TO THE EDITOR:

The article "Pizza robberies highlight danger" (Nov. 4) states that pizza delivery is the fifth most dangerous job in America.

People inside the pizza delivery business have said for years that if customers were to do simple things like leave their porch light on, and watch to see that drivers gets back to their cars safely, they could have a huge impact on lowering the risk level to the delivery drivers.

While some customers do these things, the vast majority do not.

Sadly, the customer's reasons for not monitoring the safety of the delivery drivers range from things like the customers feeling that it takes too much time to look out for the drivers to the fact that they feel it's not their job to look out for the drivers.

If you order a pizza, or anything else, to be delivered, sure you're paying for it - but the company and especially the delivery driver are also doing you a favor, by making it possible for you to simply open your door and get a hot cooked meal placed in your hands.

How much do you think a pizza would cost to be delivered if the price had to cover the work and the danger faced by the delivery driver?

If customers start paying more attention, not all the danger will be removed from delivering pizza, but why shouldn't any amount of danger that can be removed not be removed?

George Corneliussen, Montgomery

Saddam certainly did support terrorists

A reader takes Rep. Steve Chabot to task in a letter ("Government paints over truth about Iraq," Nov. 5) for listing Saddam Hussein's support of terrorists as a reason for going to war. The letter writer gratuitously asserted that everyone knows there is no link between Saddam and al-Qaida.

This is plainly ridiculous, given the known terrorist training facility at Salman Pak used to train both Iraqis and non-Iraqi Muslim militants in airline and railroad hijacking skills. It is also universally known that Saddam wrote reward checks to the families of Palestinian terrorists killed in suicide bombings within Israel.

Is it really so difficult to see how he would support the terrorists determined to bring about the destruction of the United States?

Paul Quarry, Finneytown

Muting of information smacks of Soviet days

One of our biggest criticisms of Soviet Russia was the fact that they were able to control the news that their citizens received. They seemed to feel that truth was a relative thing. If the real truth did not meet the requirements of the state, the truth was altered.

Now in the United States, news sources are not permitted to show the caskets of servicemen and women killed in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. Journalists have only controlled access to information about military actions. Congress has severely restricted access to the information that it needs to make intelligent decisions on national defense issues. The administration is conducting their "happy talk" offensive because they don't like reports coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now, CBS is forced to reschedule a series about former President Reagan because it would upset some Republicans. This is beginning to sound too much like what we opposed in the old Soviet Union.

Dick Schladen, Aurora, Ind.

Eisner should be glad she wasn't aborted

In regards to the column by Jane Eisner ["Abortion requires making a choice," Nov. 5]: I wanted to respond with asking a couple of questions, all with complete sincerity.

Under what circumstances (the situational ethics she seems to promote) would it have been OK for Eisner's mother to abort her? Would her mother's health (as defined today to include increased stress) be an OK issue to abort her any time from day one to her day of birth (partial birth, that is)? And now that her mother decided to exercise this choice, where did all those rights she enjoyed over the course of future birthdays go?

I take it, by her logic, the reason I'm reading her words and not looking at white space is because her mother's situation was one way and not another?

When it gets down to the bottom line, former President Reagan was right when he said, "It seems to me that all the people in favor of abortion have already been born."

Jack Dolan, Fairfield

Church must earn people's trust anew

One would think that after all of the negative press the Catholic Church has received regarding the hiding of molestation by priests, it would have learned its lesson ("Priest resigns over misspent money," Nov. 5). To say that a priest can take an undisclosed amount of hard-earned parishioners' money that is supposed to be used for charity and use it for personal benefit, not notify law enforcement and merely call it indiscretion is ridiculous.

If that were Joe Citizen, it would have been reported to the police, and he would have been arrested because stealing is a crime. This is another example of how the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has chosen to deal with its problems - by sweeping them under the proverbial carpet. Growing up in the church, priests were always held in high regard. I don't believe this is how God intended us to follow.

If the church intends to keep its followers and gain new ones, it needs to show us that we can trust them by doing the right thing. If they don't, how do they expect society to? The right thing is not always popular, but the popular thing is not always right.

Kim Mink, Cleves

Outsiders should pay part of hospital levies

Hurray! The elections are over, at least for a while, and most of the local levies passed including the zoo, which is truly a regional asset.

Looming on the horizon, however, are other special levies that support other regional assets such as the ones for Children's Hospital Medical Center and Drake Hospital, which unlike the zoo levy are really big-ticket items from a taxpayer's standpoint. These hospitals serve not only the citizens of Hamilton County but increasingly large numbers from outside the county, including those who have fled the county to neighboring counties for various lifestyle reasons, including lower county taxes.

With the outflow of population and loss of industrial base, it cannot be reasonably expected that Hamilton County taxpayers subsidize the increasing burden from out-of-county users.

The time has come for all parties including the commissioners, hospital administrators and elected state representatives to begin a dialogue about sources of future public funding for these health resources that are regional assets. We should not wait until we find ourselves in a financial crisis and have to limit either services or access to these institutions. Perhaps some type of public financing from neighboring counties should be examined, as well as any change in laws necessary to effectuate this.

Thad Willard, Greenhills

Objections over 'Reagans' partisan

Regarding the decision by CBS not to air The Reagans miniseries because of the imbalance (CBS's description) of its content, one only needs to ask the question, "Why are all the Democratic talking heads upset about CBS not airing a documentary about a Republican president?"

If it were truthful and factual, they would be upset about it being on the air.

John A. Ritter, Anderson Township