Letters to the editor
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Trees and their roots keep hillsides in place
The Jan. 11 article "McArdle Roadway Slide Will Take Days to Clear" lacked answers. This most damaging landslide above McArdle Roadway was caused by the city's cutting of trees under the overlook just before the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh during late summer 2010.
The trees growing there were thriving and holding the steep hillside in place for decades. Actually, the trees themselves were not, their living roots were holding the very shallow soil in place. So why did the hillside not slide in late 2010? Because in late 2010, the roots were still living and stabilizing the slope. Now the roots are dying or nearly dead. As roots decompose, water fills the voids. This further undermines the soil above.
The tree roots grew through the shallow soil and into cracks in the bedrock to "anchor" the soil to keep the hillside stable. This destruction of nature's balance, no matter how minor (as compared to the Kilbuck Wal-Mart catastrophe in 2006), should be a wake-up call to municipalities trying to work against nature, whether by building into hillsides or cutting trees off hillsides.
The "Band-Aid" that the city wants to use -- excavating, then installing grass and netting -- will never solve the problem. Only replanting the slope with deep rooted trees will. That cost could be tens of thousands of dollars, and complete stabilization will take years, if not a decade.
Steep hillsides should not be disturbed but be held in place by the trees that God intended these slopes to be protected with.
GEORGE HONCHAR
Soil Scientist
Agronomics Soil Consulting
Carnegie
Taiwan and China
As stated in the Jan. 18 editorial "Pragmatic Taiwan," it is in the United State's best interest for there to be a harmonious relationship between Taiwan and mainland China. Since the beginning of President Ma Ying-jeou's last term, Taiwan has become a peacemaker in the region, reducing tensions over a historical flashpoint in Asia to their lowest level in decades. As a result of improved cross-strait relations, both sides have engaged in numerous functional talks and greatly increased people-to-people exchanges, with $130 billion in trade and 7 million visits annually across the Taiwan Strait.
While these breakthroughs were made in the interest of pragmatic economic cooperation, Taiwan still adheres to its political sovereignty and democratic model.
The victory for the recent elections belongs to all citizens of Taiwan since we again proved that the people's will can be carried out in a fair and peaceful election. There are also potential impacts on China's population, which followed the election process on the Internet with rapt attention.
The road to democracy has been bumpy -- Taiwan discarded authoritarianism and has worked hard for a free society over the past few decades. We hope that Taiwan's example will further the development of Chinese democracy in the world.
The relationship between Taiwan and Mainland China is still very complicated and has the potential for instability. However, we are optimistic that a level of trust and understanding has been established and can be maintained, which will yield significant benefits for everyone involved.
BRIAN SU
Director, Press Division
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
New York, N.Y.
Close Guantanamo
This month was the 10th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo. While for many this day went by as usual, a group of 50 people, mainly young folk, chose to go to Washington, D.C., to strongly call for closing the prison. They joined many others from around the country holding protests and vigils. The bus was organized by the Amnesty International Chapter at the Creative and Performing Arts High School, and the majority of people on the bus were high school- or college-age.
These young people had a clear message for our president: "Guantanamo is a symbol of U.S. torture policies and it should be closed as he promised in his inaugural speech in 2008."
Of the 171 prisoners 89 have been cleared for release and continue to be held indefinitely. To continue to maintain this symbol of torture is counterproductive and is a legacy of a period when our government put fears ahead of values.
We should support the message of these young students and call on our legislators and the president to close Guantanamo.
SCILLA WAHRHAFTIG
Park Place
A terrible lesson
Regarding "High Court Won't Hear Appeals in Students' Online Rants" (Jan. 18):
So now freedom of speech is once again protected for students who choose to mock and disrespect their principals, as long as it is not done while in school. Profanity-laced character assassinations of principals are also to be ignored, regarding references to sexual addiction, pedophilia, drinking beer and smoking marijuana.
Thank you, U.S. Supreme Court, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge D. Michael Fisher for your unfailing and courageous support of public education and students' rights! Will you also be there for these same students if they are unjustly fired from their jobs in the real world for online ranting of their future bosses? What a wonderful lesson you have taught our future citizens and leaders about their constitutional rights!
Perhaps our social studies, history and government teachers can count on all of you for future professional development training? Surely you must see the need for the protection of speech to include civility, dignity and respect for people in and outside of the classroom. Online ranting of educators will not make our students more competitive for jobs in the future.
LAURA L. LEETE
Whitehall
The writer is a retired teacher, West Jefferson Hills School District.
Emotions of war
War is ugly, and we just can't imagine what our young soldiers endure at the battlefront. As Americans we do value life, and lament at the loss of it, in our far-reaching encounters with our enemies. So as I have assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses, I ponder enemies' reaction to our forces.
Do you remember when the bodies of American soldiers were dragged through Mogadishu, or when our Blackwater security contractors, after being killed, had their bodies burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah? And what about our two soldiers from the 101st Airborne division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?
Yes, war is hell, and we must put in perspective our Marines' actions to these enemy forces.
We need to try to understand our young soldiers and the emotions that they face in combat.
JOHN OTT
Butler
Paterno's death
Many people have said that Joe Paterno gave his life for Penn State. It appears that this statement can now be taken literally.
Could Joe have survived, or at least extended his bout with cancer, if he had not lost his will to live -- because of the deplorable way he was treated by the powers that be at the university? I think the answer is obviously "Yes!"
JUDE C. POHL
Chartiers
Obama's rejection of Keystone XL is the wise course
Three cheers for the Obama administration's rejection of the Keystone oil pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline had been planned to transport the dirtiest fossil fuel on Earth across 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas. The Republican objections are pure politics with no regard for the facts.
It's nonsense for the Republicans to accuse President Barack Obama of imperiling U.S. energy security and to advance inflated claims of temporary construction jobs. Nor is it a question of Mr. Obama's standing up to big oil.
Tar sands take lots of energy to process and emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases. The pipeline would cross the Ogallala aquifer, a vast underground reservoir that stretches from the Dakotas to Texas. TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, has a poor record of pipeline spills, and the risk of polluting the drinking water for millions is frightening.
The claim that tar sands will cut U.S. dependence on imported oil is hogwash. The heavy crude would be refined in Texas and all of the distillates -- diesel, jet fuel, heating oil -- would be exported to satisfy the European and Latin American demand for fuel-efficient diesel engine fuel.
A little-known fact is that one of the Texas refineries the pipeline will supply is half-owned by Saudi Arabia. Even worse, Koch Industries' Corpus Christi refinery is positioned near the end of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and would be a potential buyer for the tar sands crude.
This means that the project involves the Koch Brothers, the right-wing supporters who are among the most powerful opponents of a clean economy agenda.
BOB FIFE
Mount Washington
First Published January 24, 2012 12:00 am
