Letters to the editor
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Pittsburgh transit woes are not my problem
In regard to Bill O'Rourke's letter ( "Our Region Needs a Transit Funding Solution," Jan. 22), I see once again that someone from Pittsburgh thinks that a funding problem created in Pittsburgh somehow is a problem of the "state." Well, sir, many of us who are the "state" think that you should solve your own problems without picking our pockets to do so. We can be thankful that we finally have a governor who appears to think the same way.
The Port Authority has overpaid employees at all levels for years and made future promises that it cannot keep, and you think that this is my problem?
I do not use Port Authority transportation and take exception to being asked to fund it. My transportation expenses are very high and continue to rise. I must purchase and maintain a vehicle (state-mandated yearly inspections), purchase insurance, buy licenses (all state-mandated) and buy gasoline. Many of these costs, especially gasoline, are already on the rise, and you think that I should pay even more to subsidize the Port Authority? Maybe with all the rising transportation costs that I am facing, someone from Pittsburgh will rush out with some money to help me pay for them.
If you check with many areas of southwestern and northwestern and other regions of Pennsylvania, you will find that people do not care to pay for your problems. If I need to pay more for roads and bridge repair, then so be it because I do use them. However, I should not have to pay one more penny of my fixed income to pay for out-of-control Port Authority costs. Here is hoping that the governor stands firm.
EVAN HARR
Derry
Rider inconvenience
I recently read about the Port Authority's plan to eliminate two bus routes from entering Downtown Pittsburgh. Instead, riders would disembark on the North Side and be required to transfer to the North Shore Connector to reach Downtown ( "Passengers on Two Bus Routes Will Have to Take Subway to Town," Jan. 13). This is likely a testing of the waters and will eventually expand to all bus routes.
Though billed as increasing efficiency, I suspect it has more to do with the long-held desire of some of the region's leaders to eliminate buses from Downtown because they do not fit in with their upscale image of the city.
For image, many will be inconvenienced with an added trip onto their journey, especially if they transfer to another bus in Downtown. Far too often, one has only a few minutes to catch the second bus. The Port Authority's plan will further complicate matters.
With the proposed massive service cuts, this is just another incentive to use my car.
SCOTT ROBERTS
Bellevue
Corbett's folly
A sign on a neighbor's lawn still stands from last year's budget battle: "Corbett education cuts: ALL children left behind." Gov. Corbett's cuts, foot-dragging and disregard of the recommendations of his own advisory commissions are leaving behind not only children but also bus commuters, college students and those who seek to raise their families in a state with safe water and air.
Austerity measures like chronic underfunding of the Port Authority stifle economic growth, they don't foster it. While such cuts may help plug the $500 million predicted hole in Mr. Corbett's budget, they only create greater and more costly problems later. How can people pay taxes if they can't get to their jobs?
Considering such shortsightedness on his part, let us all look forward to leaving Mr. Corbett behind at the 2014 gubernatorial election.
ELLEN CONSER
North Point Breeze
GOP 'progress'
As to the sincerity of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's recent comments about his concern for African-Americans and the poor, terms he seems to use interchangeably, recognize that a core principle of the party is that the many programs to help the poor are the states' responsibility.
One could then expect a President Gingrich to withdraw from the battlefield in the War on Poverty and leave it to progressive governors like our own Tom Corbett.
Already, Mr. Corbett has cut a billion dollars in state aid to public school districts, which has had a disproportionately adverse impact on the school districts with the lowest-income families; encouraged growth of the private school voucher program at the expense of funding to the same already underfunded school districts; and reduced aid to relatively low-cost community colleges and state colleges while at the same time turning a blind eye to the need to subsidize public transportation.
The good news is that with reduced public transportation available to the poor, Mr. Gingrich will be one step closer to achieving his dream of having children replace their janitor parents, who will have an increasingly difficult time getting to the schools. That's fundamental to the GOP plan since, with the cuts to education, it will be helpful for the children to have the janitorial experience on their resumes.
MICHAEL C. JOYCE
Mt. Lebanon
Supporting Obama
I watched the president's State of the Union address. I am hopeful of everything that he spoke about. We must support him because he is president of the United States (president of all of us). He needs help from the House and Senate to get the job done. This president is the best bet for the middle class.
President Obama came into office in bad times, with a whole lot of trouble left on his desk. I am a retired Teamster, and I will support this man, regardless of all the lies that are said about him. He has been reaching out since he took office.
Let's pull together as Americans again and support our president.
JOE LEONE JR.
Cranberry
Students' honesty
To those who seek "the supreme unifying principle of life" -- love: The Martin Luther King Jr. award-winning essays of 11th-graders Erika Drain and Jesse Lieberfeld ( "The Next Page," Jan. 15) are an inspiration.
Erika and Jesse are examples of courage in everyday living, and I applaud their honesty.
CASSANDRA PARMLEY OSTROWSKI
Baldwin Township
The plea deal in Haditha killings is a pathetic example of military justice
In 2005 in the Iraqi town of Haditha, some 20 unarmed Iraqis, including two women, seven children and an elderly man in a wheelchair were killed by a squad of eight U.S. Marines.
The deaths occurred when the Marines raided two nearby homes after a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others.
The sergeant in charge of the squad admitted at court martial that he told his men to shoot without hesitation, to shoot first and ask questions later. He said further that during the 45-minute raid on the homes, the squad did not take any gunfire or find any weapons.
Subsequently, charges were dropped against six of the Marines and one was acquitted. The sergeant, who originally faced 152 years in prison on nine counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and three counts of dereliction of duty, agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors and has now been sentenced to a maximum of 90 days in prison and a reduction in pay and rank.
As part of the plea deal, the sergeant will actually not spend any further time in the brig.
The atrocities of Abu Ghraib, together with this tragic and totally unnecessary episode at Haditha, followed by such a long-awaited pathetic example of U.S. military justice, would seem to indicate that major portions of the U.S. military operations are out of control and dysfunctional.
The sooner we can extricate ourselves totally from Iraq and Afghanistan the better.
With episodes such as this as examples, is it any wonder that so many people around the world hate the USA?
GORDON HARGREAVES
Harmar
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First Published January 29, 2012 12:00 am
