Opinion category, Page 508
Letter to the editor: Teacher Appreciation Week May 3-7
Great teachers make great public schools. When we struggled in class, our teachers were there to lend a helping hand. When our kids are having a terrible day, their teachers are ready with welcoming smiles and encouraging words. National Teacher Appreciation Week is May 3-7. What better time could there...
Letter to the editor: Listen to experts, get vaccinated
Taking covid vaccines, with their rare risks, is much safer than the frequent risks of actually getting covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control, this nation’s best source of information about contagious diseases. Yet we often hear people say, “My fear of the vaccines is much greater than my...
Editorial: For state universities, consolidation is tough but necessary medicine
For many families, it’s college time. High school seniors are getting acceptance letters. Juniors are making applications. Parents are filling out financial aid paperwork and taking the family on campus visits. But this year, students are being accepted to schools that might not be the name on their degree in...
Letter to the editor: Why minimum wage must be increased
George Will’s March 4 column “The mildly encouraging minimum-wage debate” deals with the danger of raising the wage of workers. Will argues that raising wages kills jobs and slows economic growth. I believe there is ample evidence to suggest the exact opposite. A 1994 Princeton study compared the results of...
Letter to the editor: Are we better than this?
How often have you heard the lines “We are better than this” and “This is not who we are”? To those who say this, I submit for your approval the following: • The Capitol riots in Washington, D.C. • George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. • Andrew Brown Jr. in Elizabeth...
Jonah Goldberg: Biden’s overreach doesn’t match campaign rhetoric
Joe Biden didn’t just campaign as a moderate. He signaled again and again that he would be an affable placeholder president who’d clean up the messes created by his opponent, mend some fences with allies and get the pandemic under control. “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Good Republican ideas
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit,” Democratic President Harry S. Truman said. As the nation wrestles with what it means to “reach across the aisle,” Democrats can start by conceding that they have not cornered the market on good ideas....
Sounding off: Raising minimum wage would be economic stimulus
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ net worth is $177 billion. The three heirs to Walmart saw their fortunes grow last year by $40.7 billion. Thousands of Amazon and Walmart employees’ incomes are so low that they qualify for food stamps, meaning that taxpayers subsidize these booming businesses. Think of that —...
Letter to the editor: Neonics kill bees, birds and should be banned
I am extremely concerned about the prevalence of neonics (neurotoxic insecticides), which kill bees and birds. They are even impregnated in corn seeds that farmers plant. Almost all pesticides contain neonics. Companies such as Lowe’s should refrain from selling them and Bayer should cease producing them. Richard P. Davis Saltlick...
Letter to the editor: New Ga. voting rules are good
I hate to use the term liar; however, adhering to the dictionary definition, no other word can be used to describe Joseph Sabino Mistick’s column ”Georgia’s assault on democracy” (April 3, TribLIVE). Although I quit reading his column years ago, the headline caught my eye and demands a response. It...
Editorial: The ever-confusing state covid guidelines for schools
It has to be difficult to be a school in the pandemic. Sure, there are lots of other institutions working hard to figure out what’s happening and what to do about it. Hospitals, nursing homes, churches. Even grocery stores and baseball teams have been in turmoil because of covid-19. But...
Letter to the editor: Background checks keep guns out of the wrong hands
Andrew Ridilla’s letter (“What gun control is really about”) causes me to picture him barricaded in his basement with an arsenal of weapons, ready to defend against an invasion by the U.S. government. In reality, he is, and we are, more in danger going to the supermarket or movie theater,...
Mona Charen: Biden could do more to unify country
Among right-wingers, there has been some delight about polls showing that Joe Biden’s popularity at the 100-day mark is the lowest of any president since World War II. Oh, if you exclude Donald Trump. Undaunted by this detail, they note with satisfaction that Biden’s approval rating, according to multiple polls,...
Rep. Ryan Warner: Answering the call for first responders
A few weeks ago, wildfires took out hundreds of acres of land in two areas of Ohiopyle State Park. For approximately 12 hours and initially facing dry and windy conditions, 74 crews from departments in Westmoreland and Fayette counties fought and ultimately extinguished the fires. No lives were lost, and...
John Sparks: Why the Supreme Court should not be changed
Six months ago, the idea of expanding the size of the U.S. Supreme Court was side-stepped by presidential candidate Joe Biden, and the issue seemed to wane. But now, “court packing” has surfaced once again — and in two forms. The first is an executive order from President Biden creating...
Letter to the editor: Loughner for clerk of courts
Voters have an easy choice this election for clerk of courts with Megan Loughner on the ballot. As the former clerk of courts, I know what it takes to be the administrator of this important office. As an administrator, you must hire the most qualified person for the job, and...
Letter to the editor: Thoughts on Charen, Biden, race relations, military
I think columnist Mona Charen is a poor replacement for Walter Williams. Where are the conservative writers? How long before Pat Buchanan and libertarian John Stossel are history? Fact-checking is great if applied equally without bias, but as we all know, it’s easy to give special treatment to facts with...
John Stossel: Liberty winning?
Do I live in an alternate universe? The media tell me my side is winning . Salon claims, “We all live in Kochland, the Koch brothers’ libertarian utopia.” Tucker Carlson says, “Our leadership class remains resolutely libertarian.” What? Who? Not President Biden. Biden already spent $1.9 trillion on covid-19 “recovery”...
Lori Falce: Pittsburgh is not a political punchline
Political speeches are becoming a lot like a slow night at a comedy club. That’s not just because of the awkward pauses when a joke doesn’t land right or the forced laughs when a canned joke is trotted out for the millionth time. Nope, it’s because of the name dropping....
Letter to the editor: Showing solidarity with Sikhs
I weep and wail over the shootings after shootings happening in the U.S. in the past two months, specifically for the Sikh community. You can learn about the Sikh faith at sikhnet.com (go to “Who Are the Sikhs?” at top of home page). You can read the stories online of...
Laurels & lances: Clean, delay, warn
Laurel: To two birds with one stone. It is great when people are able to lend a hand for a good cause. When you can do two at the same time, it’s even better. Plum Borough observed Earth Day on April 24 with a Cleanup Day event as the culmination...
Paul Kengor: Boycotting baseball
“I couldn’t agree more. At least there’s golf and the NHL has mostly been neutral.” So said Bill, a Trib reader reacting to my previous column on Major League Baseball yanking the All-Star Game out of Atlanta for political reasons — effectively a partisan-ideological decision by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred....
S.E. Cupp: Tucker Carlson’s disgusting new low
I can say this because I know: There’s some seriously dangerous, high-level trolling going on in right-wing media. Having come from this space — I used to be a Fox News regular, a guest on outlets like Newsmax, an employee at The Blaze, and a columnist at The Daily Caller,...
Colin McNickle: Pratfalls and pitfalls for Pa. jobs recovery
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to loosen its grip on Pennsylvania, the state’s economy appears to be strengthening. But an analysis by scholars at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy shows the rebound has been lackluster, and prospective government policies could retard it further. “Indeed, the latest statewide employment report...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Leave these children alone
Look, I get it, OK? A lot of this, you plain do not understand. Much of it leaves you confused. Well, me too. I have no idea what it must be like to grow up feeling as if you were assigned the wrong body, a girl with boy genitalia or...
