Where will the Port Authority get funds to operate?
I am dependent on Port Authority buses to get anywhere farther than I can walk. I am also active in a seemingly never-ending fight for the operating subsidies needed to keep public transit moving in Allegheny County. That is why I read with mixed feelings the Post-Gazette report on April 24 titled, "Overbrook Light Rail Line to Debut June 2."

So we now have a $1 billion modern trolley system that serves the South Hills. The Port Authority is spending $151.3 million on new and refurbished light-rail vehicles and it now awaits the $363 million needed to bring light rail over to the North Side. This is all good stuff, but I have one question. Where is the money going to come from to operate all this?

The Port Authority is projecting a $30 million deficit in its operating budget for next year. I hate to rain on this happy building spree but I get real mad when I see the politicians give away hundreds of millions for massive capital projects but then clam up when we ask for operating subsidies that pale in comparison to these massive capital grants.

Many Port Authority riders are willing to pay at the fare box and with their tax dollars for an excellent public transit system. However, politicians and transit planners beware. You did not spend $386 million on the Overbrook line just to see it languish for lack of operating revenue.

Do not attempt to subsidize the operation of the new South Hills light rail by increasing bus fares, by cutting back on bus service or by reducing service on weekends or at night. Should you try this, I for one will kick like a mule and I will bring others with me.

STEPHEN DONAHUE
Bloomfield

Editor's note: The writer is co-founder of Save Our Transit.

---

Pitt wrecks Oakland
As a Pitt alumna living at Craig and Fifth, I wonder how good a neighbor my university is when I'm assailed five days a week from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. by the pounding of various cranes, steam shovels, the picking-up and pouring-out of tons of rocks and the mind-boggling prospect of at least another two-and-a-half years of new buildings now going up after months of the previous one, a bank, being torn down.

With the additional aggravation of Craig Street being narrowed so that traffic turning left on Fifth has to wait for as many as three red lights before escaping, just think of the gasoline being wasted as well as the time. And of the rising prices of the former and the preciousness of the latter! These are particularly important to people in their "golden years"! We haven't got so many left.

The May 1 Weekend Perspectives article ("No More Town vs. Gown") betrays the author's rose-colored glasses. Certainly the work she describes is needed and I applaud it. But don't forget the rest of us in your plans. Pitt is devouring all the real estate like a dragon. St. George, where are you?

JOAN FRIEDMAN
Oakland

---

Thou shalt not kill
E.J. Dionne Jr's May 4 column, "This JFK's Problem," discussed the abortion or right-to-life issue in the presidential election. The controversy over whether a pro-choice Catholic Democrat, John F. Kerry, should be allowed to receive communion was discussed as was the fact that Sen. Rick Santorum, a foe of abortion, campaigned for Sen. Arlen Specter, a supporter of abortion rights.

Sydney Harris, an author who routinely wrote about morality, said that the 10 commandments did not say that "Thou shalt not kill except in the case of (1) abortion, (2) capital punishment, (3) euthanasia, or (4) war."

Since President George W. Bush wants to be known as the "war president" and war involves killing, it seems to me that Bush and Kerry are even on this issue. Kerry is opposed to war and Bush is opposed to abortion. Maybe Bush should not receive communion either.

MIKE MESTER
Lower Burrell

---

Kerry's communion
In regard to the May 10 article on John Kerry in the Pittsburgh area ("Kerry Takes a Rear Pew for Another VIP at St. Scholastica"), anyone can report that Kerry went to communion. The real question is: Did he go to communion after confession, and was he given absolution with the stain of condoning abortion on his conscience?

JOHN BRANDT
Farrell

---

The reality of war
What is happening to our country? Since when is paying homage to our fallen soldiers considered to be a partisan act? ("Broadcaster Pulls Tonight's 'Nightline,' " April 30).

Family members from both political parties have been sent off to Iraq, and some of those family members from both political parties are unfortunately coming home in coffins. That is the reality of war.

I hope the actions of the Sinclair Broadcast Group serve as a wake-up call to all those who believe in that which our soldiers have been fighting and dying for: freedom.

SHARYN REED KELSON
Forest Hills

---

Kerry and the war
I am a veteran of the U.S. military. I served from high school graduation through my 21st birthday. Fortunately I came home in 1962 and so I was able to march against the Vietnam war and support John Kerry's efforts to end it without fear of the draft.

Again, I marched alongside Vietnam veterans on Jan. 18, 2003, in Washington, D.C. Considering that the revelations of American human-rights abuses in Iraqi prisons are probably just the tip of the iceberg,

I hope that in an ironic way they serve the good end of awakening more people to the truthfulness of John Kerry's revelations upon returning from Vietnam in 1972.

JIM FOX
Oakland

---

Story downplayed
I am responding to the May 7 article about the 50th Annual Human Rights Dinner of the NAACP ("Mfume Decries Threats to Rights Leader, Governor Address NAACP").

It discourages me that an article reporting on a major event that 1,200 African-American people attended in our city was relegated to the back of the Sports/Local section, with no picture.

On May 3, the Hat Luncheon fund-raiser was on the front of the Seen section with pictures of white women in hats.

I write in response to Mfume's call to whites to try and understand the indignities that blacks deal with on a daily basis. The placement of this article is the perfect example.

It's been four decades since Malcom and Martin lost their lives in the struggle for racial equity. How long do our African-American brothers and sister have to wait to be treated with the dignity and equity that is their birth right?

JANET SCOTT
Edgewood

---

Name game
I am writing in response to the April 20 article "In a City-County Merger, Which Name Should Prevail?" Why keep either name? Why not move forward in a brave new direction?

Here are some possible names to consider along with a brief explanation.

1. Franco Harrisburgh. Home of the Immaculate Convention Center.

2. Uncle Freddie's Pleasure Castle. The name alone would draw the curious.

3. Mulletgheny City. America's most livable hairstyle.

4. Carnegie (that way people from all over can ask: "Are yunz from Carnegie n'at").

5. Smurfsburgh. Mayor Tom Smurfy welcomes you.

6. Field of Dreams City. If you build it, we'll go broke, Is this heaven? No, it's a pothole.

7. Judy Garlansburgh. Draw a giant ruby slipper on the Steel building and attract wealthy gay tourists.

8. Phat Town USA. Yo, you'd be phat too if you ate this many pierogies.

9. Taxburgh. Come see the world's most taxed city!

10. Lidsville. We could have Charles Nelson Reilly as mayor and Weenie Genie battling Sala Udin on the council.

JIM TOBIN
Harmony Township

---

There's a reason why luxuries are cheap
Does the author of the recent luxury goods article actually believe that the American public is unaware of why these goods are suddenly available and affordable to the middle class ("You Don't Have to be Rich," April 29 Magazine)? Bedding with a high thread count is available because our textile factories have been abandoned and the work shipped overseas, a k a cheap labor. This is true for many of the items mentioned in the article.

Our way of life and our standard of living are being compromised because of the flight of manufacturing jobs out of this country. You have to look far and wide to find the union label these days.

MARYANNE BYRNES
Hampton