Letters to the editor
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Pittsburgh is in which century?
Regarding "Brentley's Barbs Strike School Board" (May 24): Pittsburgh school board member Sherry Hazuda's recent 1840s approach regarding how school board member Mark Brentley should address the superintendent is yet one more example of the anti-intellectual behavior that continues to dominate Pittsburgh's political landscape.
Are there any elected officials in Pittsburgh who think that common sense and the better good should rule the day? As one of America's least diverse cities, is Pittsburgh so isolated from the rest of the country that we have nothing against which to measure policy and decision making?
I am not going to revisit whether Mark Roosevelt met the standards to be superintendent of the Pittsburgh schools (he did not); however, the firing of former Superintendent John Thompson served as a prelude to the treatment former casino owner Don Barden received, which painted Pittsburgh as a city rooted in a warp perspective from the 1800s.
One has to look no further than Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's anti-intellectual threat to tax college students' tuition, the beating of the honor student, the possible illegal treatment of local college students during the G-20, paramedics failing to render treatment during the snowstorm and the recent alleged misappropriation of hard-working poor people's tax money to more affluent neighborhoods to question what century our elected officials are operating in.
I know many Pittsburgh residents, who were once the hardest-working people in America, had little time for critical thinking as the unions and political bosses did most of the thinking for them, but at some point this 100-year experiment of primal ineptitude has to stop.
WILLIAM FISHER
North Side
Brentley cares
I am writing in response to the article about Mark Brentley's role on the Pittsburgh school board ("Brentley's Barbs Strike School Board," May 24).
I want to note that as an active advocate for the Pittsburgh Public Schools, I have had numerous conversations with Mr. Brentley. I have found him to be a caring and responsive member of the school board who is concerned about a wide range of issues. He has been willing to bring up the difficult topics that others tend to avoid.
ANNETTE WERNER
Shadyside
First Published June 5, 2010 12:00 am
