Letters to the Editor

Consequences of DJs' prank

With all the regrets being expressed by the Australian radio station and Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the DJs whose hoax was followed by the death of a nurse who relayed their prank call to a London hospital about Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, there is a very important point being missed ("Prank DJs' show is axed," Tuesday).

The call was conceived by the DJs and approved by the station, with the self-centered goals of building reputations. If the call was successful and put through, it was certain to get hospital employees in trouble. This willingness of adults to carry out a prank that had the potential to make strangers suffer some form of punishment shows the stupidity and absence of humanity of all the station personnel involved.

A pledge from the station to learn from its mistakes? Please. This is spin and an effort to minimize the legal and economic consequences.

Gerald D. Klein, Elkins Park, kleinger@rider.edu

Honor players - and Paterno

As a Penn State graduate who has been a football season-ticket holder for 44 consecutive years, I am quite pleased that the Maxwell Football Club has chosen to honor the Nittany Lions senior football players with the Thomas Brookshier Spirit Award on March 1 ("Penn State seniors will be casino-bound," Dec. 5).

Many figured this team would be lucky to win three or four games. Ron Jaworski, president of the Maxwell Club, said he was astonished by the performances of these senior athletes. However, a vast majority of Penn State alumni like me were not the least bit surprised. Why?

These Penn State seniors were recruited and coached by Joe Paterno, the same coach who consistently turned out high-character young men every year of his sterling career. I believe Coach Bill O'Brien would be the first to say that he inherited an outstanding group of seniors.

Ironically, Paterno's name was stricken from Maxwell's coach of the year award in 2011. Much like the Big Ten and others, the Maxwell Club rushed to judgment without due process.

During the March ceremony, I suggest that Paterno be given some credit for this team's amazing performance, especially in light of the unfair NCAA sanctions they were required to endure. And his name should be restored on the club's coach of the year award.

Thomas M. Bradley, Altoona, tmbradley@atlanticbb.net

Time to lower minimum wage

The economy is in the tank, companies are going bankrupt or struggling to stay solvent, millions are unemployed, and the Editorial Board wants to raise the minimum wage ("Now's the right time to raise minimum wage," Dec. 4)? Seems to me that now's the time to lower the wage. If you lower the minimum wage, you will help these struggling companies and, at the same time, lower unemployment.

When you raise the minimum wage, you accelerate inflation, which adds financial pressure to those on fixed incomes.

Raising the minimum wage denies the unemployed a chance to get their feet in the door of a company so that they can demonstrate their worth and begin to ascend the corporate ladder.

When you raise the minimum wage, companies cut back on employees' working hours, which adds a greater burden on the employees because they now have fewer coworkers to help them.

I've always required a certain amount of money to live on. If my job did not pay enough, then I got two jobs. When the minimum wage is high, it becomes difficult to get that second job.

Frank Slattery, Eagleville