Editorials category, Page 81
Laurels & lances: Support, disappointment, growth
Laurel: To quiet support. When the world is turned upside down, it seems sometimes like the only way to be heard is to shout at the top of your longs, to bang a gong and light a fire. But there is another way to stand up for what one believes,...
Editorial: Nursing home tests must be priority
The new plan for Pennsylvania nursing homes is to test everybody. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because it sounds like the old plan. At least in the shorthand. The order issued Monday by Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine requires all nursing home residents and staff members be tested...
Editorial: Pitt’s plan is proactive
Everyone is getting caught in a conundrum. How do you plan ahead when you don’t know what is going to happen with the coronavirus pandemic? Sports leagues are doing it as they try to find a way to salvage a season and satisfy fans while still keeping people safe. Restaurants...
Editorial: Progress is reason for Pride
In June 1969, a police raid on a gay bar in New York touched off a riot that made people stand up and proclaim their right to be themselves. Today, June is celebrated as Pride Month. It hasn’t been an easy rainbow-colored road, and the LGBTQ community isn’t exactly living...
Editorial: Stainless steel cars are part of Alle-Kiski Valley
Steel. It’s what happens to iron with exposure to things like intense heat and pressure. When the earth does it to carbon, you get diamonds. When a whole industry in the greater Pittsburgh area does it, you get the building blocks of the nation. It’s a process that didn’t just...
Editorial: When protests become riots
A protest can be a volatile situation. With tensions high and nerves raw, it doesn’t take much to strike a spark and have anger or pain or righteous indignation flash over to the violent unpredictability of a confrontation or from there to a riot. That makes people who show up...
Editorial: D-Day participants gave us gift of freedom, responsibility
June 6, 1944 was not the last day of World War II. It was the day that the tide of war turned. And that is why we remember D-Day — the day that Allied forces drove into the beaches of Normandy and parachuted from above in the start of a...
Laurels & lances: Ballots, memorials and bikes
Laurel: To making every vote count. There is no pretending that this primary election was like anything anyone has experienced before. For the people casting ballots, a delay for the covid-19 pandemic put the date squarely in the midst of sweeping protests — sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent. But for...
Editorial: As school days beckon, clarity is the first lesson
Schools can get back to teaching and providing activities for students starting July 1. The Pennsylvania Department of Education made that announcement Wednesday with the release of the Process to Reopen Pennsylvania — a procedure that requires schools to develop health and safety plans, implement guidelines from the Centers for...
Editorial: President Trump takes aim at America’s core principles
The president’s primary job is to preserve, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. Even when it is inconvenient. Even when people are using it to say the government is wrong. Especially when they are doing that. We know that, because the framers realized immediately they left important things out of...
Editorial: Pandemic responses are moving targets
What if everyone just acknowledged no one has been through this before? Oh sure, this isn’t the first pandemic that has happened in history. This isn’t the first time there have been quarantines. This isn’t the first time people have gotten sick or died, and it won’t be the last....
Editorial: Violence is a different kind of virus
A virus is something that starts small and commonplace, unseen, but is picked up and takes root and can make you sick to your soul before spreading to the next person and the next and the next. We are fighting an epidemic now. We have been fighting it for a...
Editorial: Don’t be a fair-weather voter
Election turnout can be swayed by interest and sentiment. Care deeply about the position? More people show up. Not excited by the candidates? More people stay home. The ballots cast rise and fall with our rage or our apathy, our engagement and our disdain. A 2007 study by researchers including...
Editorial: The virus doesn’t recognize political parties
The most important thing people can have from their leaders in a time of crisis is the truth. They need to know that if they are told, “This building is on fire,” it is actually on fire. Conversely, they need to know that if they are told, “This water is...
Laurels & lances: Franks, Zoom and food
Laurel: To good news on a bun. Who wasn’t crestfallen at the news that the Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland had closed down? The Oakland eatery was a landmark with must-eat wieners and yes-please fries. So hearing that it was shutting down in April was a crushing blow to...
Editorial: Pennsylvania budget not done
OK, we know the drill. It’s May. Almost June. That’s the time of year that Pennsylvania’s lawmakers and the governor get serious about their annual battle of wills over the budget. They posture. They bluster. They make pronouncements about the value of their own spending plans and disparage the proposals...
Editorial: Courts get back to speedy trials
Allegheny and Westmoreland county courts are both getting back to business. Plexiglas shields will stand between the judge and the lawyers. Social distancing is being promoted in the gallery. Hearings will be staggered to limit the number of people in the courtroom. But those appearances are being scheduled. The court...
Editorial: Pilot program makes groceries a SNAP
Buying groceries online has been one of the things that has made many people’s lives easier during the coronavirus pandemic. While staying home has been frustrating since Gov. Tom Wolf closed schools in March and then issued an order closing non-life-sustaining businesses, modern technology has meant if you have a...
Editorial: We remember the fallen
For Memorial Day, a classic Trib editorial: On this Memorial Day, be grateful that Americans’ willingness to sacrifice for freedom’s sake, instilled by each generation in the next, remains as strong as ever. Today, Americans honor those most worthy of such gratitude — those who gave their lives in our...
Editorial: Sports are more than a game
Pennsylvania is a state with a lot of sports history. There is no major sport that doesn’t happen in the Keystone State. Whether you want your games as all-American as baseball or as global as soccer, it happens here. As grassroots as NASCAR or as high class as horse racing....
Editorial: Celebrating the quarantine grads
Well, you did it, Class of 2020. Whether you finished grad school or picked up your bachelor’s degree, made it through high school or just figured your way out of kindergarten, you got it done. Congratulations. But yes, it might be hard to believe. Is it really over? It doesn’t...
Laurels & lances: Checks and balances
Laurel: To small gestures. Six weeks might not seem like a big deal with some things. It’s less than the timeline from Halloween to Christmas, which seems to pass in a blink. But when you’re waiting for money, it can feel like a lifetime, especially when belts are tight and...
Editorial: The uncommon sense of Levin deal
Let’s try this again. Way back in February, Levin Furniture was in danger of closing, but owners of the Art Van Furniture company that purchased it in 2017 said not to worry — everything was “business as usual” and a solution would be found. That solution, as it turned out...
Editorial: Fire departments need funds
Everyone needs a helping hand right now. We are worried about getting sick, and we’re worried about the people we love. We are worried about keeping our jobs, and we are worried about paying the bills if we don’t. We’re worried about what happens when we get back out there...
Editorial: Improving essential infrastructure boosts the economy
The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority has gotten the green light for its $2 billion Clean Water Plan — a series of moves including expanding wastewater treatment volume and disinfection capacity as well as repairing and replacing sewer lines, diverting streams and adding pipes, diversion structures and tunnels. The move comes...
