Featured Commentary category, Page 120
Western Pa. health care leaders: Your simple actions matter the most to prevent covid-19
This letter was signed by nine regional health care leaders, named below. Over the past three months, our organizations have proudly come together in an unprecedented fashion to address the enormous challenges we have faced as a community due to the novel coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic. This public health crisis is...
Dr. James Thrasher: The call to do and act justly
As I approached the county courthouse for jury duty, my unfocused mind was in many different places, including being sincerely burdened by the state of our nation. I had filled out the eligibility questionnaire and made arrangements with my employer, and was committed to fulfilling my civic duty. I was...
Robert Speel: County of residence often all that counts in Pa. primaries
Pennsylvanians just voted in primary elections to nominate Democratic and Republican candidates for the office of state auditor general. Those candidates will face off against each other in November. I teach courses about American politics and elections at Penn State. Every time I ask students if they know what the...
Annie Grice, David Ehrenwerth and Thomas Reiter: With religions working together, we shall overcome
Another cellphone video captures the sin of racism, the nation’s slumbering conscience awakens, and political solutions are forcefully advanced. Yet at the most fundamental level, do we not face a moral reckoning demanding a moral diagnosis and a moral cure? At such moments in our past, the Hebrew Bible, traditionally...
Jacob Plott: Trump’s global tariff war trickles down to Pa. businesses
While President Trump has touted his tariffs and ongoing trade war as a tool to force manufacturers to return jobs to American soil, the reality in states like Pennsylvania paints a very different picture. Instead of strengthening America’s economy, it has weakened domestic manufacturers by raising their costs, thus making...
Presley Gillespie: Neighbors work together to aid Black community during covid-19
As the covid-19 crisis continues to unfold, new concerns continue to surface in the community. Health inequities. Food insecurities. Job losses. Achievement gaps. Digital divides. Isolation and anxiety. To name a few. Although covid-19 doesn’t discriminate, it does hit Black communities harder with a disproportionate number of diagnoses and deaths....
Sarah Eileen Linder: Covid-19 claims lives of school libraries
The South Park and Greensburg Salem school districts are struggling with the harsh reality facing schools across the nation whose budgets simply could not withstand the financial consequences of a global pandemic; they have decided to make budget cuts. The loss of teachers, administration and programming is always upsetting, but...
Pete Peterson: Return to racing at Meadows provides hope for horse racing community
The covid-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons, including not taking for granted such things as jobs, family and life milestones. For the horsemen and staff at The Meadows Racetrack in Washington, the pandemic left people without the ability to race four days a week and earn a living. Live...
Robert Lighthizer: USMCA, replacing NAFTA today, is the model for all future trade agreements
President Donald Trump was elected in part on his promise to change the direction of U.S. trade policy so it would put America first. He has kept that promise with new trade agreements and tough enforcement actions that break down foreign trade barriers, protect America’s competitive edge and stop the...
Stacey Brodak and Jim Denova: Partnerships bring solutions, address workforce gaps
A retirement wave that could fundamentally change the makeup of our region’s workforce and impact the ability for businesses to secure local talent is on the horizon. This “silver tsunami,” as it’s termed, coupled with rapidly evolving workplace pandemic changes, is a problem that can be studied, understood and solved...
Sheriff William Mullen: We must honor legacy of police killed in line of duty
Proclamations demanding war on law enforcement officers echo wide and deep across our country. As community leaders, stakeholders and citizens advocate for police reform, it is imperative that people know decent law enforcement agencies will welcome this opportunity for improvement and regularity. Need for standardization, however, does not vindicate the...
Josh Eisenfeld: We need a government that listens to the people
After a two-year investigation, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released the findings of the Statewide Investigating Grand Jury looking into misconduct by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The report found that the DEP “did not do enough to properly protect the health, safety and welfare of the thousands...
Naiymah Sanchez and Mary Catherine Roper: What’s next in struggle to end LGBQ&T discrimination?
It is, finally, illegal to fire or refuse to hire someone because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer or transgender, thanks to a June 15 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court affirmed what the ACLU has said for years. Discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation...
Victor Davis Hanson: 2020 election will be a contest of the angry
The old 2020 election was supposed to be about many familiar issues. It is not any more. Up until now, the candidates themselves would supposedly be the story in November. The left had cited Donald Trump’s tweets and erratic firings as windows into his dark soul. The right had replied...
Matthew Brouillette: From political science to affective science
In April, Pennsylvanians got a lesson in “believing the science”— the political science, that is — driving Gov. Tom Wolf’s response to covid-19. From refusing to release data behind his shutdown order to ignoring requests for transparency on his business waiver process to closing Open Records offices to failing to...
Chad Forcey: Energy conservation is conservative
In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt addressed the nation’s governors with a call to consider impending challenges: “The time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted … if we do not exercise that...
Keith Williams: Unions want everyone to vote by mail, but won’t let their own members vote at all
In case you haven’t checked on labor unions in a while, you might still have an image of workers in squalid factories, forced to work night shifts or lose their job, who band together and strike for fair wages and safe conditions. But things have changed a bit since the...
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler: Trump built greatest American economy before. He’ll do it again.
Thanks to President Trump’s well-thought-out policy decisions since the beginning of the global coronavirus pandemic, Americans should have confidence that better days are ahead. Policies the president enacted like the Payment Protection Program provided much needed relief for businesses affected by the coronavirus and brought Pennsylvanians back to work. The...
James Owens: A new era of transparency, safety in automated vehicle testing
One day, a fully automated vehicle may drive you to work, take your elderly parents to the doctor or deliver packages to your doorstep. With the appropriate testing, safety protocols and public trust, this transformational future could be sooner than you think. Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National...
Colleen Cook: In these uncertain times, parents need online education options
Amid the rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic, parents continue to face new challenges when it comes to their children’s education. In a time where stay-at-home orders, social distancing and travel restrictions have become the new norm, parents have to make important — and potentially tough — decisions about their child’s education...
Devin Reaves: We can’t have black liberation without ending War on Drugs
As a black man in America, I live in constant fear, and as a leader of an organization that aims to end the war on drugs in Pennsylvania, I also have tremendous fear for people who use drugs — especially those of us who are black and brown. What we...
Michael Krancer: Clarifications to EPA’s cost-benefit analysis will protect Pa.’s environment and businesses
Recent history in Pennsylvania has shown that it’s possible to grow our energy economy and make important environmental gains. During my time as secretary of our state’s Department of Environmental Protection, for example, Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry grew significantly, created unprecedented job growth and lowered costs for consumers, while harmful...
Steve Bloom: Lawmakers right to end Wolf’s extended disaster declaration
Barber shops and hair salons across Pennsylvania have sparked controversy during the prolonged business shutdown. Many have risked crushing fines and license suspensions to defy forced-closure orders and serve their customers. Cindy Schindler, owner of Papillon Salon and Skin Care Center in Lemoyne, says salons could have been operating all...
Maj. Gen. Donna Barbisch: After domestic deployment, fearing for America’s soul
As a soldier for more than 38 years, I cannot imagine being ordered into the streets of America to use military force against protesters. The country I served is becoming unrecognizable. We need to slow down and take stock. We must acknowledge we are in a fight for the soul...
Matt Smith and Darrin Kelly: Invest in transportation and infrastructure for Pittsburgh region’s post-covid-19 future
As work continues in Washington, D.C., on future phases of the federal response to the pandemic, we are coming together — business and labor — to urge strong support for a robust transportation and infrastructure package. With unemployment heading to previously unimaginable levels and every country in a race to...
