I’d like to challenge letter-writer Paul Gernhardt (“Why build the wall?,” Jan. 22, 2019), as I found his missive to be quite dubious. The cost of the wall is not $5.7 billion. It is projected to be much higher, although that is of the assumption that the U.S. will actually pay its contractors, not a foregone conclusion with Donald Trump at the helm. And it is not a one-time payment, as maintenance costs obviously need to be factored in.
Additionally, his concept of how asylum works is so misguided that not I, or anyone, could properly address it in the space given. The root of the issue, however, is value. A multi- billion-dollar expenditure on a mechanism of questionable utility is unwise. That money could be better spent on more reliable and productive means of securing the border.
I’d like to end by recognizing the blatant bigotry that oozed from the third paragraph of his letter and reassure people considering Murrysville as a place of residence that not everybody in the municipality is as backward as Gernhardt.
Peter C. Pavone
Murrysville