Recovering river artifacts
Dear Editor: I am writing in response to a Letter to the Editor on Sunday, June 9th, from Marc Henshaw of Brownsville. Marc was writing in response to an article, “Divers mix search, archaeology skills in Monongahela River demonstration.” I am one of the search and recovery divers who participated in the dive demonstration in Brownsville on May 19th, as part of the National Pike Festival, and was quoted in the article.
The divers mentioned in the article never claimed to be archaeologists. The article clearly states we are search and rescue divers, although search and recovery more accurately describes us. During the demonstration, I was the primary diver and before the demonstration, I was our spokesperson. I distinctly remember describing to onlookers the techniques we used as search and recovery divers and saying they were similar to those used by archaeologists.
In our training as search and recovery divers, all the divers at the demonstration had taken courses in Underwater Crime Scene Investigations. The instructors of the courses made it very clear that the use of underwater crime scene grids and underwater photography, to carefully document underwater crime scenes and preserve evidence, were borrowed from techniques used by archaeologists.
I agree wholeheartedly with Marc’s observation that it might be time for underwater archaeologists to get involved in Brownsville, especially with the types of items we are finding in the river. With his years of field experience, rather than criticize BARC, I invite Marc to call BARC and volunteer his services. BARC was only just recently made aware of the types of items we have been finding in the river and their historical significance. I’m sure BARC would love to have someone step forward, especially a local person, with Marc’s education and experience to guide any future recovery efforts.
The divers at the demonstration were search and recovery divers. We usually look for drowning victims and firearms that were used to perpetrate crimes. We love diving. We’ve been fortunate to stumble across the artifacts.
We felt it best to turn the items over to Brownsville’s museum rather than hoard them for ourselves. If we could be of assistance, we would be happy to volunteer our diving services to any professional archaeological effort. If Marc gets involved and can guide us into a more proper way of recovering historical items, this would be all the better for preserving Brownsville’s history. Otherwise, from what I believe Marc is saying, it may have been better just to leave the stuff we’ve found so far on the bottom of the river.
David Yelle
Pittsburgh
Bar stool off limits to government
Stop fear from eroding civil liberties
Dear Editor:
The National Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism Act, Senate Bill 2452, must not be allowed to be enacted if for no other reason than its blatant violation of the constitutionally enumerated balance of power and its corrosive effect on civil liberty.
Fear and terror, faceless enemies, although genetically linked, are not identical twins. When these two entities are united for purposes beyond reasonable recognition, however, the result is highly volatile and destructive.
Sept. 11, 2001, struck fear in the heart of our homeland by the shear terror of an abominable act deliberately perpetrated on innocent, unarmed civilians well within the borders of our country as well as within the parameters of our lifestyle.
Fear and terror were given faces that could more easily be recognized.
Over the past several months, however, a chameleon-like change has taken place that appears to have made the faces of fear and terror somewhat less distinct and extremely more hazardous.
Government is responsible to protect people from enemies, foreign and domestic, but not by manipulating the fundamental characteristics of fear and terror to expand control at the expense of the liberty of its citizens. Recent unconstitutional actions by various entities of the federal government attest to the validity of this intent.
Senate Bill 2452, creating an Office of Homeland Security would expand federal government, promote centralized national law enforcement (further diminishing and hampering effective state/local forces), and give powers to a current system that would tend to protect those in control instead of the people and their property.
We can defeat the enemy without, if we are vigilant to defeat the enemy within.
Contact your congressmen and senators directing them to oppose Senate Bill 2452.
Chuck Swope, chairman
Citizens for the Preservation of the Republic
Spraggo