The White House again sends truth adrift
We’ve all heard the wailing about “fake news” wafting from the White House. But the administration recently gave the world a fake cruise.
That was the one that allegedly had the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and her battle group headed to the Korean Peninsula to jumble the nerves of Kim Jong Un. In the real world rarely frequented by this addled administration, however, the fleet was headed in the opposite direction (“U.S. Carrier Wasn’t Nearing N. Korea,” April 19).
Having served on one for two years, I can vouch that nuclearpowered aircraft carriers are hard to lose track of. My gray lady was 1,092 feet long and weighed 93,000 tons. Even though she’s still active, I doubt that she’s lost much weight over the years.
So, either the Carl Vinson and her escorts were commanded by the Gilligan’s Island crew and got lost, or the administration was lying.
But we know the latter could never happen, don’t we? Maybe the fleet was actually on its way to Bowling Green to thwart another massacre. VIN MORABITO
Irwin built the Grant Building. Wikipedia lists my great-uncle, W.J. Strassburger, as the developer. I think both are only partly correct. According to family lore, Hart Hillman and W.J. Strassburger co-developed and owned the building.
My two aunts, W.J.’s nieces, little girls at the time, pulled the switch to light the beacon on the roof. The two men had a buy-sell agreement whereby the estate of the first to die would sell to the surviving partner. Unfortunately for me, W.J., a bachelor with no direct descendants, died first, and thus I am now merely a Grant Building tenant as opposed to a potential owner. GENE STRASSBURGER
Senior Judge Superior Court of Pennsylvania
Downtown
I am writing in response to the article “Aspinwall: Plan for Freeport Road Rescinded” (April 14, LocalXtra section).
An uninformed reader could be excused for believing, after reading this article, that Councilman Mark Ellermeyer “saved” Aspinwall residents from the The Mosites Co.’s request for an Eastern Avenue entrance road to its riverside development. If the story, as reported, is wholly true, then Mr. Ellermeyer must have recently undergone an experience to rival St. Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus.
Last February, Mr. Ellermeyer published an “Open Letter” in which he offered his full-throated support for the developer’s highly unpopular request for an access road at Eastern Avenue. Unlike other council members, Mr. Ellermeyer supported the developer’s request even though The Mosites Co. had yet to submit any concrete proposal. “My beliefs are not subject to debate,” he defiantly declared. “They are what I believe.” It is shocking to think that an elected official could definitively make up his mind, about such an important matter, based upon incomplete and inadequate information.
We welcome your opinion
From the beginning of this controversy, Mr. Ellermeyer has reflexively sided with the developer against the interests of the residents he purportedly represents. During council meetings, Mr. Ellermeyer has frequently berated and bullied borough residents who dared to ask pointed questions about the developer’s proposal. The behavior Mr. Ellermeyer has repeatedly exhibited in public, in this writer’s view, should disqualify him from holding elective office.
On May 16, Aspinwall Democrats will choose four candidates to run for borough council in November. If they wish to elect people who will work to safeguard the interests of Aspinwall’s residents, and not advocate on behalf of a private developer, they would be welladvised to vote for four of the five other Democrats in the race and to allow Mr. Ellermeyer to gracefully retire from public office. DAVID C. BROWN
Aspinwall