Letters to the Editor category
Letter to the editor: Defund ICE until it follows the law
This week, the country faces another shutdown due to congressional inaction. This has become the norm no matter the party in charge. This potential shutdown vote has one issue that is potentially more important than the shutdown itself, and that is continuation of funding for a group that is not...
Letter to the editor: Dems prioritizing others over Americans
Not often do the predictable results of the Democrats’ border policies become so obvious locally (“New Kensington-Arnold considers adding in-house ESL service, phasing out French,” Jan. 26, TribLive). The rising number of English as a second language students has required difficult decisions be made at the local level. In this...
Letter to the editor: ICE reminiscent of Gestapo, 1930s Germany
Let’s call ICE what they truly are: President Trump’s private army of thugs. They are the Gestapo of today, violent and dangerous. To paraphrase: “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.” It’s like we are now in the Germany of the 1930s. We have a president in...
Letter to the editor: We need ICE thanks to Biden-Harris
In response to the letter “ICE are the domestic terrorists” (Jan. 20, TribLive): There would be no need for ICE if the Biden-Harris administration hadn’t let, by some counts, 12 million-plus illegal immigrants, many of whom were criminals, enter our country illegally. Do your homework! Rene A. Marquis Jeannette...
Letter to the editor: After exploiting Native Americans, we turn away others?
Let’s get this straight: Europeans came to this land and killed as many Native American men, women and children as possible. We proclaimed their land our land. We forced their few remaining children into boarding schools where we physically and sexually abused them and sometimes outright killed them. When we...
Letter to the editor: Common sense and paper ballots
In the summer, the Westmoreland County commissioners were presented with a petition asking for paper ballots in a paperless era. Five thousand signatures is all it took for Sean Kertes and Doug Chew to approve $40,000 for these ballots. Of those ballots, 3,996 were used; that’s 1,004 less than the...
Letter to the editor: Clean energy good for people and planet
I believe the majority of the Pennsylvania population would agree with Erika Strassburger’s op-ed “Clean energy provides jobs, consumer savings” (Jan. 20, TribLive). I’m glad Pittsburgh City Council sees the importance of clean energy, and I hope the state government can also set aside its cozy promises to oil and...
Letter to the editor: Trump and our military
I just finished a book “The Boys in the Light,” a true World War II story about a tank division that landed at Normandy and, after traversing northern France and Germany, rescued two Holocaust survivors months prior to the end of the war. Against orders, the division kept the refugees,...
Letter to the editor: Will Republicans stand up for the Republic?
It is now plain to me that ICE agents pushed an ER nurse to the ground, sprayed him, relieved him of his (legally carried) firearm, then panicked and shot him to death. They then left, failing to secure the crime scene, which professional law officers would have done. Before the...
Letter to the editor: What about the local criminals?
The Trump administration is saying they are keeping the U.S. safe from illegal immigrant rapists, murderers and drug dealers. What are state and local authorities doing about the homegrown American rapists, murderers and drug dealers? Remember Luigi Mangioni, Tyler Robinson and Matthew Crooks? The suspected homegrown local drug dealer who...
Letter to the editor: Address looming power problems now
PJM, the grid operator that serves 67 million people across 13 states, including all of Pennsylvania, is facing an unprecedented electricity demand surge due to AI data centers opening. Starting as early as summer 2026, the grid may have only enough power to remain reliable, and by June 2027, the...
Letter to the editor: Students don’t need Republican propaganda
Rep. Brian Rasel’s proposed Unraveling Socialism Act purports to address a crisis in higher education that simply does not exist. Requiring every student at a public college or university to take a mandatory class about the “threats” of communism and socialism is not education, it’s public theater. Justification by Rasel,...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s hypocrisy on Maduro, Hernandez
Did you know that on Dec. 1, President Trump issued a full pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez? Hernandez was convicted by a federal jury of conspiring to import cocaine and firearms into the United States, trafficking more than 400 tons of U.S.-bound cocaine. Was it the pardon...
Letter to the editor: Trump is a policy genius
For years I have closely monitored our political parties’ policy preferences, the most important factor in candidate selection. Today, major party preferences are more dissimilar than ever. President Trump is a policy genius, whose views closely align with our Founding Fathers and the governing documents they produced. His passion is...
Letter to the editor: Comparing Renee Good, Jan. 6 rioters
It’s amazing. Anyone who gets shot by the unidentified, masked ICE agents is automatically described as a “member of some Latin American gang” or a “domestic terrorist” (37-year-old U.S. citizen mother Renee Good), and deserves to be shot in the face for not submitting to the screaming orders of unidentified...
Letter to the editor: Our leaders must support clean energy
Erika Strassburger’s op-ed “Clean energy provides jobs, consumer savings” (Jan. 20, TribLive) has some great news about America’s clean energy industry. As Strassburger points out, clean energy companies like Eos Energy invest in communities by building factories, helping people learn new skills and creating jobs for the future. With new...
Letter to the editor: What will it take to disavow Trump?
Will his actions and behavior ever be enough to dissuade those who propelled Donald Trump into office for a second reign? Was it enough when he responded to a heckler with profanity and an obscene gesture? What does one tell an impressionable child when something like this takes place? Is...
Letter to the editor: Democrats need to put Americans first
When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. When you find yourself out of money, stop spending. That is common sense. The government is out of funds, yet Democrats want massive spending commitments before approving funding. Affordable Care Act health benefits and subsidies for immigrants is the major issue....
Letter to the editor: Trump and the Ten Commandments
President Trump’s actions so far in 2026 have been head-spinning, but we can get clarity by checking them against some of the oldest and best instructions out there: the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not covet … anything of thy neighbor.” Trump says he attacked Venezuela to take its oil, and...
Letter to the editor: Help end online cat torture
Kittens and cats are being brutally tortured to death in online videos daily. In terms of sheer brutality, utter depravity, tremendous suffering and pure evil, this is the worst violence ever intentionally inflicted on animals — for “entertainment.” Methods include dismembering, skinning, crucifying, eviscerating, burning and mutilating, to name just...
Letter to the editor: Trump regime must be replaced
George Washington, in his farewell address, had two warnings. One was against a popular demagogue rising to the presidency and destroying liberty in his egotistical power quests. The other was this: “Overgrown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty and are to be regarded as particularly...
Letter to the editor: Pa. must ban live pigeon shoots
Bucks County is home to a cruel and primitive practice that most Pennsylvanians believe belongs in the past: live pigeon shoots, held at the Philadelphia Gun Club in Bensalem. While the vast majority of states have outlawed this cruelty, legislative loopholes and political maneuvering have allowed it to continue in...
Letter to the editor: ‘Transgender law’ doesn’t supersede natural law
The transgender athlete ban case being considered by the Supreme Court reminds me of a phrase I read while in undergraduate school. The phrase, as I recall, was intended to describe or detect a sense of humor or understanding the “absurd and incongruous.” It was drawn on the writings of...
Letter to the editor: Volunteer fire companies need financial support
The New Stanton Volunteer Fire Department needs to replace its 74-year-old fire station and has been working since 2022 to get major financial support from community-based businesses. They mailed solicitation letters to 19 major national and international businesses, including Amazon, Dollar General, Marriott Corporation, McDonald’s, United Parcel Service and FedEx....
Letter to the editor: How much will rebuilding Venezuela cost us?
Paul Singer became a billionaire through his vulture hedge fund ($65.5 billion in assets). He is also a major Republican donor and has given President Trump and related PACs millions of dollars. In November 2025, at a mandated fire sale, Singer paid $5.9 billion for Citgo, Venezuela’s $18 billion oil...
