Opinion category, Page 534
Lori Falce: Oops, cancel culture did it again
Spend some time on social media and you might think a brand new starlet had taken over the musical world. Her name is on a million hashtags. It’s like everyone under 30 just discovered Britney Spears. Yes, Britney of the red patent leather catsuit or the Lolita plaid skirt and...
Letter to the editor: Candidates should pledge to work for all constituents
Regarding the article “ ‘Trump House’ creator Leslie Baum Rossi seeks nod to run for open Pa. House seat”: This is an example of the partisan ways that must be eliminated from our democracy. Rossi’s comments such as “Trump is the best president we’ve ever had in my lifetime” and...
Letter to the editor: Democracy dwindling as GOP rewards Trump
When communism collapsed in the country where I was born, food disappeared from store shelves. We waited in line for rations of bread and sugar. Many evenings we had mandatory power outages. I know communism and its consequences. When I hear talk of communism from the radical right, it mostly...
Paul Kengor: Moving the movement beyond Trump
A Never Trump colleague asks why I didn’t support a second impeachment of Donald Trump, given that I say that I want the conservative movement to move beyond Trump. The answer isn’t difficult. For starters, the impeachment trial from the outset was a political spectacle, a rash judgment by Democrats....
Laurels & lances: Pilsners, planes and partners
Laurel: To a round for the house. Or the neighborhood. Or the whole darn town. While many festivals have been canceled for months or are still being put off because of the coronavirus pandemic, other communities are trying to look forward. Tarentum is one of those. A craft beer festival,...
Dr. Reed Tuckson and Jim Weiss: Convincing people to take covid-19 vaccine
The determination on the face of intensive care unit nurse Sandra Lindsay as she got one of the first covid-19 vaccine shots was unforgettable. And what she said about it summed up the task for all of us: “We’re in a pandemic, so we all need to do our part.”...
Ronald Fraser: How crime victims keep offenders behind bars
Victim’s testimony, a time-honored part of the American criminal prosecution process, has sent thousands of Pennsylvania offenders to prison. But justice is not advanced when, years later, crime victims are called again to give emotionally charged encores, moments before parole panel members decide whether or not to release their offenders...
Letter to the editor: More election investigations won’t change minds
Concerning the letter “Election investigation needed” and to others who have expressed similar views, I respond: Why? You would not believe the investigation results anyway, unless they come to the conclusions you want them to. This is why some of you watch only Fox News or similar media that only...
Letter to the editor: Politicians’ abuse of authority
“We the people” elect candidates to represent the best interest of our country. We do not elect them to run the country into the ground with their hate against each other, fighting between parties, misuse of our tax dollars and immoral ideas and actions to silence those of us who...
Letter to the editor: ACHD must do more in Clairton
At the recent Allegheny County Health Department hearing on new regulations for the Clairton Coke Works, I was touched and shocked by the testimony from the people of Clairton and Glassport. What these folks have had to put up with is unbelievable. The Clairton Coke Works produces more air pollution...
Editorial: Census delay means mad scramble for legislative redistricting
When it comes to the Constitution, there is a lot that is spelled out — and a lot that has to be figured out along the way. That’s how judges and constitutional law professors keep their jobs. It’s also why after more than 200 years, there is still such debate...
Letter to the editor: Is Biden up to the task?
The hotly disputed 2020 presidential election, resulting in the ascendancy of Joe Biden into the Oval Office, has proven to be a Rorschach test of various optimisms to many outside observers. At least, that is what seems to be the theme of the many quoted in Deb Erdley’s Page 1...
Letter to the editor: Vaccine registry would help with rollout
As a health care provider and daughter to a Pennsylvania senior, I believe we both have met the criteria for Phase 1A of the covid-19 vaccine rollout in the state. It has been frustrating and time consuming as well as disturbing that the flow of vaccine administration has been less...
Frederick Winter: Forgive student debt? There’s a better way
Study hard in high school. That and $320,000 (not including living expenses), and four years later you can graduate with a major in gender and sexuality studies from prestigious Ivy League Brown University. As a retired business school professor and dean who spent over 40 years in academics, even I...
Jonah Goldberg: McConnell, Graham are emblematic of the GOP’s dysfunction
The Republican Party is broken. If Mitch McConnell were just another Republican senator, I’d say he was the eighth bravest. The seven bravest are the ones who voted to convict Donald Trump. For weeks I’ve been saying that if you honestly believe the Constitution forbids the Senate from convicting a...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland needs better vaccine plan
Saw on TV that Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated by April anyone who wants a vaccine can get one. Obvious concern: If there is not an unlimited supply of vaccine by then, then opening up to everyone would be beyond chaotic for registering using the wild system Westmoreland has now. Example:...
Editorial: Abraham Lincoln, the statue that everyone can rally around
Statues have been a sticking point in the last year or so. It seems as though almost everyone who was hero enough to have a memorial to their contributions erected in a public area was also human enough to have darker aspects that have led people to ask for them...
CompetePA Coalition: Raising taxes will hurt Pennsylvania’s competitive standing
The following was sent to Gov. Tom Wolf on Feb. 15 by The Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, which manages the CompetePA Coalition. CompetePA is a coalition comprised of statewide and regional business groups, small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as Fortune 500 companies. The coalition, which represents more than...
Letter to the editor: Ensuring the right to vote
The Trib reported that the Pennsylvania Legislature is attempting to strip the no-excuse absentee ballot and the permanent early voting lists from the laws (“Race on to alter voting rules,” Jan. 30). We live in the 21st century and have the advantage of modern technology, and should continue to use...
Letter to the editor: Trump must be held accountable
I believe in honesty, the rule of law and our democracy. The Republican senators and representatives who continue to downplay the January riot, in which five people died and 140 were injured, are ignoring the most important principle of our democracy. Fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power are...
Pat Buchanan: Will the radical left reunite the GOP?
“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun.” So said Citizen Trump Saturday on his acquittal by the Senate of the impeachment article of “incitement of insurrection” in the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol. “I look forward to continuing our incredible journey...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: For Black Americans, faith is not confined to the hope of heaven
George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin on a Saturday night in 2013. The next morning, I went to church wearing a hoodie. This was mid-July, hardly hoodie weather. But other brothers showed up similarly attired, including our pastor. This gesture — an expression of solidarity and...
Five Pennsylvania mayors: Our cities need the American Rescue Plan and we cannot wait
This is from the mayors of five Pennsylvania cities: Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter and Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace. As mayors of Pennsylvania cities, we witness the human toll the pandemic takes each day it stretches on. We see...
Colin McNickle: The wrong Rx for Pa.’s post-pandemic recovery
The coronavirus pandemic hammered Pennsylvania’s economy in 2020. But the key to economic recovery — once a more predictable regimen of vaccinations is firmly in place and covid-19 begins to abate — must be a careful study in what government should and should not do, stress researchers at the Allegheny...
Letter to the editor: Seniors can’t find vaccines
I am in the proper age grouping to receive the covid-19 vaccination, but like so many seniors, I am being told there are no shots available, not at my drug store, hospital, doctor’s office or pharmacy. But yet I hear that Heinz Field may be the site of a mass...
