Letter to the Editor: For the Sake of the Sport

To the Editor:

As Democratic Allegheny County Councilman James Ellenbogen proposes the renaming of a bridge for the late Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney, I would wonder whether "The Chief" would have fully backed his family's legalized theft of $172 million of public money to build a state-of-the-art stadium, these members of "the 1%" refusing to dig deeper into their pockets to provide the funding needed to construct it. Why do the honorable and decent thing when one has friends in high places who will hand out an unlimited amount of taxpayer dollars?

Councilman Ellenbogen has portrayed himself as a man of the people and has aligned himself with traditional Democratic tenets. He is an elected official that would call upon the wealthy to pay their "fair share" to support programs and services, but when the wealth is that which has been stolen from us by the kings of professional sports, blinders are donned and the thieves are lionized them for pulling the wool over our eyes and those of our duped elected officials. After all, they perform the great "public service" of bringing us a violent sport.

At a time that local, state, and federal governments are becoming insolvent and increasingly unable to meet human service needs, imagine the legitimate uses for the $172 million that was handed to the fabulously rich and shameless Rooneys. That amount of money, in and of itself, could have wiped out three years of anticipated deficits for the Port Authority, single-handedly keeping the system operating at current strength. Instead, it goes into the investment accounts of the rich and greedy.

I would be delighted if a bridge were to be named for distinguished and renowned historian David McCullough, a man who has brought acclaim and stature to himself and to this region through his brilliance and his achievements as a noted historian. I do not imagine that effort will ever garner the fervor or passion that we have for football.

Oren Spiegler
Upper St. Clair