Opinion category, Page 465
Letter to the editor: Coming together is only way to end pandemic
By now, most of us know someone who has died from covid-19, among them beloved family and respected community members. So why are so many people so angry about being asked to wear a mask, or to get vaccinated? I believe it’s because so many of our political leaders and...
Letter to the editor: Finishing the job of nation building
I am not a fan of nation building. But after we spent 20 years in Afghanistan doing just that, I wonder what kind of moral obligation, if any, we and NATO had to finish the job. It’s a hard question, but here are some facts to consider. Some reports have...
Editorial: Senate committee’s intrusive subpoenas betray bedrock values
The push in some corners to review the outcome of the 2020 general election in Pennsylvania took a strange turn in Harrisburg last week. There was a request for an avalanche of information on state voters. First, the state Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee voted 7 to 4 to request emails,...
Letter to the editor: Medical issues solved by medical experts, not posturing
Medical problems are best solved by medical guidance and practices; they are seldom solved by political posturing. Political posturing does not heal; it creates deeper hurts and social damages. Watching and reading news stories and letters to the editors, or driving by local schools, allows us to witness the growing...
Counterpoint: Scrap gerrymandering, adopt ranked choice
Partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts has been a uniquely American problem since our founding: As long as we’ve had politicians, they’ve exploited the power to pick their own voters before the voters get to pick them. It’s wrong, and it’s getting worse. Politicians have fancier tools and greater incentives to...
Point: Gerrymandering is inevitable in a democracy
With the Census Bureau finally releasing its population data to the states, they will now begin the process of redrawing political boundaries for local, state and congressional seats. Anyone who believes that there is some magic way of keeping politics out of the redistricting process must still believe in the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: History, including Jan. 6, cannot be erased
In the old Soviet Union, the guys in charge often wanted their citizens to forget something that did not fit into their plans or desired image. When Josef Stalin wanted to erase history, his opponents would be erased from photographs, primitively with a sharp blade, and sometimes would disappear from...
Trudy Rubin: After Afghanistan failure, what is America prepared to fight for now?
As the news shifts, many Americans may think the war in Afghanistan is over. Not so. The searing scenes of Kabul’s fall are having a powerful impact on America’s global image, including the abandonment of Afghan allies. Chinese and Russian propaganda outlets are gleefully trumpeting scenes of America’s “defeat.” NATO...
Sounding off: There’s no ‘choice’ when others are threatened
“Covid is not fatal to children.” Let the shamefulness of that statement, which appeared in the letter “Penn Hills mask ruling decried” sink in for a moment. To back this claim up, the writer noted that deaths among children aged 0-18 were 423 as of late August (it’s now 470,...
Colin McNickle: Pay your own way, USGA
Neither a financial nor moral (and certainly not a “good-government”) case can be made for using taxpayer dollars to subsidize the uber-rich sport of professional golf at the Oakmont Country Club, says a senior scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “In sum … there is no reasonable case...
Letter to the editor: Aid to Taliban?
The Biden administration is considering sending foreign aid to the Taliban! I believe this is nothing but a ransom payment disguised as “aid” so the average American won’t realize. This will be the administration’s politically palatable way to extricate any people left in Afghanistan by the botched withdrawal who they...
Letter to the editor: Calling out sign-destroyers
On Sept. 11, Irwin had a nice celebration on Main Street with bands and many food trucks. My wife and I attended and had a very good time. The next morning, we woke to a real shock. There’s a “We Support Our Local Police” sign on our yard, which we...
Letter to the editor: Effectiveness of cloth masks questioned
Earlier this year, a medical sales representative called into a local radio program regarding surgical masks. It was her specialty. She talked about particulates, screening properties and interceptor efficiencies. A clear example of poor filtering was that you shouldn’t be able to smell aromas through it. Such particulates are much...
Editorial: Mistakes were made in Wolf’s early pandemic business waivers
Sometimes a state audit unpacks surprises. Other times it just tells you exactly what you expected to hear. This week, Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy DeFoor released a look into Gov. Tom Wolf’s waiver program that let some businesses reopen amid covid-19 shutdowns in 2020. It is completely unsurprising that DeFoor...
Letter to the editor: Republicans not ‘protecting integrity’
Republican legislators, who’ve dominated our state Legislature for decades, intend to overturn the mail-in voting law they all voted to pass in 2019. They now plan to cast doubt on the outcome of Pennsylvania’s 2020 election results by holding an Arizona-style audit of those votes, claiming irregularities and improprieties allowed...
John Stossel: Corporate welfare
Today’s politicians want to spend more on everything: Amtrak subsidies, sports stadium subsidies, green energy subsidies, even fossil fuel subsidies … President Biden says the handouts will “put more money in your pocket.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims they will “protect the planet for the children.” They might. But a...
S.E. Cupp: AOC’s dress and America’s priorities
The tickets go for $35,000 a head. A table can cost more than $200,000. The room is crammed with some of the world’s wealthiest celebrities, donning thousand-dollar gowns and suits, at an event meant to celebrate, in many ways, excess itself. Here, at the infamous annual Met Gala, is where...
Mark Compton: Turnpike users must pay fair share
Our goal at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is to collect all revenue that we generate. While leakage is an established part of the tolling business, as it is in any retail business model, it is something we take seriously. It has always been a part of tolling, even in a...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Activism is not a popularity contest
“He wears the clothes of a dissenter, but there’s a logo on his back.” — from “Damn It, Rose,” by Don Henley. When he died, Martin Luther King was likely the most hated man in America. This is a fact obscured by decades of veneration so intense that even conservatives...
Letter to the editor: We have responsibilities to each other
When I listen to the minority of Americans who are defiant and enraged anti-vacciners and anti-indoor-mask- wearers, I can’t help but think back to when I was a teenage boy, and I was listening to presidential candidate Robert Kennedy over my transistor radio saying that we need to talk about what...
Letter to the editor: If masks offer even slim protection, why not wear them?
As I read the articles on the efforts of parents and school districts to deal with the mask/no mask issue, I also read this information: More than a quarter-million children had new cases of covid in just the last week of August, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)....
Lori Falce: Do you have a right to privacy?
If you want to have an impassioned discussion about the right to privacy, you don’t want to engage with a constitutional law scholar or a talk radio host. Find a teenager and suggest that you have casually scrolled through text messages. You will be treated to breathless defense of our...
Letter to the editor: Thanks for support of district judge
To the residents of the Derry area: I want to thank all of you for the faith you showed in me over the last 30 years. Back in 1991 when I decided to run for the seat held by retiring Magisterial District Judge Michael Giannini, I could never have imagined...
Paul Kengor: Us vs. them — why we remember 9/11 differently
On Sept. 8, 2021, Grove City College President Paul McNulty spoke in downtown Pittsburgh regarding his uniquely fascinating yet somber 9/11 experiences. He played an intimate role in the prosecution of the hijackers and their associates as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and deputy attorney general in...
Laurels & lances: Winning, losing and playing by the rules
Laurel: To a spectacular run. Victory Brinker’s parents knew what they were doing when they named her. The pint-sized opera singer with a voice as big as all outdoors showed “America’s Got Talent” exactly what kind of talent resides in Unity with her months of appearances culminating in Wednesday night’s...
