Opinion category, Page 545
Editorial: Census delay means mad scramble for legislative redistricting
When it comes to the Constitution, there is a lot that is spelled out — and a lot that has to be figured out along the way. That’s how judges and constitutional law professors keep their jobs. It’s also why after more than 200 years, there is still such debate...
Letter to the editor: Is Biden up to the task?
The hotly disputed 2020 presidential election, resulting in the ascendancy of Joe Biden into the Oval Office, has proven to be a Rorschach test of various optimisms to many outside observers. At least, that is what seems to be the theme of the many quoted in Deb Erdley’s Page 1...
Letter to the editor: Vaccine registry would help with rollout
As a health care provider and daughter to a Pennsylvania senior, I believe we both have met the criteria for Phase 1A of the covid-19 vaccine rollout in the state. It has been frustrating and time consuming as well as disturbing that the flow of vaccine administration has been less...
Frederick Winter: Forgive student debt? There’s a better way
Study hard in high school. That and $320,000 (not including living expenses), and four years later you can graduate with a major in gender and sexuality studies from prestigious Ivy League Brown University. As a retired business school professor and dean who spent over 40 years in academics, even I...
Jonah Goldberg: McConnell, Graham are emblematic of the GOP’s dysfunction
The Republican Party is broken. If Mitch McConnell were just another Republican senator, I’d say he was the eighth bravest. The seven bravest are the ones who voted to convict Donald Trump. For weeks I’ve been saying that if you honestly believe the Constitution forbids the Senate from convicting a...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland needs better vaccine plan
Saw on TV that Dr. Anthony Fauci indicated by April anyone who wants a vaccine can get one. Obvious concern: If there is not an unlimited supply of vaccine by then, then opening up to everyone would be beyond chaotic for registering using the wild system Westmoreland has now. Example:...
Editorial: Abraham Lincoln, the statue that everyone can rally around
Statues have been a sticking point in the last year or so. It seems as though almost everyone who was hero enough to have a memorial to their contributions erected in a public area was also human enough to have darker aspects that have led people to ask for them...
CompetePA Coalition: Raising taxes will hurt Pennsylvania’s competitive standing
The following was sent to Gov. Tom Wolf on Feb. 15 by The Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, which manages the CompetePA Coalition. CompetePA is a coalition comprised of statewide and regional business groups, small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as Fortune 500 companies. The coalition, which represents more than...
Letter to the editor: Ensuring the right to vote
The Trib reported that the Pennsylvania Legislature is attempting to strip the no-excuse absentee ballot and the permanent early voting lists from the laws (“Race on to alter voting rules,” Jan. 30). We live in the 21st century and have the advantage of modern technology, and should continue to use...
Letter to the editor: Trump must be held accountable
I believe in honesty, the rule of law and our democracy. The Republican senators and representatives who continue to downplay the January riot, in which five people died and 140 were injured, are ignoring the most important principle of our democracy. Fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power are...
Pat Buchanan: Will the radical left reunite the GOP?
“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun.” So said Citizen Trump Saturday on his acquittal by the Senate of the impeachment article of “incitement of insurrection” in the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol. “I look forward to continuing our incredible journey...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: For Black Americans, faith is not confined to the hope of heaven
George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin on a Saturday night in 2013. The next morning, I went to church wearing a hoodie. This was mid-July, hardly hoodie weather. But other brothers showed up similarly attired, including our pastor. This gesture — an expression of solidarity and...
Five Pennsylvania mayors: Our cities need the American Rescue Plan and we cannot wait
This is from the mayors of five Pennsylvania cities: Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter and Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace. As mayors of Pennsylvania cities, we witness the human toll the pandemic takes each day it stretches on. We see...
Colin McNickle: The wrong Rx for Pa.’s post-pandemic recovery
The coronavirus pandemic hammered Pennsylvania’s economy in 2020. But the key to economic recovery — once a more predictable regimen of vaccinations is firmly in place and covid-19 begins to abate — must be a careful study in what government should and should not do, stress researchers at the Allegheny...
Letter to the editor: Seniors can’t find vaccines
I am in the proper age grouping to receive the covid-19 vaccination, but like so many seniors, I am being told there are no shots available, not at my drug store, hospital, doctor’s office or pharmacy. But yet I hear that Heinz Field may be the site of a mass...
Editorial: Opening schools safely means everyone pitching in
When can schools open up? That has been the question on everyone’s minds for months. The coronavirus pandemic shut all Pennsylvania schools in March 2020. Some reopened in the fall, but it was a very different experience than kids — or educators — usually handle while studying math or learning...
Letter to the editor: Stock market doing fine under Biden
Just a quick fact-check to Raymond Smith’s letter “Missing Trump already” (Feb. 2, TribLIVE): Smith stated that “the stock market decline during Biden’s first week cost me more than three times the price of my first house.” On Jan. 20, the day President Biden took office, the Dow Jones Industrial...
Letter to the editor: The law and order president
“Once your faith, sir, persuades you to believe what your intelligence declares to be absurd, beware lest you likewise sacrifice your reason in the conduct of your life. In days gone by, there were people who said to us: ‘You believe in incomprehensible, contradictory and impossible things because we have...
Letter to the editor: Tyranny can result when one party has all the power
Extremists from the right attacked our Capitol. Extremists from the left burned our cities and attacked our police. Over 60 million voters believe our election was fraudulent, and only 10% trust Congress. The majority of voters do not trust mainstream or social media. Just where is our land of the...
Letter to the editor: Vaccine distribution plan shameful
As the pandemic keeps getting worse, so does the shame. Shame on the Pennsylvania Health Department for its vaccine rollout plans. Nobody giving the coronavirus vaccine has any vaccine to give. Web pages have been swamped with folks trying to register for a vaccination. Phone calls are going unanswered. My...
Tom Purcell: Biden, Social Security, my retirement and the wealthy
It’s February. It’s cold. To fend off the winter blahs, I dream of one day retiring to a warm beach, where I’ll stand in the surf, sipping beverages from glasses with little umbrellas in them. I spend hours using the Social Security Benefits Calculator to determine how much Social Security...
Pitt Med students: Give vaccine priority to smaller practices, pharmacies
We are a group of University of Pittsburgh medical students who are extremely concerned about vaccine distribution in the Pittsburgh community. It has come to our attention that vaccines are being sent only to large institutions such as health systems and retail pharmacies rather than the smaller, independent health practices...
Gene Barr: Pro-growth policies will move Pa.’s economy forward
Pennsylvania is at a crossroads. For nearly a year, the pandemic has forced job creators to adapt to ever-changing situations and tackle numerous challenges related to shutdowns, closure orders, less economic activity and making sure they’re complying with state- and CDC-issued guidelines. While the development of a covid-19 vaccine has...
Letter to the editor: Local leaders have blood on their hands
As a lifelong resident of Westmoreland County, I am appalled at the cruelty and ignorance on display in this county. Jan. 6 was one of the darkest days in American history with the storming of the Capitol during what should have been the routine certification of the Electoral College votes....
Editorial: Like Washington, may all presidents transcend party to serve all citizens
On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn into office as the first president of the United States. His birthday of Feb. 22 became a federal holiday that gave way to the modern Presidents Day. He had many things in common with the other 44 men whose roles we observe...
