Letters to the Editor category, Page 292

Last week, I graduated from Winchester Thurston School. Instead of walking across a stage in front of my school community, I watched my name flicker across a laptop screen from my kitchen. What I miss more than the ceremony itself are the goodbyes to my classmates and teachers that cannot...

Letter-writer Joe Palumbo (“Will America survive Trump?,” June 3, TribLIVE) wrote about his bad feelings for our president, but said he received his $1,200 stimulus check. If he was so unhappy with the president, he should have sent the check back so a deserving person could use this badly needed...

President Truman famously said “The buck stops here.” But for Trump, it seems to be “I take no responsibility.” He said at the Republican National Convention in 2016 the following: “The most sacred duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to...

One sure way to highlight the need to control supposedly peaceful protests that morph into violent confrontation, looting and destruction of property is for police to withdraw from the troubled areas. Law enforcement officers en masse should take a one-week vacation and let mayors, city officials, and their political allies...

The backlash of unrest on our city streets exposes two unresolved problems. The first is the immediate issue, which is an egregious absence, or at the very least, a massive delay of legal justice when it comes to felonies committed by white law enforcement against black people. The second, deeper...

I read Monica Bensko’s letter “Thoughts from a front-line cashier” (May 21, TribLIVE) at least eight times. It was one of the most well written and clear pronouncements of what really should be important today. She didn’t scream or make half-true comments. She very kindly explained something most people seem...

Lori Falce’s column “Trolleys, Star Trek and a pandemic” (May 21, TribLIVE) was not only timely with respect to the current virus situation, it really is a constant in much of our every day lives. I first became familiar with the concept in graduate psychology at West Virginia University in...

Enough is enough. When are citizens going to band together and say enough when these school boards decide to raise your property taxes 2 or 3 mills every year? Especially during this black period in our country. More than 40 million people in our country have filed for unemployment, and...

I just read yet another letter in the debate about the spiritual perils of churches closed because of covid-19 concerns. I sympathize with those who have lost what for them seems essential to their worship, but I recently came across a perspective from Christian pastor and author A.W. Tozer that,...

When government decides to do something, constitutional limitations mean nothing. It assumes its citizens will go along with the power grab without questioning the legality of it. President Obama wanted the Affordable Care Act passed. To help pay for this first cousin of national health care, the government mandated everyone...

Trump sought to take credit for the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress by, in an unprecedented move, having his name put on IRS checks issued to the public as part of that bill. Here’s a modest proposal that makes more sense: Trump’s name should appear on death certificates of...

In these days of the covid-19 pandemic, there is one easy, positive action our state legislators can take right now to help: They can vote to pass House Bill 1862, which would end the practice of surprise medical billing. One in three Pennsylvanians has received surprise medical bills. This occurs...

Distractions are easily accessible. During the ongoing protests, it’s convenient to hide in our distractions and wait for things to pass. Some even shift focus away from protests’ purpose. People don’t protest for a political agenda. They protest for a far more important agenda: for the lives of black people...

The Trib reported in at least two articles (“Proposed Greensburg Salem budget cuts staff instead of raising taxes,” May 27, TribLIVE; “Divided Greensburg Salem School Board rejects proposed budget,” May 20, TribLIVE) the Greensburg Salem School Board has drafted a 2020-21 budget that specifies eliminating some teacher and librarian positions,...

Our government has told us precisely how to protect ourselves and our families from the likelihood of falling victim to the coronavirus. For our safety, leaders are instructing the various types of businesses precisely how they must operate to stay open. So now that we are “green,” continued control over...

George Will has been a Trump basher and hater from the day President Trump announced his candidacy. However, even given his disdain for the president, his rant June 4 exceeded all boundaries of decency and fairness. The only place I have seen such a spewing of insulting hatred is on...

During his Senate testimony, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned of serious negative health consequences as several governors remove safety restrictions without meeting White House-approved CDC guidelines. President Trump deemed Fauci’s warning “unacceptable.” If Sir Isaac Newton, with his ideas about gravity, warned you jumping off a cliff would likely lead to...

We should be ashamed of ourselves for how we have treated dying patients and nursing home residents during the pandemic. There is no excuse for it. There is no reason nursing homes can’t have visitors rooms where people can make appointments to visit their loved ones. Isolation precautions can be...

Many readers of the Trib are old enough to remember the Kerner report of 1968. This was the finding of a special commission appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to determine the reasons for the 1967 race riots in Detroit, Newark and other cities, and other riots going back to 1964,...

Letter-writer Jim Hillebrecht (“We can’t take 4 more years of divisiveness”) is correct that every four years half of the country will be understandably upset by the results of a presidential election. And the election of Donald Trump was different because of the division and hatred. He’s wrong, however, to...

Every legal U.S. citizen should vote. Remember, elections are not beauty or personality contests. You are voting for the kind of country you will live in. I believe in the right to bear arms. I’m too old to defend myself and too slow to run away. My guns are my...

I’m watching the news about all of these protest marchers around the country, and I assume these people believe they are doing something important. I doubt they are. But it’s not too late. If anyone would really like to offset the hate in our world, here’s how you do it:...

The feel of a financial shakedown should not come from our medical providers, but that’s the effect of a surprise medical bill. A surprise medical bill is a financial burden that occurs when some part of our medical care is deemed out-of- network, which many times happens during emergency care. Surprise...

As revealed in the article “Leechburg Area considers $15.3M budget with tax increase for West Leechburg residents” (May 18, TribLIVE), the Leechburg Area School Board has found yet another way to raise taxes on the residents of West Leechburg. They are, as usual, blaming the obscure State Tax Equalization Board...

Thought experiments such as the one Lori Falce references in her column “Trolleys, Star Trek and a pandemic” (May 21, TribLIVE) are very common in studies of ethics. Their purpose is to test and refine the intuitions and principles we use in ethical decision making by applying them to difficult...