Sounding off: Citizens should be able to vote out bad cops

We the people should have the right to vote out a police officer based on proof that he’s a bad cop. Citizens pay tax dollars to pay officers to protect and serve, and that’s not what’s transpiring in many situations.

We the people can vote out mayors, governors, Congress members and presidents. Why not at least give citizens a voice in this area? It would definitely improve many police situations and could eliminate lawsuits, too.

I say once a month a meeting should be held by each town’s mayor for citizens to vote on bad police officers.

Lisa Illinsky, Springdale

Done with the NFL

Dear Steelers,

It’s not you, it’s me. I am a 62-year-old lifelong Steelers fan. I grew up in the Pittsburgh area. I can tolerate crying, whiny, millionaire players, as that really hasn’t changed in all those years. I can even tolerate supporting a cause I don’t agree with.

But I won’t tolerate the disrespect of everything I believe in. I won’t tolerate the support of a socialist Marxist organization and disrespect of the greatest country on the planet. I have six replicas of Lombardis commemorating each championship. I won’t erase history; they will stay on display reminding me of the good times.

Nothing but respect to the Rooneys and coach Mike Tomlin, but the NFL went down a path I cannot follow. I won’t be attending, watching or buying anymore. I hope someday we can get back together. The NFL used to be entertainment. Not anymore. I hope someday it returns to that so I can return. Until then I’m out. Good luck, Godspeed. Principles matter.

Dave Ritter, Muncy

Mail-in voting is an insult to our heroes’ sacrifices

Valley Forge, Fort McHenry, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, Belleau Wood, Normandy/Iwo Jima, Pusan, Khe Sanh, Baghdad, Gamsir.

It is safe to say the nation’s youth that found themselves in those places would have preferred to have been somewhere else that was safe or “in the rear with the gear.” Yet they risked life and limb for fundamental liberties and national ideals.

In regard to mail-in voting: Aside from serving on some far-flung front line, working out of town contributing to the GDP, or being too infirm or too advanced in age — if you are too lazy or too fearful to risk a few minutes at your polling precinct, virus or not (you assume risk going to the grocery store) — then maybe you are undeserving of the privilege to vote.

A mail-in vote is an insult to the expended blood and deprivations experienced by the few to ensure the liberties of the many.

David A. Scandrol, Lower Burrell

We need cheap, rapid, over-the-counter covid-19 test

As a Pittsburgh infectious disease physician, I applaud Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina’s covid-19 surveillance approach, which he outlined in a July 3 New York Times opinion piece and at microbe.tv/#640. He endorses a cheap, rapid, over-the-counter covid-19 test. While it will miss some infections, it will be fewer than once thought, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the current standard, a PCR (polymerase chain reaction)-based test, can be too sensitive.

The over-the-counter test could be administered to students before school each day to capture both symptomatic and asymptomatic covid-19 infections. As a result, community spread could be limited and contact tracing would be much more effective. While the over-the-counter test would be surveillance grade, the PCR-based test would remain clinical treatment grade and the gold standard.

The obstacle to implementing this plan is the FDA approval process. Per Mina, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires any new covid-19 test be at least 90% as sensitive as currently approved PCR-based tests. While a laudable goal, it cannot be achieved now; thus, we need to act with the technology we have available.

Contact your elected leaders to support the immediate FDA approval of a cheap, rapid, over-the-counter covid-19 test.

Dr. Mary Catherine McEllistrem, Regent Square

Dr. Levine is strangling Pa. business community

A letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine:

Call me whatever you desire, but I care not one bit what type of sexuality that you embrace (“Dr. Rachel Levine responds to transphobic comments: ‘I do not have time for intolerance’” ). My concern is that you are ruining the commonwealth of Pennsylvania with your heavy-handed decrees and mandates that are strangling the lifeblood out of our business community, especially the restaurant industry that has suffered so much. Enough! I did not vote for you — or for Mr. Wolf, for that matter. Release our commonwealth to be free to exercise its right to live unhindered from you and your kind.

Don Walczak, Hempfield

Dr. Birx takes a stand for truth

Now you’ve gone and done it, Dr. Deborah Birx!

You had to blow the whistle and tell the American people the truth, on national television (“CNN Sunday,” Aug. 2), no less: that we are in a new phase of coronavirus plague with no segment of the country immune, including rural areas.

Did you give no thought to how damaging it could be to President Trump and his reelection bid to level with the American people and let us know once again what a serious threat we face? Are you not aware that when one serves at the pleasure of this president, they have an obligation to say and do only what will reflect favorably upon him, that it is your duty to be like Trump sycophant Vice President Mike Pence? To begin every statement about the virus by telling us what a great leader Trump is and what a magnificent job he is doing to protect us from “the invisible enemy,” a job he is uniquely qualified to handle?

His criticism of you on Twitter the next day as “pathetic” was mild by his standards. He could have called you “Horseface II,” “loser,” “slob” or “dog,” or accused you of treason and called for you to be executed. You are lucky!

Don’t you dare make a statement that does not comport with what Trump wants, Doctor. He is an extremely stable genius, remember, the smartest, best, most effective president we have ever had, on the same level as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, don’t ya know?

Don’t you forget it!

Oren Spiegler, Peters

John Lewis’ funeral fiasco

Jesus Christ himself would not have received the send-off that the remains of Rep. John Lewis endured recently. What should have been a reverent and solemn rite of Christian burial turned into a weeklong extravaganza of overblown media coverage, social justice gamesmanship and celebrity-speak.

President Obama showed his true colors by turning what was to be an eulogy address into a full-blown political campaign speech complete with applause, cheers and standing ovations. In my opinion, none of this did justice to the man who was due his day of atonement.

I always considered Lewis a genuine American hero and icon because he attained his role as a leader of the Black community the old-fashioned way: He earned it, and not by decree as I believe Obama, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have.

While a tally of the total resources expended for this occasion is not known, I have a feeling that Lewis would have preferred those funds go toward the advancement of the underprivileged in our inner cities.

Ken Mowl, Derry