Opinion category, Page 596
Making clean air a priority in Pittsburgh
Each Pennsylvanian has a constitutional right to breathe clean air, even if that right isn’t always protected by our local and state leaders. Locally, communities in the Mon Valley and across Allegheny County have suffered far too much, for far too long, from air pollution with little and inadequate response...
Norman Reimer: AG candidates must discuss fixing ‘trial penalty’
As Pennsylvanians contend with ongoing devastation wrought by coronavirus, and simultaneously reckon with systemic inequality as police violence toward Black people continues across the country, the failures of our criminal justice system have been laid bare. We imprison too many people for too long — a disproportionate number of whom...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Seeking serenity in hard times
You might think that Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” has no place in the crude arena that national politics has become, but Niebuhr would not have hesitated to invoke his prayer now. The public theologian believed that there is a core relationship between religion and politics. He immersed himself in all...
Sounding off: Steelers management should not allow political statements
The vast majority believe all lives matter. The vast majority believe in peaceful protests. The vast majority view a football game as a three- to four-hour escape from the harsh reality of dealing with life in these difficult time. By and large, they don’t see the game as a place...
Letter to the editor: Steelers management should not allow political statements
The vast majority believe all lives matter. The vast majority believe in peaceful protests. The vast majority view a football game as a three- to four-hour escape from the harsh reality of dealing with life in these difficult time. By and large, they don’t see the game as a place...
Letter to the editor: Gov. Wolf should let districts decide on fans at games
Gov. Tom Wolf’s comments about the state legislators Sept. 21 when he vetoed House Bill 2787 were some of the most pompous, arrogant and condescending I have heard in a long time (“Gov. Wolf vetoes House Bill 2787, leaving high school sports spectators in limbo,” Sept. 21, TribLIVE). His utter...
Letter to the editor: Republicans’ supreme hypocrisy
The editorial “Ruth Bader Ginsburg and necessary dissent” (Sept. 19, TribLIVE) was an appropriate response to the loss of one of the most revered Supreme Court justices in history. The nearly immediate statement by Sen. Mitch McConnell that her position should be filled quickly was not. It was highly disrespectful...
Letter to the editor: Why veterans support Trump
The question of why veterans would vote for President Trump is a no-brainer (“How can veterans support Trump?” Aug. 26, TribLIVE). I spent my service years to support things I learned in my adolescent years. 1. We must protect our Constitution written by our great founders. 2. We must protect...
Editorial: Stopping animal abuse could head off domestic violence
Abuse is abuse. Violence is violence. And it should be treated that way. It needs to be taken seriously when it is noticed in small ways because abuse escalates, and it often starts with the victims that can’t report it. Animal abuse is frequently seen to be a predictor of...
Walter Williams: Clean up our language, and we’ll challenge the nonsense
Seventeenth-century poet and intellect John Milton predicted, “When language in common use in any country becomes irregular and depraved, it is followed by their ruin and degradation.” Gore Vidal, his 20th-century intellectual successor, elaborated by saying: “As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise,...
John Stossel: Bad policies, not climate change, fuel fires
“Mother Earth is angry!” says Nancy Pelosi. “The debate is over around climate change!” says California Gov. Gavin Newsom, smirking, strangely. They’re eager to blame climate change for the wildfires in their state. I’m surprised they didn’t say it causes covid-19, too. Newsom, ridiculously, says wildfires are a reason to...
Lorence Devon King: We’re fighting for justice in Pa.
No matter what we look like, where we live or how much we make, the public health and economic crisis we’re in reminds us that we’re all just human. For years, people like me — young people, people of color, working-class people of all races — have been left behind...
Letter to the editor: What has Biden done for us?
I have only one question for Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chair Nancy Patton Mills (“We need Joe Biden in the White House,” Sept. 21, TribLIVE): What did Vice President Joe Biden do for Monessen and Greensburg from 2009 to 2017? David Scandrol Lower Burrell...
Letter to the editor: Why don’t Republicans stand up to Trump?
To all the Republicans in Congress, especially Sen. Pat Toomey: Joseph Welch, as chief counsel for the U.S. Army, in 1954 famously stood up to Joe McCarthy during his Senate hearings, saying, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” This was a watershed moment in U.S. history and showed that...
Letter to the editor: Trump has done much good for U.S.
Regarding Timothy L. O’Brien’s screed “Of course Trump couldn’t resist Bob Woodward” (Sept. 10, TribLIVE): I suppose President Trump was “a con man and carny act” when he recognized and honored Americans killed by illegals, spoke to their families and welcomed them to the White House. These were people who...
Letter to the editor: What has Biden accomplished?
Joe Biden has spent 47 years in office and, in my opinion, accomplished nothing except to enrich himself and his family while his masters oversaw the destruction of the American dream for the middle class. Biden watched millions of good U.S. manufacturing jobs moved offshore. The bulk of the jobs...
Letter to the editor: They all knew who Trump was
They all knew who Donald Trump really was. The following is what they said about him before they seem to have buckled under to his bullying and abandoned their last shred of dignity: • Lindsey Graham: “He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. I think he’s a kook. I think he’s...
Lori Falce: The framework of the court
A catafalque is decorated structure designed to hold a casket. It is to a funeral what the head table is to a wedding — the place where all eyes focus in the celebration. But the most famous catafalque in America is not elaborate. Draped and swagged in black fabric that...
Colin McNickle: A good time to scuttle ‘prevailing wages’
Government jurisdictions of all sizes find themselves struggling with how to recoup lost tax receipts because of coronavirus pandemic-related shutdowns and restrictions. But there are sound public policy prescriptions to recover from such shortfalls. And poor ones. A researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy proposes a sound, common-sense...
Laurels & lances: Involved, closed, rejected
Laurel: To youth involvement. Young people are often painted as being unconcerned with what is going on in the world around them beyond their smartphones, Starbucks and avocado toast. That’s why we should encourage and support when our kids are participating in something bigger than themselves. Abby Rickin-Marks, a Fox...
Letter to the editor: Trump shows love for America
Letter-writer William Werts lists his reasoning for voting for Joe Biden, even though he has never voted for a Democratic candidate for president (“Pro-lifer plans to vote for Joe Biden,” Aug. 20, TribLIVE). He implies that President Trump is a racist. Please show me the proof. He mentions putting children...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s damage
Of all the damage that I think President Trump has done, from exacerbating economic inequality to allowing the pollution of our environment, to dismantling worker protection regulations, to being responsible for tens of thousands of American deaths and a worsening economy, the damage that is crushing my heart is his...
Letter to the editor: Seeking proof of Trump’s lie count
I see that some letter-writers have been hoodwinked by the Democratic Party that President Trump has lied 20,000 “verifiable” times, according to The Washington Post. Do they realize how absurd that talking point is? If you total the number of days he has been in office, it is around 1,330....
Letter to the editor: Backing Biden for president
I gave up my position as an Allegheny County judge Sept. 4 because I could not sit by as the worst president in history runs for reelection (“Don Walko to resign from Common Pleas Court to pursue political advocacy,” Aug. 25, TribLIVE). Here are what I see as some of...
Editorial: House blew chance to overturn Wolf veto
This time, no one gets to say Gov. Tom Wolf is a dictator. Pointing to the governor as an iron-fisted authoritarian has been common over the six months since schools shuttered and coronavirus lockdowns were instituted. We have seen the Wolf administration’s response as being more of a pinball game...
