Opinion category, Page 534
Jonah Goldberg: Inability to make distinctions has led to toxic discourse
Nothing is more vital to serious thinking than the ability to make distinctions between superficially similar things. The gas pedal and the brake pedal look awfully similar, but if you can’t distinguish between them, good luck getting out of the driveway safely. Distinctions don’t just matter among similar-but-different things. They’re...
Letter to the editor: We need Trump back in office
Now that the best president the United States has ever seen is gone and the Democratic Party has gotten their way, do you really understand just what you got? I believe we now are under the control of a mindless puppet being controlled by a corrupt communist party hell-bent on...
Letter to the editor: Too much news causing unrest
When I was a kid, Bill Burns did the news on KDKA-TV, next a guy in a gas station outfit did the weather and then someone did the sports. One half-hour, boom. Now we have cable news 24/7, mostly national and international. Local news is the shortest. Cable news reports...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s ‘Motel 6’ immigration policy
After reading Matt Smith’s letter “Immigration reform will rebuild our economy” (March 26, TribLIVE), I now know the effects of listening to “Nice Guy” President Biden without proper protection. You see, as soon as I see Biden’s lips move, I immediately set my brain to “Dumb” and his prattle has...
Lori Falce: Trial and verdict not same as justice
For me, every issue I write about is a crime scene. Every argument is the give and take of prosecution and defense. After 30 years of murders, sexual assaults, theft and fraud, the way I process information is a lot like a courtroom. A crime reporter frames the mechanics of...
Letter to the editor: Doug Chew does speak for some constituents
Thanks to Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew for addressing issues concerning the 2020 election fiasco. His testimony before the Senate was based on his many discussions with constituents and his hands-on involvement in the election process. To those criticizing Chew, just because you have a different opinion doesn’t make his...
Letter to the editor: Chew should seek constituents’ opinions first
I was appalled by the article “Westmoreland commissioner says county voters want end to no-excuse mail-in ballots, another disputes that” (March 23, TribLIVE). Mr. Chew, you do not have permission to speak for me concerning mail-in ballots or any other issue involving my rights and responsibilities as a U.S. citizen....
Laurels & lances: Infrastructure, taxes, court
Laurel: To building bridges. And roads and sidewalks and more. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Financing Authority gave the go-ahead for $48 million in multimodal transportation projects. Among them are $4.6 million in projects in Allegheny, Armstrong and Westmoreland counties. These are not giant bypasses or miles of asphalt poured...
Reps. Jessica Benham and Melissa Shusterman: Pa. Rescue Plan tackles long-term care for most vulnerable
The covid-19 pandemic has revealed so many inequities in our country — from socio-economic to racial, medical conditions and age. These inequities existed long before the pandemic but have been laid bare over the past year in such a way that we can no longer refuse to address them. Our...
Scott Bricker and Laura Chu Wiens: Biden’s jobs plan can help us move better
The Biden administration’s bold American Jobs Plan aims to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into public transit and transportation infrastructure. The plan has the potential to massively improve everyday Americans’ ability to get around safely, in addition to creating jobs, growing a sustainable economy and moving toward climate goals...
Letter to the editor: Women, police and civilization
A thought: Without women and police there is no civilization, only chaos. Just sayin’ … . Joseph Marmo Cheswick...
Letter to the editor: Benefits of community recycling
I was sad and discouraged to hear the remarks by Delmont Councilman Dennis Urban about requiring residents to pay for access to a recycling program instead of keeping it part of the trash collection service (“Murrysville, Export, Delmont prepare as trash collection contracts expire in September,” April 13, TribLIVE). Urban...
Editorial: Earth Day is about the good business of stewardship
Earth Day is not a crunchy granola holiday about a utopian future filled with solar-powered cars. It is — and from the beginning has been — about education. It is less celebration than it is workshop, and that is exactly how it was envisioned in 1969 when it was first...
Letter to the editor: Citizens’ right to vote
Just a quick response to letter- writer Harold W. Beatty III (“Citizens, not ‘anybody,’ have right to vote,” April 10 TribLIVE). In a rebuttal to Leonard Pitts Jr.’s column “Republicans consider ballots more dangerous than bullets” (March 23, TribLIVE), Beatty replied that: “Our Constitution states that ‘citizens of the United States’...
Letter to the editor: What conservatives believe
Please stop telling lies about conservatives/Republicans. We are not anti-immigrant, we are anti-illegal immigration. We are not “climate deniers.” We know the climate has always changed and will continue to change, and many experts say CO2 is not the cause — it is the sun, the earth’s orbit, the earth’s...
J. Christian Adams: Voter rolls without dead people is good first step toward election integrity in Pa.
All eyes were on Pennsylvania in the 2020 election. The commonwealth’s election process was one of chaos, with issues caused by mass mail balloting, blocking poll watcher access and ballot harvesting, to name just a few. Now some good news. Prior to the 2020 election, the Public Interest Legal Foundation...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Real justice shouldn’t be this difficult
I sat there trying to remember how to breathe. I suspect I had that in common with people — particularly African American people — all over the country. Didn’t we all hold our breath as we awaited the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin? Then that verdict was read....
Jonah Goldberg: Mad queen Marjorie Taylor Greene abdicates her throne
Marjorie Taylor Greene was readying her assault, like that legendary Anglo-Saxon warrior Canute the Great at Assandun. The QAnon-friendly first-term Georgia congresswoman, who was banned from any committee assignments shortly after she was sworn in, was poised to launch her “America First Caucus” with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., an anti-Semitic...
Letter to the editor: Biden’s feel-good gun control plan
Like most liberal ideas, President Biden’s proposed gun control plan is big on feelings and small on facts. Since liberals seem to not often look beyond their own emotions, I’d like to point out just two unintended consequences of the recent nonsense related to gun control. How does the “defund...
Letter to the editor: Georgia voting rule not Christian
Joseph Sabino Mistick hit the nail on the head in his column “Georgia’s assault on democracy” (April 3, TribLIVE). Denying people a drink of water is not Christian. The Bible says, “anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly...
Letter to the editor: False portrayals of fascism
In response to Frank Zalakar’s letter “Knowing right from left” (March 4, TribLIVE) about my Jan. 30 letter “Capitalism is on the right side”: The issue of fascism as a right-wing political ideology is countered in the recently published best-selling book by Dinesh D’Souza, “The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi...
Editorial: Labor disputes solved by good-faith negotiation show the way forward
It can be hard to look at the divisions that happen in Washington or in Harrisburg and put them into perspective. If you were at work, the accounts receivable department couldn’t just decide not to work with sales. In a church, the choir can’t go to war with the Sunday...
Letter to the editor: Who does minimum wage hike benefit?
Thank you, Democrats. As a senior citizen, why would I want the minimum wage raised? We seniors won’t be getting a raise like this. If they raise the minimum wage, I will be paying more for the food and goods they make. If I go out to eat, I will...
Pat Buchanan: Who will be next ‘America First’ president?
When President Joe Biden announced he would withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, GOP hawks like Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham responded predictably. “Grave mistake,” muttered McConnell. “Insane,” said Graham, “dumber than dirt and … dangerous.” Of more interest were the responses of...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: ‘A riot is the language of the unheard’
“The anguish we are suffering cannot translate into violence.” So said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey last week in the wake of yet another police killing of yet another unarmed African American man. The sentiment was altogether fitting and proper, especially given that his city was the epicenter of a national...
