Pittsburgh's finer points should attract young people, too

I was pleased to read your Feb. 16 article about a new book by Warren Bland that ranks Pittsburgh as the seventh-best place to live for retirees ("Why Not Retire Here?"). This may seem surprising since my job as the executive director of the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project is to attract and retain young people in the Pittsburgh region. However, I noticed that the author of the new book recognizes many of Pittsburgh's attributes that appeal to people of all ages, specifically recreation and culture.

Young people and retirees alike are attracted to places that offer access to excellent museums, theater, riverfront paths, professional sports and abundant public parks. I also noticed that the rankings included cities such as Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colo. -- places to which young people flock.

PUMP, an 1,100-member organization, works hard to improve opportunities for young people in our region. But it also is important to highlight what we already have to offer. We should all appreciate what Warren Bland already knows: Pittsburgh is a great place to live.

MIKE ENGLISH
Executive Director
PUMP
Downtown

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Short on facts

Columnist Ruth Ann Dailey gave her opinion that there was a "false alarm" with regard to the imminency of changing the city's fire union contract and public safety ("Turning Off a False Alarm," Feb. 21). Yet, Ms. Dailey did not do her homework. I ask journalist Dailey: Where are the facts?

Ms. Dailey never talked with the fire union or the mayor for an explanation of the need for immediate changes to the firefighters' contract. Unfortunately, it seems that she did not perform her own independent investigation either. How about contacting the city's budget officials? How about attempting to calculate the amount of overtime the city will pay during 2005? How about looking at the city's written budget? How about reading the current contract? The fact is that the budget officials of the city of Pittsburgh, not the mayor, came to the conclusion that the city stands to pay between $16 million and $19 million in overtime pay this year. That is approximately $11 million to $13 million more than the city projected in its 2005 budget.

Also, it seems that Ms. Dailey never researched the 2005 Act 111 arbitration. The Act 47 plan recommends that the firefighters take a $10.7 million pay cut via the 2005 reopener. If Ms. Dailey would have researched the 2005 Act 111 arbitration, she would have learned that the reopener provision of the collective bargaining agreement is subject to another contractual provision that states that any changes may occur only by mutual consent. In other words, the city cannot force the fire union to take any cuts whatsoever during 2005. That is another $10 million cost to the city.

The fact is that without a resolution between the city and the fire union, the city stands to lose at least an additional $20 million. The fact is that the resolution being discussed will save the city more than the Act 47's or the oversight board's recommendations. A resolution totally makes sense. Why didn't Ms. Dailey bother to take the time to look at the details?

Ms. Dailey: When you ask, "Where's the fire?" why don't you ask the families of the two fallen firefighters who so bravely fought to save a church for residents of the Hill District last year? Is the proper question an opinionated "Where's the fire?" or is it more appropriately: What are the facts?

JOSHUA M. BLOOM
Attorney for Pittsburgh Fire Fighters, Local No. 1
Koerner, Colarusso and Bloom
Downtown

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This isn't excellence

John Negroponte's is not an "excellent appointment" for director of national intelligence ("First-Rate Choice," Feb. 21 editorial).

Negroponte denies seeing evidence of death squad and torture activity in Honduras, where he was U.S. ambassador from 1981-85. In 2003, at the United Nations, he tried to sell U.S. plans to conquer Iraq based on false "intelligence."

The intelligence directorate that he will head was created at the urging of the 9/11 commission. The commission's report is not the kind of study needed for such a major policy change. For example, the 9/11 commission report recommends (Page 344) that "it is therefore crucial to find a way of routinizing, even bureaucratizing, the exercise of imagination." This oxymoron is no basis for policy.

Thus, neither John Negroponte nor the office he is to occupy will provide us with imagination and truth. Past experience also indicates that they will not foster liberty and the rule of law.

DONALD H. McNEILL
Oakland

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The Guckert affair

I would like to thank Rob Rogers and the editors of the Post-Gazette for printing a reference to the James Guckert/Jeff Gannon affair (Feb. 22 editorial cartoon). A scandal involving a gay prostitute having free access to the White House pressroom would have been all over the media if this were 1995 instead of 2005.

The printing of this cartoon gives me hope that real journalists are trying to uncover the truth in this sordid affair. Please stay on this story. The American people deserve to know the truth about the shenanigans this administration pulls on an uninformed citizenry. We are counting on you!

GRACE LOVE
Harrison

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Worker democracy

Our country was founded on Democratic principles for all. Those principles should apply to the workplace even though the cost is sometimes high. Our union membership has always paid the price for it.

US Airways has taken the bankruptcy decision down a path totally different from the foundational principles of this country by circumventing existing labor agreements. This action is nothing but union-busting at its best!

However, one path we shall never choose is the path of submission!

THEODORE PALLAS
Coraopolis
Editor's note: The writer is a retired national representative for the Shipbuilders Union, AFL-CIO, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 4.

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Many are concerned about the sexual ethics of our youth

Alice Greene ("Bullying in the Name of 'Values,' " Feb. 15 In Rebuttal) attempts to draw the reader to identify with her views by initially referring to the Focus on the Family representative's comments having to do with "the mention of homosexuality in schools" as revealing a fear of homosexuality. She goes on to suggest this approach marginalizes youth who are adopting a homosexual viewpoint, and causes them to enter into "at-risk" behaviors.

The reality is that Focus on the Family and other groups who assert a worldview that promotes the practice of sexual intimacy only within the paradigm of heterosexual marriage are deeply concerned for both youth and adults who are practicing "at-risk" behaviors. The fact is, they are attempting on a daily basis to reach out to this population with compassion and hope utilizing this different paradigm.

Gay or straight youth, as well as adults in our society, have lost their way regarding sexual ethics, and the dominant culture is practicing a sexual reality that pretty much accepts any sexual practice you desire as long as you practice "safe sex." Unfortunately, to suggest another approach often causes you to be branded as "intolerant, unreasonable and homophobic."

I am chairperson of the deacon board at Bethany Baptist Church in Homewood. As we reach out to our young men and women, we are using a curriculum titled "Every Young Man or Woman's Battle," which deals openly and honestly with the issues facing them in our culture. It embraces heterosexual marriage as the proper context for sexual intimacy, while recognizing the many temptations and pitfalls that face all people in our society today as they attempt to find contentment within a healthy intimate relationship. Our culture needs an open and honest dialogue to occur regarding these differing views of sexuality without assertions of bigotry and fear-mongering as a mechanism to gain support for our point of view.

I will admit that the Christian community that embraces the views I have represented in this letter has at times fallen short of providing a compassionate response to those who are hurting from the sexual practices they have engaged in. As we assert an ethic that includes the naming of certain behaviors as sinful and damaging, we need to do a better job of making it clear that the message of Jesus Christ is that "all who are weary and burdened" by their behaviors are invited to come to Him and receive rest for their souls, and that the reality is that Jesus is "gentle and humble in heart" (Matthew 11:28-30). All persons who believe in a sexual ethic that promotes heterosexual marriage as the proper context for sexual intimacy must take this approach as we reach out to people of differing viewpoints.

MARK CORBIN
Wilkinsburg

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Yes, bullies

Thank you, Alice Greene, for applying the correct name to James Dobson, Focus on the Family and their ilk: bullies ("Bullying in the Name of 'Values,' " Feb. 15 In Rebuttal). Their message appears to be that the only valuable people in society are people who conform to their narrow ideas of personhood. Anyone who differs deserves to be hated, bullied or otherwise victimized.

Somewhere in that Bible that Dobson and company claim to follow, I seem to remember something about loving thy neighbor. I don't recall any exceptions for the neighbor we don't like. I fail to see how teaching children respect for others -- all others -- is a bad thing.

DIANA SLIVINSKA
Ingram