Joseph Sabino Mistick stories, Page 14
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Judge candidates by what’s in their hearts
When Ronald Reagan was nearing the end of his second term in the White House, he wandered into the medical office one day, approached his physician and said, ”I have three things that I want to tell you today. The first is that I seem to be having a little...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Lesson from Britain on what’s best for America
When British politician Edmund Burke received news in 1774 that he had been elected to represent the people of Bristol in Parliament, he told a gathering of voters that he would not mimic their wishes or the desires of any faction when deciding how to vote on the issues. Instead,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Time is ripe for action on climate, guns, opioids
“There is no fruit that is not bitter before it is ripe,” according to Publilius Syrus, a Latin moralist in the century before Christ. It seems that we have always known that everything has its season. And in the last days of summer, we can relish those things that have...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Unions for America
By the time Fannie Sellins was killed outside a mine near Brackenridge on Aug. 26, 1919, the widowed mother of four children was already a veteran union organizer, a fierce fighter for the poor and a fearless picket-line marcher. Sellins’ life was celebrated last week in the Allegheny Valley at...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Hard work no longer enough to make it in America
When Luigi Sabino left Treglia, a tiny farming village in the hills outside of Caserta, Italy, he was 17 years old. Somehow he gained passage on the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm II and made it to America. The Sabinos were farmers, but in Southern Italy in the late 19th century, families...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump missed bipartisanship lesson during Monaca visit
Last week, when Donald Trump blew into town and toured the Royal Dutch Shell multibillion-dollar cracker plant under construction in Beaver County, he made one of his trademark laughable claims. The plant has created 5,000 construction jobs and will require 600 permanent industrial jobs when completed, plus thousands of jobs...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: El Paso, Dayton shootings & reckless words
When English King Henry II wondered aloud, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” he knew that some of his followers would be eager to please him. Accounts of Henry’s words differ slightly, but the gist is always the same. Henry was upset with Thomas Becket, the Archbishop...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Democrats need real scrapper to take on Trump
Paddy Ryan, an Irish-American boxer and one-time Pittsburgher, was featured on a 1920s poster put out by his Bronx-based promoters in hopes of attracting opponents. Ryan, a former amateur world champion who had become a prizefighter, is posed in the classic boxer’s profile — chin down, gloveless hands extended, feet...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The Frank Costanza campaign strategy
“Serenity now!” That was Frank Costanza’s mantra in a 1997 episode of “Seinfeld.” Frank, who learned the anger management device from self-help tapes, used the phrase anytime he felt that life had gone off the rails and his blood pressure was rising. Instead of softly repeating “serenity now,” Frank shouted...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: If you came from someplace else, how will you vote in 2020?
For many Americans, the decision on how to vote in the 2020 presidential election will now be simpler. Hearing an American president tell any American to “go back where you came from” will be enough to decide the election for millions of voters who have been told that too often...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Tough kids have great potential
There may be worse things for a kid than being homeless, but there are not too many. Too often, homelessness can kill the ambition and hope of any kid. Every grownup knows that the starting point for a productive life is a safe place to rest, away from chaos, at...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Counting votes is simple math of politics
Here is the question Sen. Kamala Harris should have been asked during the Democratic Party’s presidential debate, and it would have been a good question for each of the candidates: “If you were in the United States Senate when the major civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965 was being...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The optics of presidential golf
Golf is “a good walk spoiled,” according to some non-golfers. But it still has a tremendous following. And, since it started as a game for those fortunate enough to afford the gear and take a whole day off, it has presented image problems for politicians. “Presidential golf” has been a...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Life’s struggles hit single moms hard
Tragedy lingers. The sadness and the heartache hang in the air — especially right after and even if the victims are gone. The horrible power of the moment has its own life, cautioning us and providing a lesson. It was that way last week, when a last-minute trip to the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: There are fathers everywhere
I am nearly twice as old as my father was when he died. The young man had come home from war broken, but hopeful enough to get married and have a son. He lived like he was going to grow old. His death was a tragedy, but it was the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Leon Redbone & an elixir for our time
Leon Redbone died last month. The 69-year-old singer and guitar player stopped performing a few years ago for health reasons, but he had a long run and kept his loyal followers happy with 17 albums and a raft of club appearances for nearly five decades. In his family’s announcement of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Memorial Day, D-Day, Flag Day our real triple crown
Most of us know about the Triple Crown, three big horse races that begin with the Kentucky Derby in early May, followed by the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. Since the Roman emperors, there has been a formula of “Bread and Circuses” to create welcome diversions for the governed. Even...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Bill Burns knew the value of freedom
In 1868, Union General John A. Logan issued General Orders No. 11, establishing a day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” We still remember our war heroes that way. What is...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Joe Biden may be antidote for those sick of fighting
“I think if you look at Joe’s record, and you look at my record, I don’t think there’s much question about who’s more progressive,” Bernie Sanders recently said on ABC’s “This Week.” And, if that’s how America sees it, that could be a good thing for Joe Biden as he...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Mother’s Day at home & at the border
In 2014, Jeb Bush had not yet announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president when he said that refugees crossed our border “because they had no other means to work to be able to provide for their family. Yes, they broke the law, but it’s not a felony....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump’s low bar a gift to other politicians
“There are no second acts in American lives,” according to F. Scott Fitzgerald. And that has always seemed especially true in the lives of American politicians, who were easily knocked off the stage by the slightest misstep. For too long, America placed its leaders on unrealistically and undeservedly high pedestals,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Look to Ukraine to survive two more years of Trump
When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that Donald Trump is “just not worth” the trouble and division that would be caused by an attempt to impeach him, she was doing more than just throwing shade at Trump. There are good governmental reasons to avoid the national ordeal of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump’s bullying threatens international relationships
A “war of all against all” is how English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes described the natural state that society would be reduced to without the modulating force of government. Hobbes believed that a lack of authority would lead every man to believe that he “has a right to every thing,”...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump’s disdain for law & order
“Cruella De Vil” and “The Queen of Mean” are just a couple of the nicknames for Kirstjen Nielsen that have been making the rounds since she was fired as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. At the end of the day, “Cruella” was not cruel enough and the “Queen”...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Braddock will never give up
Back in the days when the Edgar Thomson Works was booming, the road along the mill wall was jammed with workers’ cars during the change from second trick to the overnight shift. For half an hour or so, two-thirds of the work force filled the streets around the mill, jockeying...
