Opinion category, Page 547
Letter to the editor: Do our presidential votes count against us on vaccine?
Just asking, could the reason Westmoreland County is so very low on receiving the coronavirus vaccine be because we are mostly registered as Republicans and most likely did not vote for Joe Biden for president? Just asking. Mary Ann Badar Hempfield...
Letter to the editor: More conservative sources, not Associated Press
I have been a Trib subscriber for almost 50 years. There used to be newspaper choices, but now one must fit all. I subscribe mostly for the local news and obits. I have two questions: 1. Half of your letters to the editor seem to come from people of conservative...
Letter to the editor: People, not guns, responsible for crimes
More migrants are showing up at our borders. Now our president seems to want to make sure we cannot buy guns or ammunition to protect ourselves. He also wants those who are killed by assault weapons to be able to sue gun manufacturers. What about those other assault weapons that...
Letter to the editor: More like ‘Non-Equality’ Act
In everyday speech, to quote, “we often use the word equality to refer to much more complicated and, often, controversial subjects.” For example, several amendments to the U.S. Constitution (as well as the original document) legally establish equality of rights for all Americans. Today, all Americans of any gender, race,...
Editorial: A plan to fund PennDOT projects that has no sticking power
Chances are that if you go out and look at your license plate right now, there is a little remnant of history hanging onto the corner. For decades, Pennsylvania registered vehicles by issuing a tiny rectangle with the date to affix on the license plate. You would get the stamp-sized...
Letter to the editor: Republican Party unrecognizable
Republicans refused to convict President Trump for inciting an armed insurrection against the U.S. government. They bought it. Now they own it. I have observed politics for over 60 years. I no longer know what the Republican Party stands for. Conservatives used to demand good character in political leaders. Now...
Letter to the editor: Covid-positive immigrants allowed into U.S.
It is disturbing that on Feb. 28, 108 illegal immigrants who tested positive for covid-19 were released into our country by the Biden administration. This irrational action occurred, after we, U.S. citizens, during the last year have been locked down for months at a time. Further, our government has spent...
Jonah Goldberg: Parties have taken wrong lessons from 2020 election
You wouldn’t know it from how Republicans and Democrats are talking, but the 2020 election was actually a success. During a pandemic, we had a national election with record-breaking turnout. The presidential candidate receiving the most votes in both the Electoral College and in the popular vote was rightly declared...
Adam Marles: A year full of lessons on covid’s impact on older Americans
A year ago, the Wolf administration did something both unthinkable and absolutely necessary: It closed nursing homes to all visitors to combat the covid-19 virus. Long-term caregivers understood that isolating residents from their families was vital in protecting them from a deadly illness, but it was an agonizing decision because...
Editorial: A smart, phased-in return to more restaurant and bar service
Cautious optimism. That may be the best path to tread going forward in the coronavirus pandemic. Cautious optimism puts the idea of being careful first, but anchors it to a positive outlook. It focuses on the goal without being reckless. That is what Gov. Tom Wolf promoted Monday when he...
Letter to the editor: Politicians, media teaching how to hate
For years, I have trusted very few politicians or the media. Most of these people really are unqualified for their jobs. But my message is this: I have been told it is a sin to not forgive and hold grudges. I can’t seem to do either. Politicians and the media...
Letter to the editor: Trump is not going away
In response to Molly Miesse Miller’s letter “Senators, representatives must stop supporting Trump”, I would point out Republican politicians merely are following the desires and wishes of their Republican constituents such as myself and millions of others who still wholeheartedly support President Trump and his policies. I’ve got news for...
Letter to the editor: We must rise above original ‘equality’
We are told in the Constitution that we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately most people do not realize that to pursue happiness takes faith in the creator, hard work and devotion to reach that goal. Today, people...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: ‘Woke supremacy as bad as white supremacy’?
Dear Sen. Tim Scott: Sadly, it is no longer much of a surprise when an official of your party says some racially offensive thing. From calling Barack Obama “uppity” and “boy,” to decrying an imaginary “war on whites,” to declaring the world’s Black and brown nations “(expletive)hole countries,” racial offense...
Pat Buchanan: Who and what killed George Floyd?
Friday, as the jury was being empaneled for the trial of fired police officer Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis City Council voted 13-0 to approve a record $27 million civil settlement with the family of George Floyd over his death in police custody. Most Americans who saw the nine-minute tape of...
Gina Diorio: Gov. Wolf is hiding covid data again
Do you remember in the early days of the covid pandemic when Gov. Tom Wolf promised his decisions would be “data-driven”? “We have to follow the science,” he reminded us. So convincing was this supposed “data” that Wolf temporarily shut Right-to-Know (RTK) offices so we couldn’t ask for it. Transparency...
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland commissioners have no room to complain
So after a year of denying covid is a problem, complaining about mask mandates and ignoring hundreds of grieving Westmoreland County families, commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew and their enablers in the state Legislature now complain that vaccines aren’t happening as they want? Give me a break! Perhaps if...
Editorial: If the gas tax dies, don’t fret — another tax will be born
Taxes are one of those things that seem as permanent as a scar, indelible as a tattoo. It is one of the reasons we bristle when one is proposed. We have come to realize that a tax is rarely temporary. It may be imposed to pay for one very admirable...
Letter to the editor: Tolls on bridges won’t solve problems
Putting tolls on bridges is just another knee-jerk reaction from Harrisburg. The gas tax revenue is down mostly because of the shutdown or capacity limits on many of our businesses; 25% or even 50% capacity is fatal to the chances of most of these businesses’ survival. If you allow businesses...
Letter to the editor: Despairing over Trump’s departure
Inauguration Day was a most regrettable, despairing and sad day for me with the departure of President Trump and the arrival of President Biden. I renamed it Treason Day. My peaceful protest is the wearing of my patriot-pin-decorated, red “Make America Great Again” cap that has paved the way for...
Letter to the editor: We’re a communist’s dream
Cancel culture and moral outrage only seem to be accepted if you are a radical leftist. Everything that I have grown up with is on the verge of being considered racist or other, whether it’s your religion, your politics that they don’t agree with, being responsible with your money and...
Letter to the editor: We should make voting easier, not harder
Among many quotes about voting, one made by Dwight Eisenhower in 1949 seems appropriate now: “Our American heritage is threatened as much by our own indifference as it is by the most unscrupulous office or by the most powerful foreign threat. The future of this republic is in the hands...
Tom Purcell: The benefit of Irish humor
I miss my Uncle Mike — especially on St. Patrick’s Day. He would have been 90 this year. He died far too young from leukemia in 1990 when he was only 59. His mother immigrated to Syracuse, N.Y., from Ireland. His father’s parents had been Irish immigrants, too. He was...
Letter to the editor: 83 and unvaccinated in Pa.
You know you are from Pennsylvania when you are 83 years old and still haven’t gotten a covid-19 vaccine. Ina Mae Smithley Ligonier...
Letter to the editor: Vaccine frustrations continue in Allegheny County
People who have tried to schedule a vaccine appointment during Allegheny County web or 211 phone campaigns know about the endlessly frustrating “every-man-for-himself” process. The problem: Unlike UPMC, AHN and many pharmacies, the county doesn’t have a one-time registration system, and refuses to implement this approach. As a result, mounting...
