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Featured Commentary category, Page 94

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Dr. Ralph Miranda: Vote your values
A couple weeks ago I was speaking with a 21-year-old, fairly new voter who indicated she was voting to reelect the president because he “aligned with her values.” She quickly ended the phone conversation because dinner with her parents was at hand. I accepted her right to choose her own...
Elizabeth Stelle: Despite pandemic challenges, health care improvements are underway
We didn’t need a global pandemic to remind us that our health care system is broken and unaffordable. Countless Pennsylvanians have avoided a doctor visit for fear of unexpected bills. Many have gone months, or even years, without the ability to afford an insurance plan. And some have turned down...
Drs. Terence Dermody and Mark Gladwin: On covid-19, we need to keep at it
The covid-19 pandemic continues to rage, with rates of new infections increasing in many parts of the country, including in Western Pennsylvania. In Allegheny County alone, almost 15,000 people, or just over 1.2% of the county’s population, have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes covid-19, and over 400...
Sucha Singh: Healing as we remember Tree of Life
I have lived in Pittsburgh for 28 years. During that time, I’ve witnessed our city remolded and refined to adjust for the growth within diverse neighborhoods and cherished the distinctiveness of each culture. Understanding our city’s many ethnicities and an inclusive atmosphere is analogous to the confluence of the Allegheny...
Francis Adams: Mail-in ballots are lifesaving to many voters
On June 16, 1964, three young men traveled from New York City to Mississippi to register African Americans to vote. Within a week, they were dead. I was 15 when these men — James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman — were murdered. I understood how voter suppression in the...
Jim Busch: Bigotry can be hard to maintain
The news today is full of stories about white supremacy groups like the Proud Boys and the Ku Klux Klan. These groups are increasingly common as racial tensions mount. I detest these groups and their evil ideology, but I can understand them because I am descended from a long line...
Kim Anderson: Reducing methane is morally right
“Honey, should we fix the natural gas leaks in our home?” “No, sweetheart, we just won’t light any matches and put up signs saying, NO SMOKING ALLOWED.” Does this conversation between spouses sound like a responsible course of action? This is exactly the course of action that our commonwealth has...
Sens. Kristin Phillips-Hill and Scott Hutchinson: Could a 20-year state contract sink efforts to close Pennsylvania’s digital divide?
In 2019, the commonwealth entered into a 20-year contract with an Ohio-based company to help expand access to broadband in underserved areas of Pennsylvania. Although this contract was originally billed as a way to help deploy high-speed internet throughout the state, it now appears that this contract is more of...
Graham Godwin: 2020’s polls aren’t 2016’s polls
The 2016 presidential contest made some people skeptical of polling. But this is perhaps more of the situation where one remembers the emotion more than the facts. Yes, there were a lot of entities doing a lot of polling that year, and some of it was just bad. That’s what...
Jeanne Allen: Parents should have power on education
For years, measures like the Nation’s Report Card have assessed educational opportunity in America. Long story short: Our scores are abysmal, and our children are falling further and further behind both national and international norms. Now enter covid-19. The pandemic has put this ugly truth on display for all to...
Dr. Natalie Gentile: Pennsylvanians deserve affordable, accessible access to primary care physicians
Dozens of national health care leaders recently called upon Congress to expand patients’ options for personalized, high-quality health care. One of the most important measures included in the recommendations was greater support for direct primary care (DPC), a growing health care model that replaces the fee-for-service insurance model of care...
Aaron Carroll: Let kids have Halloween
Of course we want everyone, including children, to be safe during the pandemic. We canceled school in the spring, camps in the summer, vacations, sleepovers and more. My daughter turned 14 in June, and her friends drove by in cars, wishing her happy birthday while she waved from the lawn....
John Sparks: Amy Coney Barrett and the Purdue sexual assault case
Liberal/progressive organizations like Public Justice are portraying President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, as soft on and complicit with campus sexual abusers. Public Justice has zeroed in on decision written by Barrett for a three-judge panel a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case, Doe v....
Walt Rowen: Small business to Washington — focus on us, not Supreme Court
The slow pace of bureaucracy is a running joke in America. It’s surprising, then, how quickly the Senate has advanced the confirmation hearings for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett. Less than a month after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Senate Judiciary Committee began confirmation...
Sheldon Jacobson: If playing Big Ten football makes good ‘cents,’ then not playing other sports makes no sense
It took a month, but the Big Ten finally realized the error of its ways and announced that fall football is back on. Next weekend, the Big Ten will join the ACC, SEC and Big 12 among the power conferences who looked at the full gamut of risks and rewards...
Bob Inglis: Christian conservatives should not let abortion, socialism scare us off Biden
President Donald Trump claims to be the choice of Christian conservatives, but is he really what we want? Very few of us would want our children to grow up to be like him. We cringe at what he says and tweets, remembering that “Out of the overflow of the heart,...
Robert Lysek: Schools should work together to solve covid-19 problems
When the pandemic upended our lives, it was common to hear “We are all in this together.” It was an attempt to acknowledge that things may be different, but we can work together to find the answers. Public charter schools rose to that challenge. Charter schools quickly adapted innovative solutions...
Alison Grass: Cracking through Trump’s fracking claims
The road to the White House once again runs through Pennsylvania, which explains the campaign photo ops and nonstop TV ads. It also means we’ll be treated to a lot of claims about fracking. Unfortunately, much of what we’re hearing about drilling is not rooted in the facts. The stories...
Matthew Galluzzo: As life moves outdoors during covid-19, lean on Pa.’s special strength
Earlier this summer, The New York Times explored a fascinating chapter in American history. In 1907, at the height of the tuberculosis epidemic, doctors and educators tasked with preventing the spread of the disease in schoolchildren experimented by opening wide schools’ classroom windows. In some instances, they moved classes outdoors...
Geraldine Jones: Cal U-Clarion-Edinboro merger will empower students
More opportunities for students. That’s the driving force that propels California University of Pennsylvania toward a proposed integration with Clarion and Edinboro universities. With the initial financial review completed and the initiative affirmed unanimously on Wednesday by the Board of Governors for Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education, the trio...
Rod Chandler: Informed voters are smart voters
As a Republican former member of Congress and member of Republicans for Integrity, I have been through many political campaigns, and I believe most Americans of all political views would agree that campaign rhetoric gets lower and lower every day. Now, as election ads dominate the airwaves, unbiased, factual information...
Josh Freed and Jackie Toth: What Biden gets right about energy in Pa.
Pennsylvania has always been an energy state. In fact, it ranks third in power production nationwide. It’s the nation’s second-largest natural gas producer and generates the second-most carbon-free nuclear power in the country. The state’s nuclear energy is a clean energy asset for Pennsylvanians. Unfortunately, the largesse of its other,...
Dr. Jim Lando: Leadership matters in healing a sick nation
The lack of leadership by President Trump has set the stage for the unprecedented public health crisis, economic ruin and social turmoil that Americans face today. Our country was founded as the United States of America. Yet the divisiveness and cynicism emanating from the White House for almost four years...
Brittany Smalls: Pittsburgh’s Black voters using power at polls
With Election Day less than three weeks away, nowhere is more representative of Black voters’ excitement than right here in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood. Last month, hundreds of Black voters joined local and national voter engagement activists at a tailgate for the Pittsburgh Steelers in Homewood. Organizers passed out food and...
Sen. Lisa Boscola: Covid-19 policies must give restaurants a fighting chance
Imagine a longer-than-anticipated workday that leads to a late dinner with a desire for an adult beverage. Pre-covid-19, this was not only a common occurrence, but also legal with plenty of dining options. However, in Pennsylvania, it is no longer feasible to enjoy a quick late-night meal while sitting at...


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