Mayor's priorities

I have a passing acquaintance with Mona Murphy, the wife of former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy. A few months ago, she was telling me that one of the things she and Tom didn't miss from his days in office was late-night calls from his constituents. One time, she said, an elderly woman called in the wee hours of the morning complaining that her tap water was running brown. Tom got up, went to an all-night convenience store and drove to her home with several gallons of drinking water.

Compare and contrast to our current joke of a mayor, gallivanting off to the Laurel Highlands to party, even though he well knew that there was a predicted 8-12 inches of snow heading our way (he peevishly defended this decision by whining he was told 4-6 inches -- a little like my 10-year-old saying he "heard" me say two cookies, not one), then hightailed it back to town to field a handful of calls on his mayoral hot line, making sure the media were around to watch him do it. You'd think a strong young guy like Luke would have put his city first and been out there with a shovel, making sure the aged and infirm were getting the help they need. You'd be wrong!

Mr. Murphy, it's time for another late-night water delivery. The current mayor needs to rinse out his mouth and talk straight to us Pittsburghers, take some responsibility, stop blaming everybody else, become a true leader.

JOHN SCHULMAN
Squirrel Hill