Opinion category, Page 324
Nathan Benefield: On voter ID, trust the voters
Last session, Pennsylvania lawmakers advanced a proposed constitutional amendment to require voter identification in elections. The state House and Senate must pass this measure again to put it on the ballot as a referendum, giving voters the final say. Regardless of which political party ends up controlling the state House...
Letter to the editor: How about a new bridge in New Kensington?
I have a random thought about the work to be done for nearly two years on the C.L. Schmidt Bridge in New Kensington: Rather than rehabilitate a bridge as old and in the same condition as the former Hulton Bridge was in Oakmont, why not keep that bridge open and...
Letter to the editor: Judging Robert E. Lee by 1862 standards
The letter “Don’t judge Robert E. Lee by 2022 standards” (Dec. 31, TribLIVE) urges us recognize that Robert E. Lee was a patriotic Virginian who only objected to the use of federal forces to solve the question of slavery. He came to that opinion fashionably late. The 1850 Fugitive Slave...
Editorial: The too-long list of 2022 homicides
There was no waiting for Allegheny County’s first homicide of 2022. It came promptly Jan. 1 when Amariey Lei was found shot to death in the 1300 block of Wood Street in Wilkinsburg. She was just 19 and coached hip-hop and baton for the Lady Diamonds dance team, of which...
Letter to the editor: Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
Courage, bravery, hero, public servant. These are all words that come to mind when you think of an individual in law enforcement. When someone answers the call to serve and protect, they are doing more than that. They are often sacrificing sleep, holidays with loved ones and potentially their life...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 9
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 9....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 9
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 9....
Nicole Kraft: Sports broadcasters have a duty to report injuries responsibly — for Damar Hamlin, they passed the test
Injuries are an unfortunate part of any sport — none more so than in the NFL, where players can be felled in front of a TV audience in the tens of millions. Typically, when a player suffers an injury, the media cuts to commercial and returns with replays of the...
Letter to the editor: Lee chose not to be a great American
Regarding Dan Manka’s letter ”Don’t judge Robert E. Lee by 2022 standards” (Dec. 31, TribLIVE), on the matter of West Point removing the artwork of Robert E Lee: I am not convinced that this was a judicious move. In point of fact, would the portrayal of Lee surrendering his army...
Editorial: Can Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau audit results be shrugged off?
Between 2017 and 2020, unbalanced books led to more than $650,000 in state reimbursements not being made to the Westmoreland County Children’s Bureau. It is a testament to reviews of those books by state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor that the unpaid funds were identified in December 2022. The audits turned...
Letter to the editor: Caring for our mental health
Thank you for the article “As Westmoreland’s suicide numbers rise, ‘we have to talk about it’ ” (Dec. 30, TribLIVE) and the editorial “Address suicide by respecting mental health” (Jan. 2, TribLIVE). Society has long ignored the diseases of mental illness and cast them into the shadows of blame and shame....
Letter to the editor: Praying for our health care system
I pray for our current health care system. I pray for a health care system that is more “system” than health care. I pray for administrators and insurance companies behind desks and spreadsheets creating criteria to meet their bottom line. I pray for the exhausted health care providers on the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Honoring Chief Justin McIntire, a hometown hero
Police officers have the toughest job in America, and Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire gave it his all while pursuing an armed and dangerous fugitive last week. McIntire was shot and killed doing what we ask our police to be ready to do — protect the public from the terror...
Letter to the editor: Insanity virus hits Republican reps
A classic definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results each time.” Clearly, Donald Trump over the past seven years has successfully infected the Republican members of the House of Representatives with the insanity virus. Kenneth Powell New Kensington...
Joe Guzzardi: Midterm voters prefer status quo, which is bad news
Voters are, to understate their mood, disenchanted with Congress. Yet paradoxically, voters reelect, over and over, the same representatives they hold in dismally low esteem, consider ineffectual and out-of-touch. On average for 2022, about 80% of polling respondents disapproved of how congressional representatives handled their jobs. Many critics had previously...
Dominik Stecuła and Matthew Levendusky: Talking across the political aisle isn’t a cure-all — but it does help reduce hostility
Simmering tension in American politics came to a head two years ago, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. The failed insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, resulted in several deaths and injuries to almost 150 police...
Rob Perkins: Fair defense funding is a must for criminal justice reform
Our local system for providing counsel to poor people facing criminal charges violates people’s constitutional rights. The most pressing problem is chronic underfunding. Attorney compensation in particular hasn’t increased in 17 years. Predictably, unfair pay leads to underperformance. This should matter to all of us. When defense attorneys fail to...
Letter to the editor: Admission of immigrants criminal?
If I had the ability (money and staff) to allow illegals into this sovereign nation on a scale similar to that of Joe Biden, how many would it take to get the attention of Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Democrats and the media before it would be...
Sounding off: People’s goodness, late police officer, lack of workers, politics
The whole of our society is less than the sum of its parts Whenever I interact with individuals, I find that they are for the most part decent, caring, kind and generous. And yet, I find that our culture as a whole has become more and more mean-spirited, violent and...
Letter to the editor: Republicans’ criticism ironic
I find it difficult to believe that the GOP has criticized nearly everything the Biden administration and the sitting Congress have accomplished. On the contrary, the Republicans have no platform moving forward, and they can’t coalesce into a governing body. Go figure! Leonard Mucci Derry Township...
Letter to the editor: We need fair taxation to end wealth inequality
The top 1% of Americans own around 32.1% of the country’s total wealth, the 90% to 99% own around 37.7%, the 50% to 90% own around 28%, and the bottom 50% own around 2.6% of the country’s total wealth. We have not seen this level of inequality since the early...
Editorial: Annual Pennsylvania toll increases are lawmakers’ fault
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission takes a lot of flak, especially at this time of year. It happens like clockwork. While other people are struggling to maintain their New Year’s resolutions and break bad habits, the commission falls back into its annual January rut and raises the toll rates. No one...
Letter to the editor: Religion is about being a good person
I’m sitting north of Pittsburgh this evening near where one of our local police chiefs was shot dead. As if that’s not bad enough, I turn on the football game, and I see that one of the Buffalo Bills players nearly died on the field . I am praying for...
Gary Franks: Pope Benedict — sex abuse scandals and collateral damage
In Pope Benedict’s final letter, he asked for forgiveness. In the past, Benedict acknowledged “his failure to act decisively at times in confronting sexual abusers.” The priest sex abuse scandals over the decades have been shocking and horrific. The issue has been debilitating to those directly and indirectly affected. More...
S.E. Cupp: Kevin McCarthy got the GOP conference he deserves
Poor Kevin. The Bakersfield, Calif., native who, by all accounts, came to Washington 16 years ago with the sole intent of becoming speaker of the House one day faced an embarrassing defeat this week when he failed — three times — to win the nomination by his own party. There’s...
