Waaah! Waaah!

Today we'll be examining some letters to the editor from various local papers. While many of the letters that make it to print are intelligent & rational, some leave much to be desired.

There's the occasional letter from a spoiled brat, decrying some imagined hardship that would be a blessing to most others. At times, we see an offbeat rant illustrating some perceived wrong that exists only in the writer's mind. Still others are thinly veiled whining & it's not hard to imagine the writer as a typical sourpuss that is never happy with anything.

We try hard to not pick on any local paper more than others but since there's only two major papers & one of them is a theinly veiled vehicle for a crazy rich guy's political & social rhetoric, that seriously limits our options. We're trying hard to expand our horizens so that we can pick on other media outlets, we promise.

This is our forum to rebut the public opinion & expound upon our own beliefs. You may not always like what we have to say, but it will always make you think. Click on the headlines to read the original letters being referenced here & you'll probably have to scroll down to find them.


Mechanical Ignorance
(Cool War Stuff)

This letter is from a recent transplant to the Polish Hill section of the city & the author is outraged that a Stealth Bomber flew over her home. She goes on about not glorifying war but I really don't see the connection. The government is going to make fancy jets whether the public supports it or not. Whether or not we're at war, no matter what public opinion of current military actions may be, these planes will be manufactured at taxpayer's expense.

That being said, we may as well enjoy them. Both the Regatta & Wings Over Pittsburgh are billed as family events & planes are cool. Little kids love them. Big kids love them. Adults study them, collect them & travel great lengths to see them in action or on the ground.

They are engineering marvels & testaments to our nation's technological & manufacturing prowess. That's nothing to be ashamed of, nor is it something to decry.


By the same token, should we ban car & boat shows until gas prices come down? After all, America's love of gas guzzlers makes us dependent upon our enemies, creates pollution, wastes valuable natural resources & the constant demand threatens environmental treasures.

Perhaps we should ban the All Star Game since the MLB is the only major sporting commission that refuses to punish blatant & overt drug abuse among it's superstars. Maybe we should put a moratorium on country music concerts until the war ends, as many of these stars are outspoken supporters of the current administration.

We don't support the war in Iraq (although we do support our troops). We don't promote glorification of war or US involvement in most foreign skirmishes. However, we do enjoy big cool machines, like construction equipment, trains, trucks, autos & planes.

We grew up waiting for the awesome flyovers, which are the best part of the Regatta since the hot air balloon races stopped. Stop seeing Boogeymen in everything, lady, there's no connection!


Firecrackers, Townhouses & Death, Oh My!
(Firecracker Dangers)

This letter is perfect for two reasons: First, the writer is completely overreacting. She should make that passion work for her in some constructive manner. For instance, her life must be pretty good if hearing a single firecracker can warrant this kind of righteous indignation. Perhaps that passion could best be spent graciously thanking higher powers for a life so charmed that only absolute minutaie can be identified as a problem.

Second, this letter is written in such a dramatic fashion that we can only imagine a tortured bohemian chick rending her clothes & twisting in agony on a darkened stage under a pinpoint spotlight while wailing this message. Read your own letter, lady -- it was just one firecracker! That shouldn't, in good conscience, warrant 4+ paragraphs.

And I may be wrong, but technically I don't think a firecracker could burn down an entire neighborhood. A firework maybe, but not a firecracker.

Segregation or Choice?
(Disturbing Trend)

This letter bemoans the segregation of housing in Pittsburgh. As we grew up here & are intimately acquainted with the city & most of it's suburbs, we find this letter to be vague & pointless. Pittsburgh is losing population all of the time. It's been going on for decades & we're always shrinking, never growing.

It's not just white people leaving the area, nor does it have anything to do with race. People of all socioeconomic classes are leaving for better opportunities. Many educated young professionals that grew up here pursue their adult lives elsewhere. Many less-educated residents have left to pursue blue-collar opportunities in larger cities. I know people with college degrees that are doing better as valets & waitresses in Miami, LA & Vegas than they did as white-collar professionals in Western PA. Trade workers can be very successful in the Carolinas, for instance & these areas are now rife with Steelers bars & entire communities of ex-Pittsburghers.

The letter says the city is losing white residents in large numbers while the suburbs lose few whites. Many city residents are college students that aren't originally from this area so they graduate & leave. The writer is trying to present an image of white-flight, alluding that white residents are fleeing to the suburbs leaving minorities in the city. This isn't so. It's not as though the suburbs are seeing an increase in white residents directly proportional to the city's losses.

The letter mentions nothing about minority numbers in the suburbs but they've been growing for years & continue to grow. Of course, mentioning that would undercut his claims of segregation so he had to leave that fact out entirely. (Hopefully, they are less likely to flee the area than city dwellers, just like their white suburban neighbors because we really need to stop losing people).

If you want to buy a specific house but the realtor won't return calls because you're not of a certain race, that's segregation & someone should step in to help. But if you want to buy a specific house & just can't afford it, that's not racism so look to some other, more affordable neighborhood.

You can claim cultural limitations, ethnic inequity in our society & play every race card in the book but it doesn't matter. There are other people with no race card to play that want that house & can't have it, just like you. I guarantee it.

The writer also ignores an important fact: Perhaps minorities choose to live in communities that share their culture & don't want to live in a generic environment. Many ethnic groups are proud of their heritage & celebrate it in various ways (churches, schools, neighborhood organizations & businesses). So minority residents may prefer to live among people with values, beliefs & histories similar to their own.

That often means that most residents will have the same skin color, too. If culture is a big part of your life, you're not going to move out of "your" neighborhood to live in some homogenized area with no cultural identity.

The government needs to guarantee fair housing. There are laws so there'll always be people breaking them, thus requiring enforcement. However, people should be able to live where they prefer without anyone trying to move them. Maybe this guy from the Fair Housing agency wants to homogenize every single neighborhood but that isn't in anyone's best interests. If people value their racial or ethnic identities & choose to live in a community that celebrates that identity, there's nothing wrong with that. It's their right & choice to do so.

If that community actively drives out people different from themselves, it's a problem. But if they welcome everyone equally & just happen to attract those similar to themselves, how is that wrong? The point of fair housing is not to make every neighborhood a generic mix of all peoples. It's to ensure that no discrimination is at work & let people make their own choices in an open market.