Joseph Sabino Mistick stories, Page 9
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Cancel culture, on both sides, robs us all
President Dwight David Eisenhower knew how to fight cancel culture before it had a name. As Sen. Joe McCarthy was destroying careers, attacking the Voice of America and demanding that books authored by those who he recklessly called “known Communists” be removed from library bookshelves, Eisenhower had a better plan....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: For the mayor of Pittsburgh, bridges are basic
Bill Peduto traveled the world for eight years and held forth on matters far beyond the power of any local official. What the people of Pittsburgh needed was for him to stay home and pay attention to the basics of city government. Now, the Fern Hollow Bridge has collapsed into...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Oz is fun, but the Republic must come first
When Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is seeking the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race, made a campaign appearance in Westmoreland County last week, it had all the excitement of a celebrity event, with Oz supporters jockeying for selfies with the star-politician. Known as Dr. Oz on his television show,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Larry Lagattuta’s bread lessons
For Larry Lagattuta, Pittsburgh’s biscotti baron and owner of Enrico Biscotti and Cafe in the Strip District, baking bread is a ritual that has served him and his family well through good times and bad. “I can’t remember ever not doing it. In my family, it ties us to the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Love on the menu at the Square Café
One morning about 10 years ago I stumbled into the Square Cafe just after dawn, and I had a solid breakfast among some familiar faces. I was happy to see my old friend Rick Sebak there. He was filming “Breakfast Special 2” for WQED. Sebak is known for preserving all...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Look to Smedley Butler, American patriot
Smedley Butler is not a name most Americans recognize. But if you were in the United States Marine Corps, you heard his name plenty. Maj. Gen. Butler, sometimes called “The Fighting Quaker,” joined the Marines at age 17 to fight in the Spanish- American War. Butler fought in wars around the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Resolutions big and small
On New Year’s Day in 1773, Anglican priest John Newton used one of his poems to illustrate a point in his sermon, and when those words were later set to music by American composer William Walker in 1835, it became the hymn that we now know as “Amazing Grace.” Newton’s...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We’ll muddle through somehow
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is one of those honest songs that calls for strength and hope while recognizing the sadness of the times. It was written by Hugh Martin in the thick of World War II and first sung by Judy Garland in the 1944 movie “Meet Me...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: United when disaster strikes
As the nation became aware of the devastation caused by last week’s tornadoes, we were reminded once again what the word “united” means in the United States of America. Cutting across nine states — Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee — there were at least 44...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: A lesson on power from the smiling pope
The old silver coin that was cast to commemorate the election of Pope John Paul I is well tarnished now and still in the frame it was placed in nearly 40 years ago. Quickly dubbed “The Smiling Pope,” Albino Luciani died suddenly in 1978 after 33 days as pope. But...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Lessons from Waukesha
When a career criminal drove his car into the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., recently, he killed six people and injured more than 60. In many places around the country, he shattered the joy of families that were just beginning to feel free to gather and celebrate as the pandemic...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Thanksgiving, more than a day
Art Keppel started Thanksgiving early this year, and it lasted for months. When the Philadelphia lawyer retired from private practice in March 2020, the pandemic gave him time to reflect on his life, like many of us. A year and a half later, he embarked on the “Art Keppel Thank...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The men who cleared Pittsburgh’s skies
When it was recently announced in Scotland that Pittsburgh will host the next big global energy and innovation conference in September 2022, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said “the Steel City” has shown how an “industrial-dependent economy can be transformed into a technology and innovation powerhouse.” There are still those...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Max Cleland, American hero
When Max Cleland died last week in Atlanta, America lost a hero, in this case a man who also left a blueprint for how to live a life of service. Cleland was a U.S. senator, Veterans Affairs administrator, state senator and Georgia secretary of state. And he was a constant...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Remembering old lessons post-election
Despite the instant analysis of the cable news talking heads, Tuesday’s off-year election was not so bad for Joe Biden. But once all the votes were counted, it was not without its lessons for both parties and the nation. And each lesson can be captured by a familiar cliche. History...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: An American Colosseum
In 2017, when Facebook allowed users to react to articles with an “angry” emoji in addition to “like” and other symbols, the change was good for business. The option to express anger kept more users engaged on the social media site. But when Facebook gave more weight to “angry” reactions,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: School boards always battlegrounds
“Whatever you do, do not run for the school board!” That’s usually the first advice from veteran politicians when young people ask them how to get into politics. It’s not just the minutiae-filled evening meetings that make it the wrong place to start a career in public service. School boards...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Jan. 6 investigation will test oath of office
In the early days of the Civil War, President Lincoln knew that Washington, D.C., was crawling with traitors to the Republic. Together with Congress, Lincoln required a stronger oath of office that all appointed and elected government officials were required to sign, one version of which was called “The Ironclad...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: John Wetzel taking his common sense on the road
John Wetzel was the warden of a small jail in Franklin County when he was nominated by Gov. Tom Corbett to become the commonwealth’s secretary of corrections. Wetzel, a former offensive lineman for Bloomsburg University, had started as a part-time corrections officer 20 years earlier, and he was ready for...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pittsburgh’s own Freddie Fu
Like so many other immigrants before him, Freddie Fu found Pittsburgh, and he fell hard for it. The renowned orthopaedic surgeon and head of UPMC’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery died Sept. 24 at 70, here in the town that he loved and that loved him back. Freddie — everybody called...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: America’s civil religion
Think what you will about Richard M. Nixon, but the guy showed how to lose an election with grace in 1960. The Republican presidential nominee lost to Democrat John F. Kennedy in a squeaker, and charges soon surfaced that Kennedy won because of vote rigging in Illinois and Texas. The...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: History, including Jan. 6, cannot be erased
In the old Soviet Union, the guys in charge often wanted their citizens to forget something that did not fit into their plans or desired image. When Josef Stalin wanted to erase history, his opponents would be erased from photographs, primitively with a sharp blade, and sometimes would disappear from...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Doing right by the victims of 9/11
Mike Comber was a young associate with a big law firm in Pittsburgh on Sept. 11, 2001. Like many Americans, Comber was changed by what happened that day. He decided to enter public service. Within months, he was appointed an assistant U.S. attorney. Not long after Comber changed jobs, Congress...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Doing better by our troops
It is sure to be an enduring image of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, with his weapon in hand, bathed in the green light of night vision, was photographed climbing the ramp of a C-17 cargo plane. Behind Donahue is the empty tarmac of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Lead with kindness as tribute to Gene Vittone
Washington County District Attorney Gene Vittone died last Saturday at 61 after battling cancer. Gene always carried a little shirt pocket notebook in which he wrote the names of drug overdose victims in his county. If you were with him when he got the call, conversation stopped as he sadly...
