Opinion category, Page 90
Letter to the editor: Sheriff is right about dangers of society
Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert is correct that society is becoming more dangerous (“Keeping Westmoreland County safe,” Dec. 10, TribLive). Millions of people coming across our southern border illegally is an invasion. No other country on earth would allow this. President Biden’s handlers made it worse by flying them to...
Letter to the editor: Why no conservative outcry over executive orders?
When Barack Obama was president he signed a few executive orders. Conservatives went ape, accusing him of being a dictator, carrying protest signs showing a Hitler mustache on Obama’s face, and demanding his removal from office for over-using executive orders. Now look what we have with Trump. In a few...
Kevin Frazier: Stuck and stagnant — why Americans need a frontier
The pandemic reshaped our world in countless ways, but perhaps the most insidious effect is the pervasive feeling of being stuck. A recent survey revealed that a majority of Americans feel socially stagnant — unable to take a major step toward a better life, better job, or better community. The...
Sen. Dick Durbin: Big Pharma should disclose prices on drug advertisements
Patients in the United States pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world — on average four times what people in other developed countries pay for the exact same brand-name medications. What makes the U.S. such an outlier when it comes to the high price of prescription drugs? The...
Letter to the editor: Why fund an air show with no air performances?
In the article “Westmoreland commissioners approve $1.7M tourism plan” (Jan. 17, TribLive) was this little nugget: “… nearly $94,000 was earmarked for the county air show at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.” The article then said that the air show was expected to be scaled down, a one-day event … with...
Letter to the editor: Looking forward to fair coverage
A few recent items in this newspaper gave me some hope that political events would be covered more fairly in the coming year. The letter “Fact-checking censorship” (Jan. 15, TribLive) was an excellent rebuttal to Lori Falce’s column “Meta is wrong about abandoning fact-checking”, (Jan. 10, TribLive) which stated that...
Editorial: Black History Month acknowledges the contributions to our communities
February is Black History Month. It is a time when we stop and take a moment to recognize the role Black people have played in the building of our country. From America’s earliest days, Black people were an integral part of the architecture of the nation — whether it was...
Letter to the editor: Costs of deportation
First off, I have no problem deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. As for the remainder: Immigration is using C17s to fly illegals out of the country. The passenger capacity of a C17 is 130 passengers. And it costs approximately $30,000 per hour to operate one. Assume...
Michael B. Poliakoff and Justin D. Garrison: Pa. universities pay lip service to campus free speech, yet self-censorship still persists
Like many universities, Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh are struggling to protect free expression, encourage a plurality of views and foster habits of civil discourse on their campuses. Seemingly aware of the problem, Pitt announced a “Year of Discourse and Dialogue” in 2023-24 that has been extended to...
Letter to the editor: Tyranny should always be opposed
If Donald Trump sends forces to seize Greenland, Denmark is politically and morally justified in stopping them. If American troops threaten Danish forces, the Danes should defend themselves. If Americans fire at them, the Danes should shoot back — however many young American soldiers, sailors and pilots might die or...
Letter to the editor: Fiscal ineptness in Westmoreland
It seems to me that an unyielding virus of fiscal ineptness has developed in the Great Land of Westmoreland (GLOW). It started when two of the three county commissioners — the regular one and the bald one — went scorched earth on taxpayers a year or so ago after they...
Editorial: Federal emergency management could use reform, not elimination
During a tour of communities in western North Carolina and neighborhoods in Los Angeles devastated by natural disasters, President Donald Trump told victims, state officials and assembled media that his administration would look to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the nation’s foremost disaster response agency, or consider eliminating it...
Letter to the editor: Our tax dollars shouldn’t fund war crimes
As a Jewish resident of Pittsburgh, I support the Not on Our Dime campaign to demand accountability in city policies and ensure our public resources reflect our shared values. Not on Our Dime is gathering signatures for a referendum to align Pittsburgh finances with residents’ moral standards by divesting from...
Letter to the editor: Pa. gas improves air quality
Using the devastating California wildfires in an attempt to score political points about Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry is a new low — even for Alison Steele and the Environmental Health Project (“Linking Pa.’s shale gas industry to Calif. wildfires,” Jan. 20, Triblive), a group that has received nearly $2 million...
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 3
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Feb. 3....
Claire Kovach and Yomarilis Gueits Rodriguez: Groundhog Day and minimum wage deja vu
As Pennsylvanians observe our dapper rodent weather prognosticator’s forecast, workers across the commonwealth will continue to wake up each day faced with the same reality we’ve known for 16 years now — we still have a $7.25 per hour minimum wage. As legislative efforts to raise it stall year after...
Letter to the editor: Is American exceptionalism gone?
The sound you hear is the illusion of American exceptionalism going pop. Turns out, we are as easily seduced by the allure of strongman populism as countless countries before us. It feels fresh but this is an old tired recipe. The promise of protection against the “other.” A self-righteous but...
Letter to the editor: Recent pardons signal trouble ahead
On Jan. 20, two presidents set a troubling precedent by each issuing broad pardons in the span of a few hours. President Biden preemptively pardoned family members and government officials to prevent hypothetical future prosecution. In a much more troubling move, President Trump pardoned over 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, including...
Letter to the editor: Secure your guns to save lives
In a Jan. 23 shooting in Hempfield, three innocent lives were ended far too soon, resulting in part from easy access to a gun (“4 found dead in suspected Hempfield murder-suicide; victims include children ages 1, 5,” Jan. 24, TribLive). Karen Swarner and her two beautiful children, Evelyn and Connor,...
Editorial: Register of wills nomination plays politics when it didn’t have to
Gov. Josh Shapiro has made nominations for two positions in the Westmoreland County Courthouse. Both are because of vacancies, as elected officials stepped away from their positions. In 2023, Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway retired. More than a year later, Hempfield lawyer Matt Schimizzi, 41, has been tapped by the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Gainey’s inclusionary zoning plan may hinder development
When Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey spoke at a planning commission hearing last week, he emphasized his “get tough on developers” version of an inclusionary zoning ordinance to develop affordable housing. Gainey wants to shift the responsibility for providing affordable housing away from his government — where it belongs — and...
Wolf Gruner: Newly discovered photos of Nazi deportations show Jewish victims as they were last seen alive
The Holocaust was the first mass atrocity to be heavily photographed. The mass production and distribution of cameras in the 1930s and 1940s enabled Nazi officials and ordinary people to widely document Germany’s persecution of Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities. I co-direct an international research project to collect...
Sounding off: Politics, Steelers among week’s letter topics
Our leaders used to deserve respect There was once a time when public officials earned and deserved respect. A time when those with policy differences were political opponents, not enemies. A time when public service was honored. Divorce was once considered to be a negative for candidates seeking the presidency....
Letter to the editor: Lamenting the loss of our champion teams
The letter “City of Champions no more” (Jan. 26, TribLive) hits the nail on the head in every aspect of our professional Pittsburgh teams, especially the Pirates and Steelers. Kudos to the writer. Ray Martin Penn Hills...
Letter to the editor: GOP’s greed
In my opinion, greed overcame the Republican Party; they only care what’s in their pockets, and when in office they have done nothing for the working class. Now a convicted felon is in office with unqualified billionaires running our country, reaping more wealth in their pockets. Donna Keefe Greensburg...
