Featured Commentary category, Page 2
David Macpherson: Moral injury and patriotism
I attended high school in the early ’70s, just as the Vietnam War was ending and Richard Nixon was cheating. I wanted to think of myself as a protester, but most war protesting was over by the time I could drive. Furthermore, displaying patriotism was not what cool kids did...
Kaitlyn Buss: Jeffrey Epstein case forges a rare, cynical American consensus
Jeffrey Epstein has become one of the few scandals that unites Americans in cynicism. The case is about far more than sex crimes. It has crystallized a suspicion many Americans across party lines already carried — there is one set of rules for the powerful and another for everyone else....
Counterpoint: Trump’s flawed import tariff policy
It has been 10 months since President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” import tariff announcement in April. Ultimately, that announcement led to U.S. import tariffs rising to an average of 17%, their highest level in 100 years. It is still too early to draw conclusions as to the overall damage those...
Jake Maruschok: A case for Pittsburgh Steel’s 2030 return
As a 34-year-old engineer working in steel, I’ve noticed policy pressure heating up in the last year. In November I posted a video on new developments in our local education, trades, energy and investments; all are anticipating steel demand increase. While many comments were enthusiastic, a few people commented that...
Ally Bove, Susan Graff and Bridget Keown: Proposed student loan rules threaten women’s careers — and the future of health care
Are audiologists, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, or speech-language pathologists not “professionals”? The Department of Education seems to think so. These are providers who earn rigorous master’s or doctoral degrees, pass national certification exams, maintain licensure, are legally required to report suspected abuse and follow strict codes of ethics. They are,...
Jason Lias: While economy booms, corporate greed starves rural America
The economy is getting stronger. Jobs are up, people are spending and on paper, everything looks great. This should be a time to strengthen the middle class, create stable jobs, and help small towns and rural communities thrive. But corporate America has other plans. UPS and Amazon are showing exactly...
Robert Glover and Kathleen Cole: The problem isn’t apathy. It’s about teaching students where power lives
American politics has become so nationalized that many people — especially students — no longer know where their participation ought to be focused. Every issue feels federal, every fight existential and every outcome distant. The result isn’t apathy so much as exhaustion: a sense that politics is something to watch,...
Allison Schrager: Musk is wrong about AI and retirement — you still need to save
Put me down as an AI optimist. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the economy and make Americans richer, healthier and more productive. I’d bet money on it — in fact I have, through the shares I own in an index fund, which means I am long the U.S....
Nathan Deron: Pa. needs answers — free online tool shows health impacts of regional pollution
Everyone deserves clear and timely information about air pollution they may come into contact with. Residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania face a particularly high risk of breathing pollution from the region’s various heavy industries that rely on fossil fuels. This pollution can contain toxic chemicals and may result from day-to-day operations...
Claire Kovach and Yomarilis Gueits Rodriguez: Groundhog Day 2? Minimum wage déjà vu
As Pennsylvanians observe our dapper rodent weather prognosticator’s forecast, workers across the commonwealth will continue to wake up each day faced with the same reality we’ve known for 17 years now — we still have a $7.25 per hour minimum wage. As legislative efforts to raise it stall year after...
Eric M. O’Neill: Verizon shutdown a warning
When Verizon customers across the country watched their phones slip into “SOS mode,” most people treated it as a temporary inconvenience. It wasn’t a cyberattack, Verizon said, and service was eventually restored. Some customers will receive credits. That’s good news. But it would be a mistake to treat the episode...
Nosakhere Griffin-EL: We can’t wait for schools to do right by Black children
What if we decided not to wait for the school district to do right by Black children? In November, parents protested against the potential closing of nine Pittsburgh Public Schools. Parents stressed the lack of benefit to children, the potential harm to children and that school closures kill community culture....
Cal Thomas: The effects of the words we use
Ancient proverbs can be helpful in adjusting our language and behavior in ways that can benefit every generation. They have become ancient because they work. One example: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger ” (Proverbs 15:1). It means calm, patient and kind words...
Jordan Frei: Mission — focus on your health to stay alive
Mission-driven. That’s how’s I define myself. In my profession, my social life and in my house. Articulate and prioritize the missions. Forge the paths to accomplish them. Often though, I treated preventive health care as an obstacle, rather than its own mission. At 53 years old and on the winning...
Christina Jones: Social media addiction lawsuits matter
Like many people, when I first heard about the lawsuits against major social media companies over algorithmic addiction and youth mental health, my initial reaction was complicated. Part of me thought about parenting, supervision, personal responsibility and mental health. Those things matter. They always will. But the more I’ve learned,...
Carol Borden: Service dogs part of the veteran suicide prevention solution
Veteran suicide is a persistent public health crisis in the United States. Though veterans make up just 7% of the adult population, they account for nearly 14% of adult suicides — 20 veterans lost every day. In Pennsylvania, the crisis is even more severe. The state’s veteran suicide rate is...
Eugene DePasquale: Pa.’s energy future depends on balance, not absolutes
Pennsylvania is helping power America’s energy transition. As the nation’s third-largest electricity-producing state and the second-largest natural gas-producing state, we generate more electricity than we consume and export surplus power across the region. Today, natural gas generation fuels nearly 60% of our electricity — more than double its share a...
Rep. Lindsay Powell: Pennsylvania must act to protect safe access to health care
“I can tell you which protesters will arrive at which times on Saturday, and where they’ll set up to intimidate patients,” a security guard at Allegheny Reproductive Health Center told me, gesturing toward the clinic’s front window. “Procedure days are by far the most intense — physically and emotionally.” I...
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: Pa.’s SNAP numbers are falling. The debate is just beginning.
Did it actually work? It is what we hope most policymakers ask themselves after a piece of legislation is passed. In the case of work requirements for food assistance, the question has lingered for nearly a decade: revived, rebranded and reheated across administrations. But in Pennsylvania, we finally have enough...
Sheldon H. Jacobson: Getting air travel back on track is easier than it once was
The recent winter storm impacted over 245 million people spanning 2,000 miles as it crossed the country. Cities in the Midwest and the Northeast were blanketed with a foot or more of snow. Areas in the south were not spared, with Atlanta hit with ice and below-freezing temperatures and Dallas...
Dan Grzybek and Jordan Botta: It’s past time to reform Allegheny County’s LERTA program
Allegheny County’s Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program was created with a worthy goal: to encourage investment in deteriorating properties by temporarily reducing the tax burden on new construction and major improvements. In theory, the LERTA program helps spur development where it wouldn’t otherwise occur, revitalizing communities that have...
Richard Fellinger: Reaction to McCarthy’s hire shows ageism exists
Suddenly, I’m rooting for new Steelers coach Mike McCarthy, and I mean really rooting for him. I would have rooted for him anyway as a Steelers fan old enough to rattle off names like Terry Hanratty and Frenchy Fuqua. But I’m really rooting for him now because I want to...
Lester C. Olson: Communication can help de-escalate our current situation
Armed conflicts and U.S. citizens’ deaths in Minneapolis have riveted attention across the nation. We’ve seen the videos and the photos of graphic violence. We’ve seen the heartbreaking photos of a 5-year-old preschool boy and a 2-year-old girl detained by ICE. We have read the upsetting media accounts of countless...
Gene Baur: New food pyramid is a recipe for health disasters
The meat industry’s celebration of the Trump administration’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans should be a clear sign that these new guidelines aren’t for the people. It’s true that “the United States is amid a health emergency,” as Secretaries Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brooke Rollins state. However, in claiming to...
Abby McCloskey: Too many kids already know someone who’s been deepfaked
The pre-AI world is gone. Estimates suggest that already, as many as one in eight kids personally knows someone who has been the target of a deepfake photo or video, with numbers rising to one in four who have seen a sexualized deepfake of someone they recognize, either a friend...
