The killing of Osama bin Laden dominated the news of the past week, but good things were happening outside the realm of that long-overdue mission.

On Tuesday, the American Red Cross deployed a Butler County man to Alabama to help victims of the deadly tornadoes and other severe storms that ravaged not only that state but five others.

In Alabama, Larry Clark of Cranberry Township, a Red Cross volunteer, will work as a mass care/fixed feeding manager, helping to operate shelters for those displaced by the storms.

In numerous disaster situations in the past, both domestic and foreign, such as in Haiti, county residents have opened their wallets and purses and, even in some instances, volunteered to travel to the stricken areas to provide direct help to victims.

Clark is the latest of such generous individuals.

As a May 4 Butler Eagle article about Clark's service reported, Red Cross and partner agencies have served more than 169,000 meals in Alabama.

Clark merits praise for making himself available for his important task.

A Pittsburgh sportswriter who has referred to Rashard Mendenhall as the “future former Steelers running back” might not have exaggerated when he wrote that description.The Rooney family doesn't like embarrassment swirling around the team, and it can be surmised that that is especially true in matters relating to patriotism and loyalty to this country's endeavors and best interests.After all, Daniel M. Rooney, the first-born son of Art Rooney Sr., the Steelers' founding owner, currently is U.S. ambassador to Ireland.Understandably, Mendenhall's comments on Twitter after the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden didn't sit well with any of the Steelers ownership, as well as Coach Mike Tomlin.So, for the second off-season in a row, the Steelers have had to deal with serious embarrassment. In 2010, it was the well-publicized episodes of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and receiver Santonio Holmes. Roethlisberger kept his job with the team, only by agreeing to a number of conditions, but Holmes was shipped to the New York Jets.What Mendenhall's fate will be with the Steelers remains to be seen but, all considered, it is not beyond possibility that the Pittsburgh sportswriter's assessment of the situation might come true.It is not surprising that, with the mood of the country in the aftermath of Sunday's assault on the bin Laden compound, comments sent directly to Mendenhall on Twitter were mostly negative, although a few were supportive.One urged him to “continue to speak think freely and be your own man.”Is Mendenhall really that out of touch with the Steelers organization that he did not recognize the potential for a firestorm from his comments lamenting the hatred toward bin Laden by people who never heard the al-Qaida leader speak? Actually, bin Laden made plenty of statements against America after Sept. 11, 2001. He released videotapes and audio tapes, as well as al-Qaida training films.And for Mendenhall to express doubt about planes having the capability “to take a skyscraper down demolition style” was just as audacious.Does Mendenhall also doubt that American astronauts walked on the moon?It's time for the Steelers to send a stern message regarding those who would embarrass the team. Mendenhall isn't irreplaceable.

President Barack Obama made the right decision in determining that there was nothing to be gained by releasing the death photograph of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.Even if the grisly photographs were released, there still would be people who would deny that bin Laden is dead, like one Butler County individual who expressed the belief on Wednesday that the man killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan on Sunday might have been a decoy.Adolf Hitler had decoys who looked like the Nazi leader, the individual pointed out.Obama was right in declaring that “we don’t need to spike the football” in triumph by releasing the photographs.“The fact of the matter is you will not see bin Laden walking this earth again,” the president said in an interview that has been taped for CBS’ “60 Minutes.”Obama also was correct that release of the photographs could become a propaganda tool for bin Laden followers eager to incite retaliation against America, Americans and America’s military forces.Prior to Obama’s decision, public opinion polls had shown the majority of Americans being in favor of the photographs’ release. However, Obama was correct in not succumbing to the results of those polls. The condition of bin Laden’s body in the aftermath of the raid on his Pakistan compound is better left to the imagination.Suffice to say that, based on the description of the location and extent of bin Laden’s wounds, the images contained in the photographs would not be something to look at over dinner.