Opinion category, Page 177
Nathan Benefield: Governor’s campaign slogans won’t fix Pa.
Though elected in 2022, Gov. Josh Shapiro remains stuck in campaign mode, offering one empty platitude after another while avoiding the hard work Pennsylvanians elected him to do. Despite his incessant mantra of “getting stuff done,” Shapiro has done the opposite. His first year ranks him as the least productive...
Alexandra Paskhaver: Nothing like a road trip
I just finished “Democracy in America,” which is a book by a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville on … well, it’s in the title. To write this book, Tocqueville and his friend Gustave de Beaumont, who was the Dr. Watson of the duo, only without a mustache, sailed to the...
Letter to the editor: Biden the better option
I’m not the biggest Joe Biden fan, but I would rather have a steady hand steering the ship. One who doesn’t use lies, deceit and falsehoods for his own profit. A Christian, not a philanderer who is in the race for his own good, to save himself from justice for...
Letter to the editor: EVs and the environment
To all you people who think buying an EV to appease President Biden’s Green New Deal, listen up. No. 1: EVs have a much larger carbon footprint than gas-powered cars. The weight of the vehicle causes more rubber tire wear. No. 2: Almost every component — nickel, cobalt, lithium —...
Letter to the editor: Listen to those who know Trump
On Jan. 21, The New York Times published an article “What 17 of Trump’s Best People Said About Him.” These best people served in some of the highest-level positions in the Trump administration. A few excerpts: William Barr, attorney general: “He is a consummate narcissist, and he constantly engages in...
Editorial: What will you learn from the eclipse?
The sun does not hide behind the moon that often. OK, that’s not quite true. A solar eclipse happens about twice a year, even up to five times a year. A total eclipse, where the moon blacks out sun leaving only a brilliant halo, happens about once every year and...
Letter to the editor: Vote James Hayes for Congress
Residents of the 12th Congressional District have a stark choice this year choosing who they send to represent them in Congress. There is James Hayes, an accomplished business leader whose views align strongly with the voters in Western Pennsylvania. Then there is incumbent Summer Lee, a far-left radical whose principal...
Letter to the editor: Useful idiots, then and now
During the Cold War, particularly in the 1950s, the term “useful idiot” was used to describe people in the U.S. and other Western nations who, perhaps unwittingly, spread ideas enjoining communist ideology. Today, some young people in our country may not have even heard the term, especially since the Soviet...
Editorial cartoons for the week of April 8
Editorial cartoons for the week of April 8....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of April 8
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of April 8....
Letter to the editor: Income tax a penalty for success
An income tax, flat or otherwise, is not a tax on wealth. It is a tax on getting wealthy. With a graduated tax, the better job somebody does meeting customer needs, the more tax. Essentially, they are penalized for their success. I’ve come to like the Pennsylvania income tax. The...
Letter to the editor: What if we tried to live by Paul’s words?
I would never be so naive as to believe for a minute that the United States is a “Christian nation.” It is not, and I suppose that that’s as it should be. But what if we all tried, just tried, to heed the words of the apostle Paul, who said:...
Letter to the editor: Appreciating Penguin greats
I bought my first Penguins season tickets in 1978. They weren’t very good during those seasons, but I attended all of the games. In 1984, Mario Lemieux arrived, and everything changed. We got to watch the Penguins evolve into an NHL powerhouse. We got to watch some of the greatest...
Editorial: 10 years after Franklin Regional attack, school violence still needs treatment
On April 9, 2014, Franklin Regional High School became part of a club no one wants join: the locations of school violence. Alex Hribal was 16 that day. He showed up at school that Wednesday morning dressed in black. Minutes before classes began, the attack began. Like all such attacks,...
Letter to the editor: New report reveals impact of Alzheimer’s disease in Pa.
The Alzheimer’s Association’s 2024 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report reveals alarming trends demanding urgent attention. With the number of Americans affected by Alzheimer’s steadily rising, the impact on individuals, families and the health care system is profound. An estimated 6.9 million Americans ages 65 and older have Alzheimer’s. In...
Letter to the editor: Senate must take action on gun violence
I read the essay Meredith Elizalde wrote about her son Nick, who was killed during a mass shooting at his school’s football game in September 2022 (“State leaders disdain gun victims,” Feb. 9, TribLive). The reaction of lawmakers in Harrisburg to this mother’s grief is disturbing. The “condolences” from the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: April in America
America’s leaders have often come through with fine words and excellent phrases to remind us that it is hard work to keep the promise of America. For some reason, many important speeches were delivered in the month of April. On April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated, Martin...
Sean Kim Butorac: How struggles over immigration echo conflict over slavery
In November, the Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 4 to empower state law enforcement to arrest suspected undocumented immigrants. First-time offenders face six months of imprisonment, while second-timers can be incarcerated for up to 20 years. Texas prisons are already overcrowded, inhumane spaces. During last year’s heat wave, more than...
Carl P. Leubsdorf: Why both campaigns need all that cash
Money, the legendary California Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh said, “is the mother’s milk of politics.” Judging from the way cash is flowing into the Biden and Trump campaign coffers, each of the major 2024 presidential campaigns has no shortage of mothers. On March 28, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign raised...
Letter to the editor: Roadside trash mars beauty of our state
I would like to thank the writer of the letter “Doesn’t anyone care about roadside trash?” (March 19, TribLive) regarding roadside trash along Route 28. It’s a disgrace to see so much trash discarded along our roads. It’s an embarrassment. I was a Scout den leader for eight years with...
Sounding off: Presidents, abortion, drop boxes among week’s topics
Ranking Biden and Trump The 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey was published in February. The ranking system is based on opinions of historians and political scientists, which focus on presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults. The following are the top 10 presidents: No. 1 is Lincoln, followed by...
Letter to the editor: No honor to oaths of office
An oath is a solemn promise, usually sworn by an elected or appointed official, while raising their right hand up to God. At one time, I was a sworn officer. I took an oath to protect and defend people as well as to uphold the law. If I dishonored that...
Editorial: Can dual enrollment solve college cost problem?
All conversations about college tend to boil down to the same problem: It just costs too much. The average cost of one year in college is about $19,000. That puts Pitt and Penn State in that arena. As state related but not state run, they are high for public schools...
Letter to the editor: MAGA, patriotism and Christianity
I am so tired of the MAGA base claiming to be the only “patriots” in this country. Let me ask this question, from the American citizenship exam: What is the supreme law of the land? The Constitution. Yes, that document our Founding Fathers were adamant about — balance of power,...
Gary Franks: Joe Lieberman — America lost a giant of a man and I lost a friend
Last week my favorite former Democratic elected official passed away — my not-so-secret friend, Sen. Joe Lieberman. We were colleagues from the Connecticut delegation in Congress in the 1990s, but our friendship superseded that period. Just last May, I reached out by phone to Joe. As I grew accustomed to...
