Opinion category, Page 737
Ray Regan: Words do count, and they can save lives
We use anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 of the 171,476 basic words that make up the English language. Language entertains us. We use it to share joy, to express anger, to influence, to appreciate, or just to enjoy an idle chat. Words are like food; we need them to live....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Hard work no longer enough to make it in America
When Luigi Sabino left Treglia, a tiny farming village in the hills outside of Caserta, Italy, he was 17 years old. Somehow he gained passage on the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm II and made it to America. The Sabinos were farmers, but in Southern Italy in the late 19th century, families...
S.E. Cupp: Bashing press becomes a bipartisan affair
Among the many consequences of Donald Trump’s ascendancy in modern American politics is a renewed and deepened hostility for the press, not only among his far-right base, but within the general electorate. In recent decades, trust in media has plummeted from a high of 72% who had a great deal...
Peter Morici: Economy will drag on Trump’s re-election hopes
The U.S. economy is delivering bad news to the White House. Second-quarter growth was only 2.1% and is not likely to return to 3% on a sustained basis. Significant wage increases, booming corporate profits, and double-digit stock grains SPX, -1.22% are not likely in the months leading up to the...
Editorial: Vaccination info should be epidemic
Disease is not political. It doesn’t have an ideology. It doesn’t practice religion. It doesn’t espouse an opinion. Disease just wants to grow and spread. And it’s usually pretty good at it. So political arguments about vaccinations don’t faze diseases. The mumps couldn’t care less if you don’t believe your...
Sounding off: What is ‘supremacy’?
I offer this opinion at the risk of being labeled, but I believe that it’s important that the term “supremacy” deserves greater scrutiny. I first heard the term years ago. It gradually and ultimately disappeared as a result of the civil rights movement begun in the ’60s. The left has...
Letter to the editor: Now’s not the time to restrict guns
At a time in the history of our country when we have seen massive undocumented immigration, now is not the time to pass legislation restricting the rights of Americans to obtain and utilize guns for protection. Jackie Frazier Bellevue...
Letter to the editor: Killers deserve swift, final justice
Recently two Jewish leaders from Squirrel Hill announced they have petitioned U.S. Attorney General William Barr to seek a plea deal to spare the life of Robert Bowers, the killer of 11 Jewish worshippers in Squirrel Hill in October 2018 (“Dor Hadash, New Light leaders urge AG to accept life...
Letter to the editor: Left’s gun-control propaganda
It is August, and as they say, “make hay while the sun shines.” Democratic presidential hopefuls have been doing just that, known to take advantage of every opportunity to use whatever advantage that is afforded them to win an election and gain power. To date this year, 1,636 people have...
Walter Williams: College is not the only road to success
For many parents, August is a month of both pride and tears. Pride because their teenager is taking that big educational step and tears because for many it’s the beginning of an empty nest. Yet, there’s a going-away-to-college question that far too few parents ask or even contemplate: What will...
John Stossel: Deconstructing Trump’s deregulation promise
President Trump promised he’d get rid of bad rules. “Remove the anchor dragging us down!” he said when campaigning for president. “We’re going to cancel every needless job-killing regulation!” Trump was a developer, so he knew that the thicket of rules government imposes often makes it impossible to get things...
Editorial: The ultimate checks and balances
We have to hold our government accountable. But we have to do the same to ourselves. On Wednesday, Allegheny County Council held a hearing about an ordinance that would create an independent police review board. Independent observation and supervision of government is a good thing. It is the kind of...
Letter to the editor: Cancellation of dangerous movie
The decision to cancel the film “The Hunt” due to criticism after the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, was hopefully a wake-up call for the liberal entertainment industry. Universal Films, owned by Comcast, produced “The Hunt,” in which a group of “elites” kidnap and hunt “deplorables”...
Letter to the editor: Where’s Trump’s wall?
Well, it’s been six months, and I just wanted to check in on the emergency at the border. Are the troops stationed there safe and well supplied and staying clear of harm’s way? No casualties, I hope, from the “invasion” of women, children and infants. I’m just asking because it...
Letter to the editor: Let’s get serious about our problems
When is it time we can be done with this? People put up billboards with harmful messaging that is influential and may be effective enough to encourage harm. The Republican Party of Fayette County puts congresswomen’s faces on dartboards, believing it’s funny to use their pictures as targets at the...
Paul Kengor: Vietnam vet Joe Harrilla more than a number
Joseph G. Harrilla grew up in Sandy Lake, Pa., in the 1950s. His hero was GI Joe. He watched movies like “The Sands of Iwo Jima.” When Vietnam came, Joe wanted to get there as quickly as possible. His first image upon arrival were naked dead bodies of Vietnamese. He...
Letter to the editor: Fly flag to honor John McCain
I am hoping other Pennsylvanians will join with me this Sunday, Aug. 25, and fly the American flag at their residence and/or place of business marking the one-year anniversary of U.S. Sen. John McCain’s death. Considering the present state of our national discourse, I believe paying tribute to those who...
Lori Falce: The blindsiding of a friend’s suicide
We hadn’t talked — really talked — in months. Maybe years. It’s one of those things where you lose track. Social media had become our conduit, where we left the occasional “oh that’s so sweet” on a picture of each other’s kids or caught up on job changes and new...
Laurels & lances: Hard work, fast train, sweet music
Laurel: To the value of a hard worker. Some people have plans to retire after 20 or 30 years on the job. Not Nora Morant. At 88, the Oakland woman has spent 70 years on the housekeeping staff at Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Squirrel Hill. She is...
Letter to the editor: Gun violence & cultural change
We all stand horrified at gun violence. However afraid, we must continue to stand for freedom. Red flag laws or gun prohibitions will not halt our problem. At best, they may slow the pace or change the weapons used; at worst, they will invite a police state or pathway for...
Letter to the editor: Unfair sentence compared to DUI
I read about the man from Scottdale who robbed a Dollar General for $402 and got a sentence of up to 10 years (“Cops: A week after burglary, Scottdale Dollar General gets robbed,” Aug. 14, TribLIVE). My husband was killed by a drunk driver with no insurance, no license; he...
Sally Pipes: Trump’s socialist price controls will harm patients
The Trump administration is planning one of the biggest changes to Medicare in decades. The draft rule would effectively bring socialist drug price controls to the United States. The change would threaten patients’ health and discourage companies from funding experimental treatments for deadly diseases. The rule impacts Medicare Part B,...
George Will: ‘The Nickel Boys’ : A searing reminder of what’s not unthinkable
WASHINGTON Because of the investigation led by three University of South Florida researchers, and because of exemplary journalism by the Tampa Bay Times, we now have an intensely discomforting but welcome enrichment of American literature. It requires artistry to write beautifully about children suffering at the hands of evil men,...
Editorial: Do the math on jobs numbers
When you can’t quite believe what you hear, you might want to go back to the numbers. There’s nowhere that’s more true than when you look at a government report. Some of them are straightforward. This budget accounts for so much money in and so much money out. That’s hard...
Letter to the editor: Mueller exonerated Trump?
Regarding Guy Reschenthaler’s op-ed “Mueller show’s over; it’s time to move on” (Aug. 7, TribLIVE), I have to question him on his comment “In fact, despite Mueller’s report exonerating the president … .” I read your newspaper daily, and I follow all news very closely, so my question is: What?...
