Opinion category, Page 87
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 10
Editorial cartoons for the week of Feb. 10....
Letter to the editor: Steelers need a new standard
As a young man and a spoiled Steelers fan of the 1970s, the pithy adage of “The standard is the standard” would have had a lot more “chops” then; today, not so much. As a “’Burgher” on the outside looking in, the translation of that adage is more to the...
Letter to the editor: Vilifying DEI will only hurt us
The idea that diversity initiatives compromise the quality of the workforce is a dangerous fiction. Building a diverse workforce isn’t about charity. It’s about bringing talents and perspectives into the workforce that allow us to generate better solutions to real problems. We know, for instance, that being treated by Black...
Editorial: Consumer advocate should be independent
To whom should Pennsylvania’s consumer advocate be answerable? The consumer advocate is a position created in 1976. The goal is to represent the people in state and federal proceedings involving utilities, including in front of the Pennsylvania Utility Commission. The point? The state’s interests and the people’s are often the...
Letter to the editor: Moving away from China
Consider this proposal which would have a massive, salutary impact in the Western Hemisphere, both economically and politically: to begin to move offshore production of imported goods from China to Central/South America. This move would provide the following benefits: 1. Improved economic growth and stability in impoverished central/South American regions....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Strategies for Democrats to stay in the fight
Anyone who follows boxing has seen the guy who charges out of his corner at the sound of the first bell, arms flailing, fists flying wildly, striking his opponent everywhere at once. Think of what Donald Trump has done in the first weeks since his inauguration and you’ll get the...
Trudy Rubin: No matter what Trump says, Gaza won’t become U.S. property and ‘Riviera of the Middle East’
If there was any doubt President Donald Trump believes he is no longer bound by history or laws — either American or international — it was eclipsed by his astounding proposal that the United States “take over the Gaza Strip” and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”...
Rich Harwood: We need to rethink polarization before it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
It’s time to rethink the notion that we Americans are too polarized to work together and get things done. And it’s time to get clear-eyed about what’s really holding us back and what it will take to help us move forward together. A few years ago, I engaged cross-sections of...
Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow: Corporate America isn’t abandoning DEI — it’s just rebranding it
One could easily get the impression that corporate America is in full retreat from promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. Each news cycle seems to carry a headline about a rollback of diversity policies by another company, including Tractor Supply, Boeing, John Deere, Brown-Forman, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s, Molson Coors, Ford, Toyota, Walmart,...
Max Eisendrath: NFL playoffs prime time for digital piracy
The NFL playoffs are an exciting time for football fans to watch the chase for the Super Bowl. It was a uniquely American obsession that has increasingly captured the attention of live sports fans worldwide. It’s also prime time for live sports piracy, and American lawmakers must enact measures to...
Sounding off: Executive orders, pardons, deportation on writers’ minds
Why no conservative outcry over executive orders? When Barack Obama was president he signed a few executive orders. Conservatives went ape, accusing him of being a dictator, carrying protest signs showing a Hitler mustache on Obama’s face, and demanding his removal from office for over-using executive orders. Now look what...
Letter to the editor: Use parachutes to return immigrants to their countries
I have a solution for those countries who do not want to take back their residents who illegally crossed the U.S. border. These C-130 aircraft are typically used as troop transports, especially for our airborne soldiers during field exercises. When any country refuses to repatriate these people, we simply load...
Letter to the editor: Nothing comic about concern over Trump
In answer to the letter “Liberals won’t see the truth” (Jan. 18, TribLive): After the thousands of documented lies told by President Donald Trump, the writer accuses liberals of being “ignorant.” He claims that the “talking points” of “Russia, Russia, Russia, tax breaks for the rich, a convicted felon, the...
Editorial: U.S. Steel could be spared from merger. But now what?
What is the difference between an investment and a purchase? Apparently, it could be enough to move President Donald Trump’s sentiments on the relationship between U.S. Steel and would-be buyer Nippon Steel. The Japanese company in December 2023 offered almost $15 billion to buy U.S. Steel. Most of 2024 was...
Letter to the editor: What will $25 million for Norwin stadium do for the area?
Regarding the massive improvement planned at the Norwin football/sports stadium: $25 million for upgrades at a facility used by 15% of the student population? That number may be higher or lower. But the point is, what is the benefit of this investment? Will it improve our standing locally, statewide or...
Gary Franks: Black history and the Holocaust
Can we learn from the past? We must. Immediately after the Civil War, radical Republicans collaborated with President Abraham Lincoln to assist the newly freed slaves with a program called Reconstruction. This truly brief period ended after the controversial election of President Rutherford Hayes via the Compromise of 1877, when...
S.E. Cupp: Trump’s Insane Clown Posse cabinet
It’s been only two weeks, but with every passing day of President Trump’s second term, Mike Judge’s 2006 masterpiece, “Idiocracy,” becomes a more and more prescient and embarrassingly accurate prediction of what the American government might one day look like. In Judge’s scathing prophecy, the near-collapse of Western civilization and...
Molly Parzen: With Washington stepping back on clean energy, Harrisburg must step up
Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump ran on a platform of massive giveaways to billionaire oil and gas CEOs. Trump has pledged to roll back historic clean energy programs — transformational investments that are creating thousands of union jobs and positioning the United States as an international leader in the 21st-century...
Letter to the editor: Pecarchik should be register of wills
Thank you for the editorial “Register of wills nomination plays politics when it didn’t have to” (Feb. 2, TribLive). It seems partisan politics resulted in the nomination given to someone other than Katie Pecarchik. From all accounts. Pecarchik has been exceptional, taking the leadership role which was so needed. She’s...
Lori Falce: Are you a DEI hire?
I am not a DEI hire. But I could be. I am a woman, which is probably the easiest way into the club. Women, after all, make up 47% of the workforce, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. I am over 50, which means I’m not quite in...
Letter to the editor: Get off the phone, Veep
It was Jan. 30, and the wake of the worst air disaster in recent memory. As recovery crews were pulling bodies out of the Potomac, the vice president decided that his time would be best spent tweeting. He proceeded to engage in an hours-long argument about theology, culminating in a...
Laurels & lances: Volunteers, flu & eggs
Laurel: To a sign of the times. Pennsylvania fire departments are struggling with declining volunteers. The state mostly depends on volunteer departments across its 67 counties. There were about 60,000 volunteers in 2000. By 2023, that number had fallen to 38,000. Greensburg fire Chief Tom Bell is trying a new...
Letter to the editor: What Jesus preached
The Episcopal bishop’s remarks at the inaugural prayer service reminded me of the sanctimonious letters that have appeared in the Trib from leftists who want to preach to conservatives about how Trump voters are in contravention to Christ’s teachings concerning compassion toward others. Let’s do a little Bible research. Jesus...
Bruce Yandle: DeepSeek, bottled AI and mankind’s free spirit
The startling news that DeepSeek, an unexpected Chinese AI powerhouse led by 39-year-old founder Liang Wenfeng, has unveiled a chip and software package that could be superior to America’s revolutionary ChatGPT shocked world financial markets and forced political and industrial leaders to rethink their efforts to control the distribution of...
Yael Silk: Pittsburgh government must focus on issues, not battling ideologies
Pittsburgh has real problems — an affordable housing shortage that keeps getting worse, a city budget stretched so thin you can see through it and a school district fighting to recover after years of decline, to name just a few. And now, we are facing a tidal wave of chaos...
