Visit my community to see drilling's impact
I am writing regarding the recent poll results that the majority of people in Pennsylvania feel the economic benefits of Marcellus Shale outweigh any environmental concerns ("Voters Give Corbett Positive Job Approval Rating," Aug. 3). Do the people questioned in these polls live in a community like mine where the local elementary school has to have a special evacuation plan in case of an accident at the gas well that is right across the street from the school? Would they feel the same way if their children had to experience this?
Do these people have to look at multiple rigs throughout their township that have so many floodlights on them that they light up the surrounding area as if it were daytime and deal with the noise 24/7 in a rural setting?
Would they still eat the beef and drink the milk from cattle that are seen grazing not far from huge open pit wastewater ponds?
To the people who feel the almighty dollar is more important than these issues, I challenge you to actually visit or live in a community where the gas drilling is taking place at a feverish pace and see if you still feel the same way afterward.
MARK BROSITZ
McDonald
Gas wake-up call
We must recognize the threatening dangers of Marcellus Shale drilling or it may be too late! I viewed the DVD film "Gasland." Can you light your water on fire? I was shocked by the loss of normal life because of fracking throughout our nation.
The prize-winning documentary film by Josh Fox depicts how he was directly affected at his Pennsylvania home near the New York border in the Delaware River Basin. He refused $100,000 by a big corporation wanting to lease his land for drilling and instead traveled across 24 states to record horror stories of sickness resulting from air, soil and water damage from fracking.
"Gasland" is a frightening eye-opener. The political connections and secrets kept from the public will stun you. Your local library may have the DVD.
Please view it now! There is more to life than money.
DOTTY LOEBIG
Economy
Braddock ill-served
In a recent PG article, "Braddock Residents Continue Hospital Fight" (Aug. 17), UPMC attorney John R. McGinley Jr. is quoted as saying "UPMC has bent over backwards to place this property back into service for the community." Mr. McGinley goes on to say that if the citizens of Braddock are upset, they should be angry with their local and state officials who approved the demolition plans.
Well, it's true, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato forced a plan down Braddock's throat that no one in the community agreed to. In fact, he and UPMC completely ignored a $50,000 reuse study performed by Jackson/Clark Partners that overwhelmingly called for emergency care. And many people believe then-Sen. Sean Logan obtained a $5 million state grant to help finance the new and arguably redundant UPMC Monroeville Hospital (although Mr. Logan, now a vice president at UPMC, denies that). I wonder how those two feel being thrown under the bus by UPMC, which they have so loyally served.
But let's keep focus where it belongs. UPMC has not only not bent over backward, but what little it offers -- some logistically impossible van services to Forest Hills and a clinic open a few evening hours for those with insurance -- was attained only by Braddock Council President Jesse Brown suing them. We have reached a total health care monopoly (duopoly with Highmark) and virtually any community can go on the chopping block. (Look out, McKeesport! Erie!)
But if Wisconsin tells us anything, it's that working-class Americans have limits to what they will accept. And in that sense, one true statement was uttered on UPMC's side. Mr. McGinley began his remarks, "I represent the Titanic." Well, we all know what happened there.
ROBIN CLARKE
JOSHUA ZELESNICK
Wilkinsburg
The writers are members of Save Our Community Hospitals (savebraddock.org).
A new New Deal
I regret the passing of "the Greatest Generation," the ones who lived through the Great Depression and World War II. That generation had a real understanding of where the current fiscal policies of the Republican Party lead.
Under Herbert Hoover the Republicans reduced government and refused the poor relief, leading to further economic disaster. Members of "the Greatest Generation" would be appalled to see politicians calling for repeal of the New Deal: The New Deal programs were their salvation in the depths of the economic decline.
Today the insistence of the Republican Party on budget cutting in a time of economic slowdown deepens the recession. The recent stock market turmoil is a clear result of the "debt deal" in Congress. Despite the deep unemployment rate, Congress has refused to do anything to stimulate the economy. The Obama stimulus package in 2009 was seen by economists as insufficient, and the Republicans have done everything they can to negate the limited effect of the stimulus. Through their misguided efforts, the income gap has grown wider and wider in the United States, and the middle class and the unemployed can no longer spend enough to keep the economy functioning. We need a New Deal.
JIM MORGAN
Squirrel Hill
Obama, take charge
I liked the Aug. 22 editorial "Action on Jobs," especially the subheadline "Obama Must Push Hard to Get People Back to Work." And especially President Barack Obama's idea of an "infrastructure bank."
You are right -- he should take charge of the idea, not hand it over to Congress. Congress will do nothing. Let's see a little FDR-type action.
I am afraid Mr. Obama will be pressed to create jobs by approving the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to Texas, which would be environmentally disastrous.
I was encouraged to read that the decision is entirely up to the Obama administration, with no interference from Congress or anyone else. This is Mr. Obama's opportunity to do the right thing in an environmentally important way. Will he say "no" to the pipeline? All environmentalists and many people who care about the good Earth will vote for him in November 2012.
CORNELIA SMOLLIN
Whitehall
David McCullough is most deserving of a local tribute
Brian O'Neill's Aug. 21 column ("Author David McCullough Deserves an Honor as Bridge to History") struck a chord.
Mr. McCullough, who grew up in Point Breeze, wanted to be a painter until meeting Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thornton Wilder, who inspired him to become a writer.
Mr. McCullough's words, rather than a paintbrush, have created vivid pictures for millions of readers around the world. His exceptional narrative drive, scholarship and insight into American life have crafted literary masterpieces. And like his literary muse, he too has won Pulitzer Prizes, two of them, in fact, for "Truman" and "John Adams."
His first book, on the Johnstown Flood, launched his career as America's most-read and best-loved historian, and was followed by books on the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman and 1776. Just check The New York Times best-seller list to see how his latest work, "The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris," is doing.
Although his book tours and speaking engagements have taken him around the globe, Mr. McCullough is a Pittsburgher through and through.
Here at the Senator John Heinz History Center, Mr. McCullough has been a driving force in the growth of the Smithsonian's home in Pittsburgh for the past 20 years. He provided inspirational leadership during the museum's relocation from Oakland to the Strip District in 1996, received a History Makers Award in 2000 and served as the keynote speaker for the Pittsburgh 250 History Makers Gala in 2008.
Five years ago, Mr. McCullough was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. For the American people, Mr. McCullough has struck what President Abraham Lincoln called "the mystic chords of memory."
Perhaps it's time Pittsburgh honored its native son.
ANDREW E. MASICH
President and CEO
Senator John Heinz History Center
Strip District
No to large, leaky databases
Regarding the Aug. 26 editorial "Online Spying: A Troublesome Bill Could Threaten Internet Privacy": Once again, the most dubious of dubious siren songs, "Do it for the children," is heard in the land. Once again, the hairs on the back of my neck stand erect. Once again, the following admonition comes to mind: Ladies and gentlemen, regarding the supposed virtues of this legislative proposal - seemingly with neither a glorious title nor bill number - keep a close watch on your wallets, on your rights.
Interestingly, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, says of the proposal that the intent of the bill - which is supposed to fight child pornography - is to create "a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes." Just what we need, another giant database that will likely leak the personal data of individuals, like the proverbial sieve, something that databases seem to do, in case you hadn't noticed.
What might these unspecified "other purposes" possibly be, doing it for the children aside? One wonders how the thing might read, translated into plain English, a language our Congress critters seem so reticent to speak in, or is it that they simply have become unfamiliar with it, having used it so little during their years in elected office?
In any case, absent one whole lot of clarification, remember what has come to be known as The Patriot Act. Enactment of any such proposal is unacceptable, to say the very least, cries of doing it for the children notwithstanding. For while enactment might possibly do something for children, what might it end up doing to millions of others, who aren't children, they being adults?
ALAN SCHULTZ
McCandless
Obama has delivered regarding enemies
I don't always agree with President Barack Obama. But I have to hand it to him on the taking out of our foreign enemies. He has had a direct hand in the killing of Osama bin Laden and the fall of Moammar Gadhafi. Thank god he didn't have to go through Congress for approval to do the right thing.
I wonder if somehow we could get the Republicans in the House to get out of the way so Mr. Obama could do the right thing for the economy.
TOM KERNICK
Penn Hills
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First Published: September 1, 2011, 4:00 a.m.