Wows and Scowls
Wow: Action this week by the North Fayette County Municipal Authority indicates that progress is ongoing for building the Mon-Fayette Expressway between Uniontown and Brownsville. The authority passed several resolutions to relocate and install water lines for communities it serves along the proposed route. One of the highway’s goals, in addition to providing safer transportation, is to spur economic development along its route. Adequate water and sewerage lines are just as important for this to happen and the municipal authority it wise to prepare.
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Wow: Judge John F. Wagner Jr. was serving justice this week when he refused to accept a plea bargain for Antonio Lanko. Lanko, at 16, is still a kid in chronological age but his alleged actions are frighteningly violent. He had agreed to plead guilty to two robberies – one of which left his alleged co-conspirator dead – in exchange for concurrent one- to two-year prison sentences. Wagner in rejecting the plea said the sentences were shorter than the state’s sentencing guidelines.
The judge could have deviated but he didn’t. Had the teen-ager been caught up in just one incident, leniency might be warranted. But he is alleged to have been involved in two robberies committed at gunpoint. These are not the types of cases that call for handling with kid gloves.
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Wow: Much emphasis has been placed lately on overweight kids.
Unlike years ago where classmates picked on fat kids because they were unusual, schools are now filled with heavy kids.
We could join in the speculation of experts who claim everything from too many happy meals, or sitting in front of the TV, Game Boy or computer or failing to play enough pickup games of sports with neighborhood kids, as the cause of the problem. But that isn’t correcting it.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital plans to conduct a study to determine if changing a family’s behavior can help kids lose weight. This research, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, should add more fuel to the debate. Since it addresses parental influence as well as the information will be valuable in addressing childhood obesity. The added plus is that it is happening in our backyard, so families with overweight kids can take part in it. For information, call 412-647-7181.
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Wow: Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan has a warm house and a stocked refrigerator so it’s easy for people to scoff at her night-on-the-streets as a “homeless” person. She couldn’t possibly know what it’s like to scrape by or not have a permanent home, critics offered. Nor was she going it alone. The fire hall opened its doors for her to use the facilities. Friends dropped by with food and firewood for a burn barrel. Some of those comforts might land a truly homeless person loitering in town and starting a fire a night in the local jail.
While much of this criticism might be true, Ryan does know that she can use her public position to draw attention to a social problem. And for that she should be applauded. Ryan did bring attention to the homeless, which most people attempt to ignore as a problem found only in urban communities. It’s not.
Struggling people are in every community and sometimes it takes a mayor’s night on the streets to bring them out. As it did with one gentleman who joined Ryan and told his story of how he ended up with no job, no home and little prospects. What separated Brownsville and small towns from urban areas is that this fellow discovered old friends who are willing to lend him a helping hand.
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Scowl: While we have generally come down in favor of laws protecting youngest passengers in vehicles and regularly promote the value of using child safety seats, we find an amendment tacked onto a bill during the heat of lawmakers’ lame duck session goes too far. The bill was one of those highway-safety bills intended to increase penalties for motorist violations in work zones that easily allow for hitchhiking amendments.
The amendment in question requires children between the ages of 4 and 7 to be restrained in approved booster seats. Current law requires children up to the age of 4 to ride in child safety seats. Children in the first few years of life only differ in size by a couple of inches.
The one-size-fits-all concepts fails to work beyond that, and the type of seat belts and restraints used is best left for parents and their children’s pediatricians to determine.