Opinion category, Page 535
Editorial: A plan to fund PennDOT projects that has no sticking power
Chances are that if you go out and look at your license plate right now, there is a little remnant of history hanging onto the corner. For decades, Pennsylvania registered vehicles by issuing a tiny rectangle with the date to affix on the license plate. You would get the stamp-sized...
Letter to the editor: Republican Party unrecognizable
Republicans refused to convict President Trump for inciting an armed insurrection against the U.S. government. They bought it. Now they own it. I have observed politics for over 60 years. I no longer know what the Republican Party stands for. Conservatives used to demand good character in political leaders. Now...
Letter to the editor: Covid-positive immigrants allowed into U.S.
It is disturbing that on Feb. 28, 108 illegal immigrants who tested positive for covid-19 were released into our country by the Biden administration. This irrational action occurred, after we, U.S. citizens, during the last year have been locked down for months at a time. Further, our government has spent...
Jonah Goldberg: Parties have taken wrong lessons from 2020 election
You wouldn’t know it from how Republicans and Democrats are talking, but the 2020 election was actually a success. During a pandemic, we had a national election with record-breaking turnout. The presidential candidate receiving the most votes in both the Electoral College and in the popular vote was rightly declared...
Adam Marles: A year full of lessons on covid’s impact on older Americans
A year ago, the Wolf administration did something both unthinkable and absolutely necessary: It closed nursing homes to all visitors to combat the covid-19 virus. Long-term caregivers understood that isolating residents from their families was vital in protecting them from a deadly illness, but it was an agonizing decision because...
Editorial: A smart, phased-in return to more restaurant and bar service
Cautious optimism. That may be the best path to tread going forward in the coronavirus pandemic. Cautious optimism puts the idea of being careful first, but anchors it to a positive outlook. It focuses on the goal without being reckless. That is what Gov. Tom Wolf promoted Monday when he...
Letter to the editor: Politicians, media teaching how to hate
For years, I have trusted very few politicians or the media. Most of these people really are unqualified for their jobs. But my message is this: I have been told it is a sin to not forgive and hold grudges. I can’t seem to do either. Politicians and the media...
Letter to the editor: Trump is not going away
In response to Molly Miesse Miller’s letter “Senators, representatives must stop supporting Trump”, I would point out Republican politicians merely are following the desires and wishes of their Republican constituents such as myself and millions of others who still wholeheartedly support President Trump and his policies. I’ve got news for...
Letter to the editor: We must rise above original ‘equality’
We are told in the Constitution that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately most people do not realize that to pursue happiness takes faith in the creator, hard work and devotion to reach that goal. Today, people...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: ‘Woke supremacy as bad as white supremacy’?
Dear Sen. Tim Scott: Sadly, it is no longer much of a surprise when an official of your party says some racially offensive thing. From calling Barack Obama “uppity” and “boy,” to decrying an imaginary “war on whites,” to declaring the world’s Black and brown nations “(expletive)hole countries,” racial offense...
Pat Buchanan: Who and what killed George Floyd?
Friday, as the jury was being empaneled for the trial of fired police officer Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis City Council voted 13-0 to approve a record $27 million civil settlement with the family of George Floyd over his death in police custody. Most Americans who saw the nine-minute tape of...
Gina Diorio: Gov. Wolf is hiding covid data again
Do you remember in the early days of the covid pandemic when Gov. Tom Wolf promised his decisions would be “data-driven”? “We have to follow the science,” he reminded us. So convincing was this supposed “data” that Wolf temporarily shut Right-to-Know (RTK) offices so we couldn’t ask for it. Transparency...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland commissioners have no room to complain
So after a year of denying covid is a problem, complaining about mask mandates and ignoring hundreds of grieving Westmoreland County families, commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew and their enablers in the state Legislature now complain that vaccines aren’t happening as they want? Give me a break! Perhaps if...
Editorial: If the gas tax dies, don’t fret — another tax will be born
Taxes are one of those things that seem as permanent as a scar, indelible as a tattoo. It is one of the reasons we bristle when one is proposed. We have come to realize that a tax is rarely temporary. It may be imposed to pay for one very admirable...
Letter to the editor: Tolls on bridges won’t solve problems
Putting tolls on bridges is just another knee-jerk reaction from Harrisburg. The gas tax revenue is down mostly because of the shutdown or capacity limits on many of our businesses; 25% or even 50% capacity is fatal to the chances of most of these businesses’ survival. If you allow businesses...
Letter to the editor: Despairing over Trump’s departure
Inauguration Day was a most regrettable, despairing and sad day for me with the departure of President Trump and the arrival of President Biden. I renamed it Treason Day. My peaceful protest is the wearing of my patriot-pin-decorated, red “Make America Great Again” cap that has paved the way for...
Letter to the editor: We’re a communist’s dream
Cancel culture and moral outrage only seem to be accepted if you are a radical leftist. Everything that I have grown up with is on the verge of being considered racist or other, whether it’s your religion, your politics that they don’t agree with, being responsible with your money and...
Letter to the editor: We should make voting easier, not harder
Among many quotes about voting, one made by Dwight Eisenhower in 1949 seems appropriate now: “Our American heritage is threatened as much by our own indifference as it is by the most unscrupulous office or by the most powerful foreign threat. The future of this republic is in the hands...
Tom Purcell: The benefit of Irish humor
I miss my Uncle Mike — especially on St. Patrick’s Day. He would have been 90 this year. He died far too young from leukemia in 1990 when he was only 59. His mother immigrated to Syracuse, N.Y., from Ireland. His father’s parents had been Irish immigrants, too. He was...
Letter to the editor: 83 and unvaccinated in Pa.
You know you are from Pennsylvania when you are 83 years old and still haven’t gotten a covid-19 vaccine. Ina Mae Smithley Ligonier...
Letter to the editor: Vaccine frustrations continue in Allegheny County
People who have tried to schedule a vaccine appointment during Allegheny County web or 211 phone campaigns know about the endlessly frustrating “every-man-for-himself” process. The problem: Unlike UPMC, AHN and many pharmacies, the county doesn’t have a one-time registration system, and refuses to implement this approach. As a result, mounting...
Letter to the editor: Social Security anxiety
I felt compelled to respond to Tom Purcell’s column “Biden, Social Security, my retirement and the wealthy” (Feb. 15, TribLIVE). I remember going through the same anxiety prior to my retirement. My husband and I had been paying into Social Security from around 1960 until we retired together around 2000....
Letter to the editor: Why people don’t like Trump
Letter-writer Chad Sperski’s recitation of President Trump’s so-called accomplishments such as 401(k)s, gas prices and border security are dubious at best (“Trump put America first”). The former were not greatly affected by any of his actions, and the latter was more publicity stunt than anything else. Sperski also complains that...
Editorial: At a distance, community groups and churches are still connecting
While everyone is eager to put the coronavirus pandemic in the rearview mirror, there are pieces of the last year that could carry through to what comes next. We may be more open to masks during flu season in the future. We may better appreciate the value of a sick...
Letter to the editor: Close borders, open schools, etc.
Our lawmakers have evolved into adjudicators. For instance, Sen. Patrick Leahy transmogrified into a Supreme Court justice. (And they say miracles don’t happen!) Since I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, I took time to read it. Article II, Section 3, states that the president,...
