Letters to the Editor category, Page 150
Letter to the editor: Regarding Tyre Nichols — common sense and honesty can save lives
I was appalled by the way police responded to the Tyre Nichols traffic stop. My military training taught me you are only as strong as your leaders. These officers had no skills in policing. The leaders who gave them their jobs should be fired. Giving jobs to people who are...
Letter to the editor: Let the average person see a Super Bowl
The two teams participating in the Super Bowl each year get 17.5% of the tickets. The host city gets 5%. The league gets 24%. The other 30 teams, including the Steelers, each get 1.2%. State Farm Stadium holds 75,000, meaning the Steelers will get 900 tickets. Although the number is...
Letter to the editor: ‘Recipe’ to fix property tax assessment issues
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s staffers finally appeared publicly to discuss the seven-year ratio coding scandal. After fixing one of the seven years of bad luck for taxpayers, Fitzgerald’s chief of staff, Jennifer Liptak, was asked about conducting a voluntary review of the other six years so taxpayers would finally...
Letter to the editor: State of the union stronger when America leads on energy
Solving the energy crisis requires a course correction from Washington — and one that encourages domestic natural gas and oil development, energy security, economic growth and continued progress toward a lower-carbon future. What doesn’t help is the finger-pointing at producers, unfounded accusations of price gouging and threats to impose new...
Letter to the editor: Effective policing required to save Downtown Pittsburgh
I respect but disagree with columnist Joseph Sabino Mistick that saving Pittsburgh requires a coalition of “corporate leaders, the foundations, universities and colleges, neighborhood groups, and political leaders from the state and county and city” (“Can we save Downtown Pittsburgh?,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE). A bureaucracy is not needed to get...
Letter to the editor: People should be able to decide who they want to serve
What happened to our freedom? If individually owned businesses cannot decide who they want to serve, then the freedom of the owner is denied. I’m not talking of a hospital, but individual doctors and nurses should not be compelled to provide services against their own beliefs. It’s not as though...
Letter to the editor: Fallout from Tyre Nichols’ death
The video of Memphis police officers inflicting blows that ultimately proved fatal to Tyre Nichols was very disheartening. This was a senseless act by officers who did not deescalate the situation, but instead allowed their frustration and anger to take over. Nichols and the five officers involved are Black, so...
Letter to the editor: Giving up guns won’t end carnage
Regarding “‘Don’t be numb to this’: Battling despair over gun deaths” (Jan. 29, TribLIVE): As a lifelong hunting and firearm enthusiast, I would gladly give up my modern firearms if it would end the active shooter carnage we are now experiencing. But it won’t because the bad guys who have...
Letter to the editor: Let’s live up to Franco’s legacy
During his swearing-in ceremony as our new governor, Josh Shapiro said, “Pennsylvanians can indeed find light in the midst of darkness and drown out the voices of hate and bigotry. ... Here in Pennsylvania, we didn’t allow the extremists who peddle lies to drown out the truth. ... We assume...
Letter to the editor: School book proposals problematic
The Hempfield Area School District recently drafted a proposed update to the district’s resource material policy, which applies to library books (“Hempfield book policy draft could provide guardrails to sexualized content,” Jan. 19, TribLIVE). The proposed changes are extremely problematic. One proposed revision says that high school students may view...
Letter to the editor: Republicans holding abuse victims hostage
There seems to be no depth that Republicans in Harrisburg will not sink to in order to get their way. An amendment to the state Constitution would have opened a new time window for reporting sexual abuse of minors. No one in their right mind could openly oppose it. The...
Sounding off: ‘Equity,’ documents, ‘wokies,’ taxes and roadside trash among week’s topics
WCCC’s ‘equity’ isn’t ‘equality’ Isn’t this special. Westmoreland County Community College has created a “Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging,” according to a glowing newspaper report (“Westmoreland County Community College opens Center for Equity, Inclusion, Belonging,” Jan. 27, TribLIVE). Lots to unpack here, but let’s pick one nit. Equity. “Equity”...
Letter to the editor: Biden should close borders
Hey, President Biden, when are you going to get your priorities straight? You and you alone are destroying America by not closing our borders. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is a joke, and, so far, so are you. The amount of drugs, criminals, “gotaways” and probably terrorists coming over our...
Letter to the editor: Comparing Trump, Biden administrations
Both politically conservative and politically left-wing letter writers call each other names and traffic in disinformation. And, since the biased mainstream media is full of omissions and lies, how can we voters determine the real facts? Perhaps comparing presidential job achievements the past six years might make the picture clearer....
Letter to the editor: Why doesn’t PennDOT keep roads clean?
Which PennDOT division is responsible for keeping our highways free of litter, trash and animal carcasses? Whoever they are, they’ve either retired, been fired, quit, moved or died. Route 28 north of Pittsburgh looks like a dump, both north and southbound lanes. It’s embarrassing! I guess all of the PennDOT...
Letter to the editor: WCCC’s ‘equity’ isn’t ‘equality’
Isn’t this special. Westmoreland County Community College has created a “Center for Equity, Inclusion and Belonging,” according to a glowing newspaper report (“Westmoreland County Community College opens Center for Equity, Inclusion, Belonging,” Jan. 27, TribLIVE). Lots to unpack here, but let’s pick one nit: equity. “Equity” is not “equality.” Equality...
Letter to the editor: Voting encouraged in Feb. 7 special election
If there is one thing we know at AARP, it’s that Pennsylvanians 50-plus vote. That’s why we want to ensure that people age 50-plus and their families know about the quick-approaching elections in Allegheny County. Although the first opportunity to vote in the 2023 election cycle was anticipated to be...
Letter to the editor: Should we believe Clinton, Bush on documents?
According to news reports, former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush say they have no classified documents. Really? Does anyone believe them, given their history of veracity? I.e., Monica Lewinsky and Iraq WMDs. Gerald Schiller Penn Hills...
Letter to the editor: Republicans not nihilists
Columnist Joseph Sabino Mistick claimed there are now nihilists in the House Republican Party (“Kevin McCarthy and the GOP nihilists” Jan. 14, TribLIVE). He was referring to the 20 House members who “wrecked McCarthy’s plans to smoothly assume” speaker of the House. Nihilists, as most know, are people with no...
Letter to the editor: Hoping The River stays in New Kensington
On the corner of Freeport Road and Elizabeth Street in New Kensington stands an architectural beauty, commonly known as the Old Nurse’s Residence. Circa 1923 red bricks are punctuated by a row of stately arches I’ve admired since I was a kid. For years, the vacant property was maintained, never...
Letter to the editor: Battle of the wokies
The new Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission’s guidelines that have resulted in the cancellation of reenacted battles at Bushy Run Battlefield is a classic example of unelected “woke” appointees mandating their insecurities upon us without any public input (“Bushy Run Battlefield reenactment canceled amid new state guidelines,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE)....
Letter to the editor: Gloom and doom
We are at the mercy of our politicians. All of our problems started with giving the rich and companies tax breaks. They gave tax incentives for our companies to go overseas. We had the fear of Donald J. Trump. Now we have the fear of the new Congress. They want...
Letter to the editor: Help close pollution loopholes
I feel overwhelmed when I get an alert from my weather app warning me about dangerous air quality conditions within my community. Are local residents expected to stay in the house and drop all responsibilities during this time to protect our health? Action is needed now to ensure that residents...
Letter to the editor: Is government for us or against us?
Considering two local stories over the weekend, the state-mandated end of historical reenactments at Bushy Run, which seems to have started with one out-of-state person’s complaint (“Bushy Run Battlefield reenactment canceled amid new state guidelines,” Jan. 28, TribLIVE)) and the plan to spend $3.6 million for a homeless shelter in...
Letter to the editor: High earners get tax breaks
The letter “What’s ‘fair share’ when it comes to taxes?” (Jan. 24, TribLIVE) repeated the tired old saw that “Roughly 50% of wage earners pay no federal income tax at all.” This is simply not true. 6.2% of each employee’s wages is deducted as a dedicated tax, matched by an...
