Opinion category, Page 404
Editorial: Is inflation as bad as it seems?
Inflation is on the rise. That’s not news to anyone who has been to the grocery store lately. Or bought a house or car. Or signed a lease. If you’ve spent money on literally anything in the past two years, you have seen the cost steadily rise. A U.S. Commerce...
Letter to the editor: Teaching history will not divide us
Once again, one must point out that critical race theory is not being taught in any public school in the United States. Nor was it ever intended to be. The real attack is on the normal process of updating American history, something which every country engages in. Beginning in the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Could we get back to friendship in politics?
When 19th-century journalist Charles Dudley Warner wrote, “True it is that politics makes strange bedfellows,” he was talking about political opponents who were forced by circumstances to work together. Either for common interest or for the common good, they got past their differences. It’s not like that anymore. Cultural warriors...
Sounding off: Leaders must address border crisis
The Trib recently reported 168 drug overdose deaths in Westmoreland County in 2021, up 37% from the prior year (“Coroner’s report shows 168 accidental overdose deaths in 2021 in Westmoreland County”). What a senseless tragedy this is for families that have needlessly lost loved ones. Sadly, addiction is an illness,...
Mathias Bernard: Macron’s victory has deep challenges
Emmanuel Macron’s decisive victory over Marine Le Pen in the second round of France’s presidential election April 24 is no surprise. For more than a year, opinion polls had been predicting it. As early as April 2021, the leading polling institutes estimated the final score of the outgoing president in...
Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan: Pa. just took major step to address maternal mortality crisis
Uncertainty. Anticipation. Fear. These are just a few of the emotions that run through the minds of almost every expecting parent. And for many expecting Black parents, those feelings can be more acute. That’s because for far too many, having a child can be a life-threatening event. Across our country,...
Letter to the editor: Small businesses, not airport, should get free money
Regarding the article “Arnold Palmer airport, Adelphoi among Westmoreland recipients of $14M in state funds” (April 22, TribLIVE): Not long ago, the airport received $2.3 million in federal pandemic grant money, and it is asking the county for more. I don’t think it’s fair to small family businesses that a...
Letter to the editor: Republican Party taken to lowest point
Letter-writer Ralph Dunsworth seems to think Sen. Ted Cruz’s treatment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was appropriate, asking, “What about treatment of Brett Kavanaugh?” (April 6, TribLIVE). Unlike Jackson, Kavanaugh was accused of sexual misconduct. Wouldn’t you want to really look into accusations like that? I wonder if Dunsworth thought...
Editorial: Domestic violence and public office
A Wayne County judge has responded to a three-page, handwritten petition from a Poconos woman by granting a temporary protection-from-abuse order against her husband. This isn’t unusual. The petition complains of verbal, physical and mental abuse, including stalking the wife at work, preventing her from seeing her family — even...
Letter to the editor: We don’t need stronger gun laws
Regarding Alicia Chatkin’s letter “Fox’s Pizza shooting shows need for stronger gun laws” (April 10, TribLIVE): We do not need stronger gun laws in Pennsylvania. What we need to do is get rid of these lily-livered, soft-hearted judges and prosecutors in our courts. We need the death penalty — I favor...
Gary Franks: A distasteful solution that would save lives — fight another day and in another way!
Forever talking about events related to the Jan. 6 attack of the Capitol or former President Trump makes Democrats and the liberal media giddy, but we have very serious matters before us. The nation with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons is threatening to use them. Please, Democrats and liberal...
S.E. Cupp: Who does Twitter owner Elon Musk think he is?
Like everything else in today’s era of total partisan absolutism, the news that billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk is buying Twitter landed like a giant sledgehammer, cleaving the country in two. Depending on one’s politics, the sound made by the hostile takeover was either the death knell of truth and...
Anjana Susarla: Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter could make its misinformation problems worse
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal April 25, 11 days after announcing his bid for the company. Twitter announced that the public company will become privately held after the acquisition is complete. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for his...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: A bad Monday for freedom
I’m probably out of step with many of you. Everywhere I turn, folks are discussing Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. I certainly get it. After all, it was Monday’s biggest domestic story. The sale sparked fears that the petulant billionaire will turn one of the world’s leading social-media platforms into...
Letter to the editor: Immigrants and housing problems
In 2021, more than 1.5 million illegal immigrants were apprehended trying to enter the United States. In 2021, 326,000 Americans, including nearly 20,000 veterans, were homeless. A lot has been reported about the U.S. housing shortage, with rising home prices and rents. My question is, how did President Biden find...
Letter to the editor: Questions for Pa. Republican candidates
No matter what side of the coin you’re on, I think every Pennsylvania citizen wants to know the following from all our governor and Senate candidates: Do you support Donald Trump as the leader of the Republican Party? Do you believe that he is still the legally elected president and...
Lori Falce: Why don’t we call Americans oligarchs?
When talking about Russia’s politics, espionage, criminal activities and, of course, the war in Ukraine, one word pops up with regularity. Oligarchs. The way in which it is used, and the authority that it conveys, makes it sound like oligarchs are an official position within the country. They might well...
Letter to the editor: Comparing Biden and Reagan
We have: High inflation. Russia is the evil empire. A president that wants to increase government spending. Efforts to raise taxes. Republicans rejoice! The 1980s have returned, and Ronald Reagan is president! Inflation is the highest since the ’80s. After one tax cut, Reagan raised taxes at least eight times....
Letter to the editor: Student loan forgiveness is a destructive policy
I went to college so I could get a job that would provide an adequate standard of living and enable me to pay my bills. Today’s culture has apparently hoodwinked a huge number of people into attending college to pursue unmarketable majors, and worse, amass outlandish student debt they can’t...
Paul Kengor: Remembering Orrin Hatch, a Pittsburgh native son
Orrin Hatch died last week at age 88. In the political world, Hatch was a big deal. He became the longest-serving Republican senator ever, representing Utah from 1977 until 2019. Hatch was a prominent longtime member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In sensational hearings for Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork,...
Laurels and lances: Puppies, birds, Chance
Laurel: To a natural treatment. College is stressful all the time, but heading into finals? That’s when things get really tense. Mental health on university campuses has been a growing problem for years. The University of Pittsburgh and Penn State have worked to increase access to support for students at...
Cal Thomas: Ignorance and apathy
There’s an old joke about a fictitious poll taker who asked people what they thought about ignorance and apathy when it comes to politics and elections. One respondent said, “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” I thought of that joke after seeing a recent YouGov poll. It shows a...
Stephen Mills: Don’t tell us it’s too late to get justice
Take it from me, the aftershocks of child sexual abuse last a lifetime. I’m 66, and the sexual violence I experienced at age 13 — a near-death experience, really — can still grip my body and mind when I least expect it. I thought I’d be released when my abuser...
Letter to the editor: Dangerous road situation in Allegheny Township
A suggestion to whomever is in charge of the Route 356 upgrade in Allegheny Township: Please consider installing a temporary portable traffic light and overhead lighting system so drivers can see more clearly at the intersection of White Cloud Road and Route 356 near Brown Road, before someone is seriously...
Editorial: Property tax reform is long overdue
Pennsylvania property owners need better friends in Harrisburg. On Tuesday, the state House of Representatives passed a bill with the kind of overwhelming majority that is usually only seen for naming bridges after fallen soldiers. A legislative body that tends to vote along party lines on almost everything threw those...
