped our history and has kept us unique in the marketplace.

JoANNA JENKINS
West Mifflin

Enough about Ben

I would like to say that I am appalled by the blitz of media reporting on this latest Ben Roethlisberger incident ("Big Ben Accused of Sexual Assault," March 6). I can't turn on any local news station without repeatedly being assaulted with this incident every five minutes. Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"?

Why do I care whom he talked to in a bar? Why do I want to see cell phone pictures of him having a good time that night? What purpose does any of this serve?

I feel very confident that the law enforcement officials of Georgia will handle this case appropriately and will investigate properly. I can't understand why our local media insist on dragging anyone, even a sports figure of a hometown team, through the mud before any charges are filed!

If he's charged and proven guilty, then report it -- it will be newsworthy at that point. Right now it's tabloid journalism and I'm sick of it.

BARB HAAS
Richland

Case for term limits

U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel has resigned "temporarily" from his leadership position with the congressional Ways and Means Committee ("Rangel Yields Tax Panel Post," March 4). Citing the pressures brought on by an inquiry into his finances and other doubtful conduct, Rep. Rangel believes he cannot effectively chair the committee. No doubt that is the case.

Regardless of the investigation's outcome, Mr. Rangel's story, like others that come out of Washington, states a forceful case for term limits. Rep. Rangel is now in his 20th term as a member of Congress; if he completes his term, he will have served 40 years representing the same district in the same capacity. Maybe he stayed at the party too long.

Nowhere but in government can any one person fill the same position for 40 years. Granted, Rep. Rangel won his spot legitimately, but questions about term limits assume that elected officials have been fairly elected. The greater question is whether unlimited terms, regardless of electability, serve the public interest.

JIM LOVE
Squirrel Hill

Yes, buckle down

Kudos to David Hall of Moon for his letter regarding lost school time ("PG's Attitude Toward Lost School Time Is Pathetic," March 3). How are our young people going to learn responsibility when they see the adults in our society acting like idiots?

Children go to school to learn. Stop all these free days and unnecessary two-hour delays and birthday parties and bringing in unhealthy snacks and field trips. If you want them to have a field trip, let them out on the playground at lunchtime to get some exercise. Vacations are for summertime.

What kind of message are you sending the kids when you take them out of school to go to Disney World? No wonder our kids don't know what they are supposed to know by the time they graduate!

ALICE J. ANTHONY
Scott

More family time

I had to respond to the March 3 letter "PG's Attitude Toward Lost School Time Is Pathetic." David Hall is outraged that many parents are upset about their children losing their spring break vacations and having extra days tacked on to the end of the year. He believes parents are prioritizing vacations over education.

As a parent of three and a former elementary school administrator, I strongly disagree with his point of view. In particular, adding days on to the end of the year can seriously disrupt schedules and has absolutely no beneficial effect on the education of the students. The year is already planned. Those last few days are made up of locker cleaning, parties and field days. There will likely be very little educational benefit to forcing the students to go those last few days.

In addition, family vacations are extremely important. If you do them right, your children can learn more in a vacation than they would in any classroom. The kids get the added benefit of getting to spend time with their parents -- which, by the way, is one of the reasons our kids are falling behind those in other countries. Too many of our children are on their own almost all of the time while their parents have to work. Most parents get only one or two weeks of vacation.

Family time is valuable time and not to be dismissed as frivolous. Any school principal will tell you that successful schools are raised up on the shoulders of very active and involved parents. If you want our children to succeed, fight for more family time -- not less.

CHRISTINE AYMAN
Moon

Tax land value

A Feb. 26 letter by Bob Beattie ("This Proposal for Tax Reform Is Repugnant") opposed a proposal by columnist George F. Will ("A Path to Solvency," Feb. 8) to relieve from federal tax the mostly wealthy recipients of interest, capital gains and dividends.

I agree, but Bob Beattie did not advocate change in the current tax policies. These policies penalize active producers and give tax relief to property owners. All levels of government should abolish or minimize taxes on earned income, including the Social Security payroll tax and on sales. Governments should obtain more revenues from the value of unearned property, including land and inheritance in addition to interest, capital gains and dividends.

Real estate taxes should be limited to the value of land. This property does not depreciate. Construction and improvements of buildings constitute active productions that should not be penalized by taxation.

HERBERT BARRY III
Oakland

The U.S. helped to nurture Iraq's political culture

In response to Thomas L. Friedman's Feb. 25 column ("What Do the Iraqis Want? They Must Decide Whether Peace or Faction Is More Important"):

I have several times in the past felt compelled to write to the Post-Gazette to voice an opinion or stray concern, but after reading Mr. Friedman's shameful distortion of facts and circumstances in this column, I felt that not to voice concern would truly imperil my personal sense of decency and truth. Mr. Friedman's entire "perspective" can be summed up thus: "Iraq is Iraq's fault."

Setting aside the fact that Iraq is in the immediate condition it is in today because a destructive war of aggression was waged against that nation under false pretexts, Mr. Friedman fails to mention that the entire "cultural" atmosphere of Ba'athist Iraq was fostered, in part, by the United States' support (both material and political) of Saddam Hussein throughout his entire reign, up until, that is, he rejected the inducements of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to incur the kind of massive debt that is now crippling our nation. And now that we have finally "liberated" Iraq from the monster that was Saddam Hussein, Mr. Friedman would like to blame Iraq's "cultural" despondency not on the decades of political and economic manipulation at the hands of the West, or our ostensibly tacit approval of Saddam's brutal methods of rule (for decades!), but on the "culture" of Iraq and, by proxy, the people themselves.

I have news for Mr. Friedman: The political culture that is threatening to subvert Iraq's inner sovereignty is a home-grown export of U.S. foreign policy. So, in a sense, Mr. Friedman is right: The culture of Iraq is to blame. But through various lies of omission he misses the crucial point: The political culture of Iraq is something our leaders had been lobbying for all along.

IAN MOKEL
Monroeville

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