Letters to the Editor category, Page 211
Letter to the editor: Cyber charter funding reform needed
Despite ads on TV, cybercharter schools are not free. Your school district property taxes fund them. That funding needs to change because it continues to drive your taxes up. Pennsylvania has 500 school districts. By law, each district must pay a different tuition per student for attendance at a cybercharter....
Sounding off: Hide your Bibles, the book banners are back
With a nod to Meredith Wilson’s “Music Man”: Trouble, oh we’ve got trouble, Right here in Westmoreland County! With a capital “T” That rhymes with “B” And that stands for Books. The book banners are back (with book burners a half-step behind), never really having gone away. They would have...
Letter to the editor: Crosswalk signs is what Jeannette needs?
The article “Jeannette officials continue discussion about use of federal covid relief cash,” March 24, TribLIVE) is Jeannette in a nutshell. Our mayor wants to install crosswalk signs. Seriously? This might also explain why the old Monsour hospital site is still an empty lot. Crosswalk signs. SMH. Dale Parker Jeannette...
Letter to the editor: Hempfield book complaints are about responsibility
Regarding the recent reporting on the challenged books in the Hempfield Area School District (“Hempfield is latest district to face book ban challenge”): This is not an issue of censorship or banning. The media and those few individuals who oppose policy change for resource selection in the school have made...
Letter to the editor: PSEA leadership should be challenged
Regarding the op-ed “Make education a priority in Pa. budget” (March 22, TribLIVE) by Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association: I am writing to encourage public school teachers and PSEA members to challenge the leadership of this organization and its policies. There is clearly a crisis in...
Letter to the editor: Reading spending bills, voting on justice
I understand that Congress may be considering passing a bill requiring time to read a spending bill before voting on it. But that does not mean our representatives really understand it. The Senate is considering approving the nomination of a judge who cannot define what a woman is. She may...
Letter to the editor: More effort needed to combat Alzheimer’s
The Alzheimer’s Association 2022 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report illustrates the continued burden of Alzheimer’s in our country, and in Pennsylvania. An estimated 6.5 million Americans 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, including 280,000 in Pennsylvania — a number expected to increase to 320,000 by 2025. Across the...
Letter to the editor: Mental health services lacking in Westmoreland
I was pleased to read that Westmoreland County received a state grant to expand the mobile crisis unit for mental health emergencies (“Westmoreland County to expand mobile crisis unit for mental health emergencies,” March 1, TribLIVE). This grant is a much-needed Band-Aid over the giant lack of adequate mental health...
Letter to the editor: Stories of abuse disheartening
It takes a lot to have news affect us these days, as we’re all sadly numb to the garbage that exists sometimes as human beings. But the recent stories of the two men accused of abusing disabled residents at McGuire Memorial (“Feds charge 2 men with hate crimes in Beaver...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s oil plans make no sense
So our great President Biden has announced his two-part economic plan to fight inflation. It’s simple: Part one, buy American, but not oil. Apparently, oil purchased from terrorist states such as Iran or Venezuela will somehow reduce our now record-breaking U.S. gasoline prices, but U.S. oil won’t. I guess our...
Letter to the editor: Democrats more concerned for middle class
In the 1950s, corporations contributed 32% to the federal revenue, in 2013 it was 10% and currently it is 7%, equal to a more than three-quarters reduction rate. This reduction in taxes paid by corporations is due to the Reagan, Bush and Trump tax cuts for the wealthy few plus...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s ‘America last’ initiative
I saw three minutes of world news coverage on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” of the devastating tornado in New Orleans … only three minutes! Where is the minute-by-minute media coverage of Americans facing total destruction and personal devastation like in Ukraine? Where is President Biden? Has he requested...
Letter to the editor: Republicans’ questioning of Jackson embarrassing
The article “Legal experts weigh in on final day of Jackson’s hearings” mentions “questioning” by Republican senators. What I saw did include questioning, but some GOP senators apparently were more interested in demonstrating their incredible lack of maturity in comparison to the poised demeanor of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sens....
Letter to the editor: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative provides hope
As a solar supporter concerned about coal-dependent communities, the prospect of Pennsylvania joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) fills me with hope. RGGI will cut carbon pollution from power plants in the state by 25% while raising hundreds of millions of dollars each year to invest in clean energy,...
Letter to the editor: Allegheny County’s unfair tax deadline
The deadline for filing an assessment appeal in Allegheny County is March 31, 2022, for the 2022 tax year. We are the only county that favors the taxing bodies over homeowners in the state. Here’s the tax scheme (or scam): • Certify assessments • Mail tax bills • Appeal hearing...
Letter to editor: It’s not about race, it’s about logic
Bad arguments often are the result of using the same term in two different senses. These arguments typically use a weak (trivial) definition to prove the argument, and then they substitute the strong (substantive) definition to give the argument import. Welcome to critical race theory and systemic racism. Their strong...
Letter to the editor: Time for a horse and buggy
Hey, Joe, have you filled your tank up lately, or are you busy riding the train? How about a gas stimulus check or some infrastructure at the pump? Is this your play to get us to convert to electric cars, then break our banks replacing batteries at a cost of...
Letter to the editor: Thanks to those who served in Vietnam
On behalf of Pittsburgh-based Veterans Place board members and staff, I want to express our gratitude to Vietnam veterans today, National Vietnam War Veterans Day. From 1961 to 1975, approximately 2,700,000 American men and women served in Vietnam. More than 800,000 of those vets are alive today, many who need...
Letter to the editor: Honoring Vietnam veterans
March 29 is the official date of National Vietnam War Veterans Day as proclaimed by President Trump in 2017. This is not a day to debate the war. This is a day to honor the men and women who served proudly out of loyalty and love of country. They gave...
Letter to the editor: Green values vs. destroyed lives
The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is shown every day on TV. War is ugly as peaceful, hardworking people are being maimed and killed. Rather than concern for the Ukrainian people, we hear comments from elites like climate tsar John Kerry of his concern that Russia may lose its focus on...
Letter to the editor: Rational curation of books vital in our schools
The Hempfield Area School Board is to be commended for attempting to model a framework for parents and educators to determine which materials are appropriate in public school libraries (“Hempfield school board shelves any changes to its library book policy and selections for now,” March 11, TribLIVE). The internet provides...
Letter to the editor: Price on carbon will enable transition to clean energy
Patricia DeMarco’s outstanding op-ed (“Energy independence means good union jobs in clean energy,” March 16, TribLIVE) describes the disadvantages and risks of using fossil fuels and the benefits of switching to renewable energy to achieve energy independence. Unfortunately, the U.S. does not have the policies in place to accomplish this...
Letter to the editor: $19M verdict in pool injury is embarrassing
A 21-year-old man dives onto a raft in his best friend’s swimming pool, injures himself and sues his best friend’s parents, and the jury awards him $19 million (“Westmoreland jury awards $19M to swimming pool injury victim,” March 11, TribLIVE)? I’m embarrassed by you jurors. I thought Westmoreland County was...
Letter to the editor: Government a virtue, not a burden
“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.” — John Adams Could these words possibly hold any more weight than they do today? It seems some have forgotten that government is meant to be a virtue, a symbol of the free, democratic process. Instead, it has been...
Letter to the editor: Disheartened by book banning in Franklin Regional
I was sad to see that our revitalized national obsession with banning books had reached Franklin Regional (“Franklin Regional ‘pauses’ teaching of novel about Iranian Revolution after complaints,” March 7, TribLIVE). I look back fondly at my years at FR and can say, unequivocally, that the teachers and administrators provided...
