Opinion category, Page 403
Sounding off: Hide your Bibles, the book banners are back
With a nod to Meredith Wilson’s “Music Man”: Trouble, oh we’ve got trouble, Right here in Westmoreland County! With a capital “T” That rhymes with “B” And that stands for Books. The book banners are back (with book burners a half-step behind), never really having gone away. They would have...
Letter to the editor: Crosswalk signs is what Jeannette needs?
The article “Jeannette officials continue discussion about use of federal covid relief cash,” March 24, TribLIVE) is Jeannette in a nutshell. Our mayor wants to install crosswalk signs. Seriously? This might also explain why the old Monsour hospital site is still an empty lot. Crosswalk signs. SMH. Dale Parker Jeannette...
Letter to the editor: Hempfield book complaints are about responsibility
Regarding the recent reporting on the challenged books in the Hempfield Area School District (“Hempfield is latest district to face book ban challenge”): This is not an issue of censorship or banning. The media and those few individuals who oppose policy change for resource selection in the school have made...
Editorial: Wheelchair restrictions could be more than Latrobe expects
It should go without saying that a wheelchair is not a bicycle. Sure, they have features in common. Wheels, obviously. Tires. There is a seat, and there are handles. Stripped down, they perform the same function: moving someone from one place to another. But use these kind of very elementary...
Letter to the editor: PSEA leadership should be challenged
Regarding the op-ed “Make education a priority in Pa. budget” (March 22, TribLIVE) by Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association: I am writing to encourage public school teachers and PSEA members to challenge the leadership of this organization and its policies. There is clearly a crisis in...
S.E. Cupp: Was Will Smith’s slap the Oscars’ last gasp?
Hollywood can put together a great summer blockbuster, legal thriller and holiday rom-com, but they sure can’t seem to get the Oscars right. This year’s broadcast was an unmitigated disaster, and not just because of you-know-what (but we’ll get there). It’s been nearly a quarter- century since the highest rated Academy...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: The Slap
Sorry, but there is no excuse. Not that that’s stopped some people from trying to find one. And yes, in case you hadn’t figured it out, we’re talking about the event that has crowded out Ukraine, the pandemic and gas prices as the top topic of public conversation. Meaning, of...
Letter to the editor: Reading spending bills, voting on justice
I understand that Congress may be considering passing a bill requiring time to read a spending bill before voting on it. But that does not mean our representatives really understand it. The Senate is considering approving the nomination of a judge who cannot define what a woman is. She may...
Counterpoint: Paying college athletes a bad idea
As March Madness comes to a close, once again we hear that college student athletes are being unfairly “exploited” by being denied salaries for playing sports. Should the NCAA and universities be pressured or forced to change longstanding policy? This notion, while seemingly sensible at first glance, is badly misguided....
Letter to the editor: More effort needed to combat Alzheimer’s
The Alzheimer’s Association 2022 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report illustrates the continued burden of Alzheimer’s in our country, and in Pennsylvania. An estimated 6.5 million Americans 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, including 280,000 in Pennsylvania — a number expected to increase to 320,000 by 2025. Across the...
Point: Pay college athletes
St. Peter’s University’s run of upsets wasn’t the only storyline from this year’s March Madness tournament. The other is that the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team is in trouble for allegedly paying its players, in violation of NCAA rules. It is time for the NCAA to do the right thing...
Lori Falce: Who should the Academy really investigate?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is opening an investigation into Will Smith and the The Slap Heard ’Round the World. Except, wait a minute. No, they’re really not. From the moment Smith charged the stage during the live Oscars broadcast and slapped comedian Chris Rock for a...
Letter to the editor: Mental health services lacking in Westmoreland
I was pleased to read that Westmoreland County received a state grant to expand the mobile crisis unit for mental health emergencies (“Westmoreland County to expand mobile crisis unit for mental health emergencies,” March 1, TribLIVE). This grant is a much-needed Band-Aid over the giant lack of adequate mental health...
Paul Kengor: Putin, a cornered rat
Rebekah Koffler, a Russian-born U.S. intelligence expert who worked for the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” speaks of an episode in the life of Vladimir Putin growing up in the 1960s in a communal apartment in Leningrad. “To get to his apartment on the fifth...
Laurels & lances: Wedding, weapon, wellness
Laurel: To an Oscar-calibre officiant. Tom Hanks may have famously declared there is no crying in baseball, but a few tears at a wedding are not unexpected. Here’s hoping he had a few hankies handy when he presided over the exchange of vows for a Bellevue couple. Krisna Poznik Stahl...
Letter to the editor: Stories of abuse disheartening
It takes a lot to have news affect us these days, as we’re all sadly numb to the garbage that exists sometimes as human beings. But the recent stories of the two men accused of abusing disabled residents at McGuire Memorial (“Feds charge 2 men with hate crimes in Beaver...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s oil plans make no sense
So our great President Biden has announced his two-part economic plan to fight inflation. It’s simple: Part one, buy American, but not oil. Apparently, oil purchased from terrorist states such as Iran or Venezuela will somehow reduce our now record-breaking U.S. gasoline prices, but U.S. oil won’t. I guess our...
Editorial: Can John Pallone be a good open records officer?
A township manager is the person who is hired to steer the municipality’s work while the people elected to make the decisions are busy during the day. Elected officials, especially at the level of many townships, often have their own full-time jobs. Also, the person elected to make the decisions...
Letter to the editor: Democrats more concerned for middle class
In the 1950s, corporations contributed 32% to the federal revenue, in 2013 it was 10% and currently it is 7%, equal to a more than three-quarters reduction rate. This reduction in taxes paid by corporations is due to the Reagan, Bush and Trump tax cuts for the wealthy few plus...
John Stossel: We’re a refugee country; let them in
Millions flee Ukraine. Where will they go? Some want to come to America. But doing that legally is hard. A complex system is supposed to determine which people deserve to get in line to get in. “The line is broken,” explains Reason Magazine editor at large Matt Welch. For example,...
Jonah Goldberg: Biden’s gaffes should not drive U.S. policies on Russia
An enormous amount of effort and planning went into crafting a single coherent message, and in one instant it was all for naught. I’m not talking about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock during Sunday night’s Oscars, but President Biden’s similarly unscripted call for regime change in Russia. In Warsaw on...
Cal Thomas: JFK, Reagan and Biden
President Biden’s speech from Warsaw Saturday night reminded me of two previous presidents who delivered speeches confronting the autocracy that was then the Soviet Union and is now Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, a man Biden has rightly called a war criminal. On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy...
Joseph Wright: Economic sanctions may make Russians’ lives worse — without stopping Putin’s assault on Ukraine
The economic sanctions levied upon Russia as a consequence of its invasion of Ukraine target the Russian economy and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest personal and business associates. The goal is to alter domestic politics within Russia, ultimately stopping Putin’s aggression. Yet our research into how economic sanctions affect the...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s ‘America last’ initiative
I saw three minutes of world news coverage on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” of the devastating tornado in New Orleans … only three minutes! Where is the minute-by-minute media coverage of Americans facing total destruction and personal devastation like in Ukraine? Where is President Biden? Has he requested...
Letter to the editor: Republicans’ questioning of Jackson embarrassing
The article “Legal experts weigh in on final day of Jackson’s hearings” mentions “questioning” by Republican senators. What I saw did include questioning, but some GOP senators apparently were more interested in demonstrating their incredible lack of maturity in comparison to the poised demeanor of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sens....
