Just a bit of information for the unsuspecting public. If you discover that someone is tampering with and or stealing your mail, here are words of advice.

Don’t notify the police, they are too busy.

Don’t notify post office officials, they will just give you a telephone number for Domestic Relations.

Don’t put a letter above your mailbox along with others who have had their mail tampered with and/or stolen, stating that it is a federal offense, to try to alarm those who are messing with your life and important papers.

By the time you get the chance to speak to someone who identifies himself as a postal inspector, he will only tell you: “It’s just someone being nosey and as long as your checking account and credit cards have not been affected, we can’t send someone there for that, and there’s nothing we can do.”

When you comment to Mr. Postal Inspector that you thought it was a federal offense, a punishable crime, he will say, “Well, ah, it is, but. ...”

So, what everyone thought was a crime, was really just a fable, a fairy tale handed down from generation to generation.

A nursery rhyme such as Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, he got bored and nosey and purposely fell off the wall and wobbled from mailbox to mailbox to mess with everybody’s mail.

Why? Because he can.

Louise Cresswell

Ebensburg



Throw out luxuries, not needy residents

For more than 100 years, the people of Cambria County have committed themselves to the needy.

Laurel Crest was born in 1903 in response to the Sermon on the Mount.

Three pillars of our community, the county commissioners, have decided this commitment can no longer be recognized or supported.

This is not unlike a family of four and the parents give one child to an orphanage.

We need to eliminate swimming pools, vacations, cars too big considering the price of gasoline, gambling, $75,000 to $100,000 salaries, oodles of needles and expenditures such as the pavilion for Laurel Crest, before we throw out the needy.

We need a federal grand jury. Is there a reason why the state is pressuring the commissioners to generate debt and spending, and refusing to allow them to accept new residents?

It is morally wrong to sell Laurel Crest.

The commissioners are doing the grocery-store shuffle to cheat the staff of their benefits.

Jim Morrissey

Ebensburg



Arena’s manager honest, trustworthy

After reading last Friday’s Tribune Democrat (“Seized records to be studied in arena probe”), I knew I had to add my two cents.

Regarding the management of the Cambria County War Memorial: Our family has known (arena general manager) Jim Vautar for several years, and have worked with him and his family at our church for the benefit of our parish’s youth group.

Jim is an upstanding member of our parish, and in all the years we have known him, he has been very honest, trustworthy and selfless.

Having said that, I am curious about Commissioner P.J. Steven’s comments: “It’s pretty disturbing” ... “I’ve requested a full report” ... “You just can’t run the facility by the seat of the pants.”

Was he speaking of the mismanagement by he and his fellow commissioners of Laurel Crest Manor? Were these comments meant to imply the commissioners “dropped the ball” by allowing Laurel Crest to be found in violation of regulations that “froze” any new admissions for more than 60 days?

Perhaps he was talking about the increase in losses at Laurel Crest from $1.6 million in 2002 to – more than triple – $4.5 million in 2008.

But, no, Stephens was talking about the War Memorial. Give us a break, and quit being so hypocritical and judgmental.

Louise M. Aust

Johnstown



Circumcision is right of children, not parents

Dr. Paul Donohue in his column recently discussed male circumcision in response to a question from an expectant mother who couldn’t understand her husband’s stance against it.

Parents who don’t agree can get another opinion from the primary actor in the circumcision drama, their son. Someday, he will be old enough to decide what is better for him.

Irony abounds. Parents who are cavalier about circumcising their sons recoil at the thought of circumcising daughters, a practice common in some countries.

What you see depends on where you stand.

Parents do not own their children, something that becomes starkly evident after puberty, if not before.

As a spiritual writer put it: “Mothers, these children are not your children. They come through you but not from you. They are life longing for itself.”

In that light, circumcision becomes a right of children, not a rite of parents.

Nick Russian

Central City



Judgeship candidates can’t attack each other

I enjoyed reading the June 3 editorial, “Bracing for a barnburner,” because it was written in simple language. That takes skill.

However, you are lacking in political acumen. Example: “You would hope a judicial election would rise above mudslinging, but its up to the candidates to conduct themselves professionally. In the spring they did, and we expect the same in the fall.”

Judgeship candidates are prohibited by law code from attacking one another.

Otherwise, it would be “politics as usual.”

Don Bufagna

Richland Township