Barack Obama is sick and tired of answering questions regarding his affiliation with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He would much rather talk about the issues that are important to the American people. OK, senator, I'll gladly discuss the issue most important to me and your record regarding it. It is particularly fitting as we prepare to celebrate Mother's Day that we look at the one issue that most exploits and destroys motherhood: abortion.

Barack Obama is extreme in his support for abortion. As an Illinois state senator he vigorously voted against the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act. The act would have required medical facilities to provide appropriate medical care to infants born alive from botched abortion attempts, instead of leaving them to die. He also opposed the partial birth abortion ban, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, and is against parental notification laws, even calling unplanned pregnancy a "punishment."

I don't need the Rev. Wright to know that Barack Obama is not whom I want leading America!

CINDY NORTHON
North Side

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When a human being stands up to the mud-slinging, name-calling and lies of a bully, that person is showing extraordinary strength of character in not retaliating in kind by sinking to the morally bankrupt level of the bully.

What this country does not need is another secretive, mean-spirited, hubris-filled administration led by another bully.

What this country does need is a leader who hasn't written off the other party -- let alone the same party members who might have different ideas -- as the enemy, someone honorable enough to take a low blow without hitting back on that level, and someone determined to unite us as Americans, not destroy us for the sake of winning a nomination. What we need is a person with the vision to see to the future, where we're not a divided nation. What we don't need is someone stuck in the past like a dinosaur in a tar pit.

Barack Obama has the strength of character, the vision of bettering ourselves as a nation, and the courage to face the hatred, lies and smears that Hillary Clinton and her ilk dish out indiscriminately.

That the majority of voters in this state chose to go with the venom and lies of the dinosaur in the Democratic campaign shows only that negative campaigning works. One need look only to the last eight years to see how poorly it converts to an administrative strategy.

TRUDY LABOVITZ
Mt. Lebanon

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It's a shame Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania "win" involved the same old lying and attack-and-destroy tactics. Apparently, such methods are still acceptable to some who reframe Mrs. Clinton's "tough" behavior as a "fighter."

But isn't it the way the fight is won that we value? Remember clean fight, dirty fight? A bully isn't interested in an honorable fight. And think how really tough a guy must be to respond to such low blows without striking back below the belt -- instead, delivering counterpunches packed with issues and facts, as Mr. Obama has boldly done.

Now Mrs. Clinton is claiming she has more votes than Mr. Obama -- numbers contrived by counting Florida and Michigan, which ignores that those states' votes don't count because they broke a party rule and that Mr. Obama didn't campaign in either state and wasn't even on the ballot in one of them! Before Mr. Obama was ahead, Mrs. Clinton said the rules should be followed, the votes should not be counted. Now she's blaming him for standing in the way of her votes.

Yet even with Mrs. Clinton's old-politics tricks, Mr. Obama essentially won here in Pennsylvania. By offering a new kind of contest, he attracted a massive majority of new voters to the party and motivated many others to change party to fight for him; thereby reducing Mrs. Clinton's lead from 20 to 9.2 percent -- which, by Clinton special math, rounds up to 10 percent.

We need a make-it-up-as-you-go fighter in our White House about as much as we need a nest of hornets pretending to be honeybees -- even as they sting us senseless.

DAR THOMAS
Whitehall

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I am very proud of and wish to commend the Post-Gazette for breaking the story of West Virginia University granting Heather Bresch a master of business administration degree she didn't earn ("WVU Made 'Flawed' Decision," April 24). As expressed by the Scripps-Howard motto, I believe the sacred purpose of a newspaper is to "Give light and the people will find their own way."

Surrounded by negativity, I can be dismayed at the state of affairs. However, I'm aware we as a people have withstood much more perilous times.

The dissemination of news beyond the headlines gives me faith in my fellow man. Through the awareness they reveal, newspapers can provide the blueprint of do's and don'ts in society.

Thank you, and keep doin' what you're doin'.

JODY ROSENBERG
Shadyside

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When will Heather Bresch resign from Mylan Inc.? As one who earned his M.B.A. the "old-fashioned" way -- through hard work, student loans and lots of perseverance -- I feel it's only fair for her to submit her resignation immediately.

Every company for which I've worked has a policy that falsifying credentials on resumes is grounds for immediate dismissal. Apparently those rules don't apply to the politically connected.

GEOFF MACKEY
Bethel Park

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As a Butler County resident, I had to laugh when I read the April 25 article by Don Hopey ("Warming Effects Concern Health Officials").

Despite the high taxes here, we have no county Board of Health! It was dissolved some years ago, and we have to travel 25 to 50 miles to receive piggybacked services from another county. It is inconceivable that this would be satisfactory given the lack of public transportation in this area, and the prevalence of MRSA, HIV, meningitis, etc.

Why this was a good idea to somebody is beyond me. Note, this takes place at the same time the county is wasting (literally) millions of dollars on completely unneeded, environmentally degrading "upgrades" to Alameda Park outside Butler. Come take a look if you don't believe me; even in the summer the existing facilities are barely utilized.

I know, the predictable reply is: Allegheny County taxes are much higher. The difference is that residents there actually receive services. We do not.

DAVE BROWN
Renfrew

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I was reconfirmed last week in my opinion that we Pittsburghers are our own worst enemies when it comes to providing the world with a distorted picture of this region.

Yes, it was the American Lung Association in its latest statistics ("Lung Group Says Pittsburgh is Tops for Sooty Air," May 1) that identified ours as the No. 1 U.S. city for "soot," but instead of explaining with calm and precision what has been going on with our air in recent years, our electronic and print media were content to leave the field to the sensations of a one-issue national lobbyist.

This news differed in no significant way from anything else I read or heard locally for months about the Clairton Coke plant of the U.S. Steel Corp. in southeastern Allegheny County that was the source of the emissions that drove the Environmental Protection Agency data summarized by the lung association. The plant is such a special dirty case that it is defined by the EPA as a "separate non-attainment area" with its own Liberty Borough monitor.

Since Nov. 1 of last year, www.pittsburghtoday.org, the Web site of Pittsburgh Regional Indicators, has published hourly readings on both ozone, what the press calls smog, and PM 2.5, a fine and more pervasive and perverse particulate than PM 10, popularly known as soot.

I strongly recommend that your readers have a look at this material, along with the annotations that are provided. It is designed to help the public reach an informed opinion of where this region stands in regards to what at the moment are considered to be the two most important measures of air quality.

It also makes it clear that one neighborhood with a big problem does not a region make -- either in the current instance or in the dozens of other subjects that the indicator program tracks.

JOHN G. CRAIG JR.
Sewickley Heights
The writer is president of Pittsburgh Regional Indicators and the former editor of the Post-Gazette.

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