Southwest is not exactly a boon for business travelers
Southwest Airlines's decision to start serving Pittsburgh International Airport is a major coup for the region's vacation travelers ("Airport Lands Low-cost Leader Southwest Airlines," Jan. 6), but not exactly what the doctor ordered as far as business travelers are concerned.
The Western Pennsylvania region is in dire need of new revenue generating operations, and Southwest Airlines will not significantly contribute to attracting new corporations to the region. The last thing a busy executive wants is to stand in line with a number in hand waiting for a "first-come, first-serve" seat on an all-economy class carrier. While better than the alternative (which is nothing), Southwest is not what the business traveler wants and expects.
Congrats to county Chief Executive Dan Onorato and the county's Airport Authority for recruiting Southwest. The economy-class champion will take up some of the slack for the loss of the US Airways' hub status. Now what will the county executive and his council do to attract new businesses to the region and keep existing ones from leaving?
JEFF THIERET
Harmony
Skewed and confused
Andrew Neft's Jan. 4 letter, "Oh, Get Over It," is a prime example of both the conservative slandering of Sen. John Kerry and the skewed Republican frame of mind in general.
Neft decries Kerry's liberal voting record, "less than stellar" military career, and Kerry's attempts at appearing to be an average American despite his great personal fortune. A liberal voting record should not be an object of shame: Kerry voted his mind and his conscience, much as President Bush, who routinely cites his "gut feelings" as the inspiration for policy-making, is wont to do.
As for Kerry's military record, the Republican-backed mudslingers "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" turned American attention to an unfair and false distortion of Kerry's courageous conduct in Vietnam and away from the facts of President Bush's less-than-stellar record. Finally, it is a poor argument to attack Kerry for being an aristocrat: Bush's father's connections got him into Yale, Harvard Business School and propped him up in many business ventures that Bush ran into the ground; Bush is hardly a man who worked his way up from the bottom.
As a college student who will bear the brunt of Bush's fiscal irresponsibility in the form of the Iraqi war, the privatization of Social Security and the failure to adequately reform Medicare, I, too, am unable to get over Bush's re-election. The people of America have indeed spoken, and have decided that the ambiguous concept of "values" was more important than Bush's floundering economy, ruinous foreign policy and tremendously expensive Iraqi war. If the financial and global costs of these blunders do not affect my grandchildren, as they almost surely will, then I will "get over it."
SAM ENNIS
Squirrel Hill
The apogee
It isn't often one sees perfection in a letter to the editor, but Barbara Z. Baker's letter of Jan. 5 ("Dignity Restored") is a perfect example of conservative screed. Every conceivable target and technique of conservative vitriol is present in its essence: Personal hatred for the Clintons, disparagement without support, accusations of incompetence without looking at the entire situation, assumption of guilt without examination of the circumstances, xenophobia as patriotism, pride in ignorance and, of course, the usual tripe about the "Hollywood elite." And, at last, blind assertion of the unquestionable integrity and moral worth of the current president.
Ms. Baker has certainly swallowed the dicta of Rush and Sean and Bill and the lesser demagogues on the Radical Right. They have thought for her, and she will probably never have to think for herself again.
Perhaps the Post-Gazette will never have to publish another letter like hers, since no one could do it better.
WILLIAM SANTEE
Hopewell
Stop the distortion
In response to George Will's Jan. 3 column, "Courts, Abortion and Common Sense": Can we, once and for all, put an end to the persistent, yet blatantly false, picture of pro-choice citizens portrayed daily from all factions of the anti-abortion movement ?
Conservatives continue to suggest that rabid, pro-abortion crazies are standing outside of local high schools with speculum in hand waiting to force unwilling girls into stirrups against their will. However, contrary to this caricature, our goal is to reduce and, dare we say, eradicate abortions through educational (i.e. physician-approved and effective sex education) and economic (can anyone say "living wage"?) empowerment of women. These policies have been proven to decrease the numbers of abortions, much to the chagrin of right-wing ideologues (as noted, during the 1990s, the number of abortions in America declined by 300,000).
Common sense? Mr. Will, please don't condescend to the pro-choice movement. This movement was founded on common sense. And common sense also dictates that powerful men in government, the media and the clergy should not be ordering women what to do with their bodies.
KATHY FINE
Highland Park
Not matches, too?
Regarding the Jan. 1 article "Lighters to Be Banned on Planes": All cigarette lighters will be prohibited from being carried on airplanes by passengers. Despite my understanding of and agreement with tightened security at airports and on airplanes, this seems silly to me, especially since matches also will not be banned (although the Transportation Safety Administration "may" eventually ban them as well). Why lighters, but not matches? I'm unable to figure out the logic on that one.
Why not ban shoelaces, since one could strangle someone with them? Why not ban pencils and pens, since one could stab someone with them? Heck, why not ban ponytail holders, since one could poke someone's eye out with them? Does the Homeland Security Department really think we citizens will feel safer knowing there are no lighters on board? I, for one, am not convinced that the American public's safety has been further secured by this latest noble effort against terrorism. Anyone got a light?
DIANE D. DANIELS
Indiana Township
Safety first, right?
As a smoker I read the article about banning lighters and possibly matches on airplanes with great interest ("Lighters to be Banned," Jan. 1). I wonder why only aircraft were singled out. The article wasn't addressing smoking, only the potential dangers of lighters and matches.
It seems to me that there are many other venues where the same prohibition would be of equal benefit against anyone bent on causing harm. Church services, come to mind. I have seen crowds at Christmas and Easter worship that could only fit into the largest jumbo jet. All public buildings should also be equally protected. Matches and lighters should be banned from our court houses, the federal building, even the prothonotary's office.
Come to think of it, any gathering with even a small group of people should be fair game for such a noble cause. Boy Scout gatherings would be a target. When I was a scout, we always had matches. (We never could start a campfire with just flint.) Boat cruises could easily be a target. So could street fairs, swap meets, even yard sales. My mind is boggled at the havoc that lighters could cause inside a fast food restaurant at lunch time. I will never go into a department store that doesn't check patrons for contraband matches.
Seriously, hasn't our "goof proof" litigious society gone a bit too far this time?
FRED H. TEMPLE
Swissvale
Thanks a lot
The Jan. 6 article "City Wants New $52 Tax Paid Now" has a tone of surprise that the city is forcing employers to collect the new $52 occupational privilege tax -- now called the "emergency and municipal services" tax -- in January instead of spreading it out in a less imposing fashion. Kind of like being surprised if you give the fox a key to the hen house and finding out the fox is having chicken for dinner.
So, to all my hard-working fellow citizens who work in the city and who are trying to pay off their holiday bills and come up with the money needed to pay for their winter utilities this January: You can thank the city if you come up a bit short. Every January from here on out, you will feel this sting until you either no longer work in the city or vote for people who don't think the word governance is synonymous with raising taxes.
DAVID KAHL
Overbrook
Peace Corps volunteers show America at its best
Your Jan. 4 front-page article "Peace Corps Gaining Recruits" is a valuable reminder that our country offers far more than laser-guided munitions and military occupations. While we continue our misguided effort to force-feed democracy in Iraq, over 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers are working, day by day, to implement projects to improve the health, education and environment in dozens of developing countries.
My wife and I, both former volunteers, just returned from a visit to Bolivia, where our younger son, Phillip, is serving as a volunteer in basic sanitation. He is busy drilling wells for clean drinking water in the impoverished altiplano region. This project deals with the No. 1 public health issue in that area, clean drinking water. Rarely has our country invested in a more cost efficient form of foreign aid.
As we consider the state of America's international relations, let's be grateful for the good work that is being carried out by Peace Corps volunteers worldwide.
JOHN W. McKISSICK
Murrysville
First Published: January 10, 2005, 5:00 a.m.