— Having read the article concerning the burned Maple Park school building, I am compelled to write.

Once again, I feel that Walnut Grove is the forgotten neighborhood in this city. I understand the demolition cost is significant. Yet, I wonder if it would be different if some of those in the city making the decisions lived in this area, as I have since childhood.

Asbestos is a concern for those of us living here. Is there a danger to us and our families since, obviously, what was once contained inside walls and ceilings is now exposed?

With all due respect to the gentleman representing the city stating that he has buildings that are ready to collapse that must come first, has he looked across the street from this burned-out building? If so, he’d have seen the multiple-car garage that is being supported by 2-by-4s and no longer has a roof due to its collapse.

Or maybe they should walk just one-half block up Jacoby Street to Buck Avenue and look at the lovely, abandoned homes that grace that street.

The one good thing is the city codes officer does answer complaints and does all he can to resolve the problems.

Maybe others should take note of that next time they ask why people are moving out of the city.

There are lots of neighborhoods that need attention. I think that asbestos is as threatening to residences as possible collapses.

Toni Illuzzi

Walnut Grove



Global warming piece poorly researched

Jim Scofield has become a frequent flyer of the Editorial Page in The Tribune-Democrat, with approximately a third of the page dedicated to his topic du jour.

While the columnist tends to put it all out there, he is, in some cases, sadly          misguided and reliant on less-than-credible sources.

Witness to this is a recent piece on global warming. Embarrassingly, he directly attributes 13,200 deaths per year to coal-powered electric generating plants.

Aside from the fact that he cites the Clean Air Task Force and the National Resources Defense Council, entities worthy of extra vetting, there is absolutely no empirical evidence of this too-often cited “fact.”

During recent congressional hearings, Environmental Protection Agency administrators were asked to produce just one death certificate that attributed demise to fossil fuel energy production. EPA was unable to produce one.

Further, Congressman Andy Harris of Maryland, a physician, called into question health statistics of all kinds utilized by the EPA. No meaningful answers were provided by EPA.

Scofield then broadens his horizons by stating that the “industry is more devoted to profit than safety and jobs, much less our climate.” Really?

That borders on institutional libel. I am convinced that many industry representatives and tens of thousands of employees could easily recite examples where worker safety prevailed over production.

Space does not permit a proper rebuttal to this column. Scofield, please research your topics more thoroughly the next time.

Perhaps English literature rather than science.

Dennis Simmers

Ebensburg



Lives of angels snuffed out legally

There is so much violence in our lives. We hear about it every day. Our government says we cannot let this continue. We cannot allow our innocent people, including our children, to be murdered.

And yet, 40 years ago, our government said it was OK to murder our smallest children. Our unborn babies.

They have no right to life. No chance for adoption to loving parents. No chance to feel loved, to grow up to be someone wonderful and to experience life.

He wonders why you don’t pat him on your belly. Why you don’t talk and sing to him while he grows inside you. He doesn’t know yet what you have planned for him. That his next breath will be his last.

We hear of these mass shootings and when a mother murders her child, we say, “How can a mother murder her own child?”

Ask her. She does it every day. It’s the law.

Linda Reid

Westmont



Culture much different in Paterno’s time

There are several reasons why Joe Paterno didn’t do more about Jerry Sandusky’s criminal behavior. One is the culture of Paterno’s youth, when abuses by authorities were covered up.

By the time he died, such abuses usually were exposed, prosecuted, sensationalized and profitable to litigators. But Paterno was still living in the past. The following account is an example of the kind of culture in which he grew up:

“Jill” and two other teenage girls went to clean their church weekly. They walked both ways, the farthest from over a mile away. Being out alone after dark was not considered risky in the early 1960s.

A young cleric took notice of “Flo.” She was very attractive, and he began offering her rides home, even though she lived much closer that the two others.

Months later, Flo was confronted by her two friends when her weight gain became prominent. She broke down and confessed.

As soon as school closed for the summer, Flo went away, returned much thinner, finished her senior year and left town.

The cleric was transferred to another area church.

Jill told adults but they scoffed at her story. The church wouldn’t do that, they said.

Why such things happen is a mystery of life. It’s as though Pandora’s box was opened ages ago, all things good and bad became possible and humans have wanted to or are subject to experience every one of them until all possibilities, permutations and iterations are realized. Then the world will ...

Nick Russian

Central City

 

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