Opinion category, Page 737
Editorial: Gerrymandering doesn’t represent us
Whether you are in a casino or a courtroom or state house, stacking the deck is wrong. You don’t get to load up your hand with aces. You don’t get to put your best friends on your jury. And you aren’t supposed to carefully, surgically carve out a constituency that...
Letter to the editor: Trump is the president we need
Some dislike President Trump’s abrasive style and long for the days of Mitt Romney and the Bushes, when Republican candidates respectfully faced unfair and relentless attacks from Democrats without fighting back. Over the past 60 years, Democrats have befuddled Republicans with aggressive tactics invented by Chicago activist Saul Alinsky in...
Letter to the editor: Knitters support Trump
Did you know that if you are a member of the Ravelry knitting community and support President Trump and his administration, you are a white supremacist, a bigot and a racist? Ravelry is a popular worldwide community; did those in charge not realize that they are calling millions of conservatives...
Letter to the editor: Trump is the disgrace
Donald Trump says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a evil and a disgrace. A true pot calling the kettle black. Trump says he hates the word impeachment and calls it a “dirty, filthy word.” How does he think I, and many Americans, feel? We think Trump is the most evil,...
George Will: Last century’s immigration debate makes today’s seem enlightened
“Wide open and unguarded stand our gates, And through them presses a wild motley throng … O Liberty, white Goddess! is it well To leave the gates unguarded?” — Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1892) WASHINGTON— If you think we have reached peak stupidity — that America’s per-capita quantity has never been...
Donna Pierantoni: Home care crisis’ impact on disabled adults, seniors
Home health aides provide valuable and compassionate home care services to seniors and adults with disabilities that enable them to remain safe at home and out of nursing homes. As a clinical manager who oversees a team of home health aides, I know our state is in a home care...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The optics of presidential golf
Golf is “a good walk spoiled,” according to some non-golfers. But it still has a tremendous following. And, since it started as a game for those fortunate enough to afford the gear and take a whole day off, it has presented image problems for politicians. “Presidential golf” has been a...
Javier Palomarez: Taking on America’s waste crisis
America has a big waste problem. In fact, the problem weighs approximately 280 million tons. That is the quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW) Americans create every year. As waste creation skyrockets, landfills across the country are nearing capacity, generating a waste crisis that crosses state lines. The U.S. produces...
Editorial: Budget behavior, childish tantrums
We don’t have time for leaders to act like children. The people we have elected are there to do a job. We might not like the job they do, but that’s why we get to shuffle the deck periodically. What we didn’t do was send grown men and women to...
Sounding off: Wealth tax could decrease poverty
I would like to see Congress pass a new program into law to replace the former Aid To Families With Dependent Children program, which was passed under FDR in 1935 and abolished in 1996. Since its abolition, there has been a large increase in the number of people (especially children)...
Letter to the editor: Spending in Norwin
So now we have the Norwin School District raising taxes again due to a budget shortfall (“Norwin OKs tax hike; maintains staff, programs,” June 21, TribLIVE). It’s interesting how they have money to pay for soccer field and other sporting venue “upgrades” but find it necessary to jam it to...
Letter to the editor: Grieving for our democracy
As we prepare to celebrate the founding of our nation, we are in the grip of a narcissistic president who has spent two years successfully violating Amendment 1 and the Emolument Clause of our Constitution. He has joined other populist leaders in the Philippines, Turkey, Egypt, Poland, Hungary and others...
Letter to the editor: Celebrating UPMC-Highmark deal
The news about UPMC and Highmark reaching a 10-year agreement is historic (“UPMC, Highmark reach 10-year deal for patient coverage,”). The hundreds of people on Highmark have cause to celebrate. It was the grassroots people of Pennsylvania who banded together and wouldn’t give up as they fought and beat the...
Walter Williams: Reparations & responsibility for slavery
Several Democratic presidential hopefuls are calling for Americans to make reparations for slavery. On June 19, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties held a hearing. Its stated purpose was “to examine, through open and constructive discourse, the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, its...
John Stossel: Candidates have lots of bad ideas
So many people want to be president. Unfortunately, many have terrible ideas. Sen. Kamala Harris wants companies to prove they pay men and women equally. “Penalties if they don’t!” she shouts. But there are lots of reasons, other than sexism, why companies pay some men more than women. Harris also...
Editorial: Buttigieg’s Pittsburgh summit is a good idea
Let’s get on this Pittsburgh summit. Not the top of Mt. Washington. The one tossed out by Pete Buttigieg at Thursday’s debate for Democratic presidential candidates. In a question about climate change, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., spoke as a leader of a not-coastal city that is still dealing...
Letter to the editor: Fawn’s finest shine during flooding
This is a word of thanks from the Fawn Township Board of Supervisors to Chief Dan Selfridge and Chief Chase Slepak of Fawn Township Volunteer Fire Departments 1 and 2 for their departments’ efforts during Fawn’s recent flooding. A special thank-you to D&D Auto Salvage and the Norris family for...
Letter to the editor: Kim Ward fights for community
The Tribune-Review wrote two articles on Tay Waltenbaugh announcing his candidace for state Senate (“Retired human services executive Tay Waltenbaugh to challenge Kim Ward for state Senate,” June 12, TribLIVE; “Democrat Tay Waltenbaugh announces state Senate run in Jeannette,” June 12, TribLIVE). I felt a need to tell the other...
Letter to the editor: Pa. Supreme Court fails us on fracking
The article “Experts: Allegheny Township fracking case highlights importance of local elections” disturbingly shows how unconventional gas drilling could soon take place even in residential areas. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s cowardly decision to refuse to hear the case will profoundly and negatively disrupt forever the quality of people’s lives. The...
Lori Falce: Newspapers are daily memorial to fallen journalists
At 2:34 p.m., I am usually sitting in a planning meeting with an assortment of editors talking about what is going where in the next day’s edition. I am not under my desk deciding whether I should call 911 or worrying if that would be loud enough to draw a...
Laurels & lances: Movies, memes, stealing and stress
Laurel: To summer fun with serious bite. As part of its new summer programming, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art hosted its first Summer Saturday on June 22. The Greensburg museum’s parking lot turned into a drive-in — or sit-in — of sorts, for an outdoor viewing of “Jaws,” marking...
Letter to the editor: Pa. needs to learn to balance budget without more taxes
Regarding the article “Wolf tours Greensburg blight, touts proposed gas severance tax” (June 7, TribLIVE): I am so tired of our governor only having one plan: raise taxes on us so he can spend more. He can tell me all day long how he is going to tax the gas...
Letter to the editor: Be a leader, not a sheep
As long as we have people behaving like sheep in a group, with no minds of their own, following the leader and not questioning anything, we will always be divided. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are always right. We were born with brains — we need to use them. How can...
Letter to the editor: Pittsburgh needs clean-air champion
Being an avid runner, it has always been my priority to make sure I am surrounding myself with safe, clean air while running to ensure that my health is not at risk. I recently moved to Pittsburgh, excited to run on the beautiful trails and through the city, only to...
Cal Thomas: New York Times’ Sulzberger is right (and wrong)
I never thought I would write this, but the publisher of The New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, is right. Sulzberger wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in response to President Trump’s claim that his newspaper committed “treason” by publishing a story about U.S. efforts to compromise Russia’s power...
