Band’s class had football fans taking notice

I fear we’ve become a little too complacent in expecting to hear about the off-field squabbles between high school football rivals as reported all too often in print and on television. Perhaps the negative slant to news coverage has infected even my own perspective, as what I witnessed some North Hills High School students do while visiting our Hampton High School this past Friday truly shocked me.

The Hampton High School Marching Band’s regular halftime performance was being replaced with a special (and simpler) show that included younger musicians from the district. Thus, the Hampton band performed its normal halftime show pregame for all the fans who arrived early.

We were among those early fans, and we certainly noticed the precision of the North Hills High School Marching Band as its members marched around the far end of the stadium. I did not notice that a number of the band’s members quietly took seats in the student bleachers to get an up-close view of Hampton’s performance ... but I think several thousand of us early fans noticed what the North Hills band members did next.

At the conclusion of Hampton’s performance, they stood. And they applauded. They gave their Hampton rivals a standing ovation for a job well done. My proverbial hat is off to the North Hills band members, their directors, teachers and families. While their on-field performance was spectacular, it was their off-field behavior that speaks to the character of their organization. Well done, kids! GREGORY FARRELL Hampton Band Parent

Hampton to it. They are wrong, however. When they ran for public office and were sworn in, they agreed to take up the challenge of leadership for all Americans. Leadership is hard. It is lonely at the top. Going against the crowd takes guts and integrity, things that our Congress clearly lacks.

That Congress will not remove him from office is a failure of our national leadership. That all Americans are not demanding that Congress do it is a failure of our national morality. JOHN JOSEPH LIPCHIK

Ridgemont

The Sept. 13 article “Income Rises Here; Poverty Does Too,” noted Beaver County’s recent significant increase in poverty and decrease in median income.

What about the jobs that the new petrochemical factory is supposed to be bringing, offsetting the hazards of the 2.25 million tons of carbon dioxide it will emit each year, according to its plan as reported in PA Bulletin Doc. No. 15-558a? The PG article, citing the executive director of United Way of Beaver County, said that “a significant number of better-paying jobs in Beaver County are held by nonresidents of the county, such as the construction jobs at the new Shell plant

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in Potter.”

Western Pennsylvania, with its history of coal and steel, may be used to the idea that health has to be sacrificed for jobs, but this is a false choice. Three fastgrowing jobs across the country are solar panel installer, wind turbine technician and home health aide. Beaver residents may think they are getting jobs with the cracker plant, but what they are really getting may be noise, disruption and air pollution. Beaver County and Allegheny County (downwind from Beaver) both already get Fs in air pollution from the American Lung Association. MARIANNE NOVY

Squirrel Hill