Grateful for the Steelers

A multitude of insults have been thrown at Mike Tomlin disagreeing with his tactics while coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s a good thing Tomlin seems to be thick-skinned and can blow all the criticisms off.

I’m not a Pennsylvanian, although I live here due to circumstances beyond my control. To read the criticisms of Tomlin from the people who live here displays the kind of characters who would demean their own coach. Self-serving comes to mind.

This new year, 2025, is the year of being grateful. Grateful for what you have, grateful for your health and grateful for the Pittsburgh Steelers. If you love football, then support your team with positive vibes. Sweep the negativity under the rug, and you will feel more fulfilled with the coming of the days ahead.

Jan Gentry

Adams

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Good riddance to Biden

the letter “Thankful for Biden’s accomplishments” (Dec. 26, TribLive), here are some additional “accomplishments” to that list: a 22% rise in inflation; a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan; an unsecured southern border allowing millions of illegal migrants, including criminals and terrorist invaders, to enter the country, resulting in murders of our citizens and draining of taxpayer money; and misguided woke and socialist policies.

Joe Biden will be remembered by many for anti-American priorities and overall derelict leadership. Good riddance!

Mark Fetsko

Ligonier

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Penn State taunts persist for a reason

Regarding Chip Minemyer’s op-ed “Tired Sandusky taunts further insult victims of abuse” (Dec. 31, TribLive): Chants and chirps by opposing fans about the Penn State child sex abuse scandal are aimed at calling out the Penn State community for continuing to worship people, i.e. Joe Paterno, who played a prominent role in covering up Jerry Sandusky’s putrid crimes, or at the very least failing to use their power to stop him.

Look no further than a favorite chirp, one Minemyer even pointed out: “Joe knew.” The reason this chirp persists lies within its truth: Paterno knew that Sandusky molested at least one boy, after graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported it to him (maybe more, according to the Freeh report) and failed to do anything meaningful about it. By utilizing this chirp, fans of Penn State’s opponents are simply shining a light on a reality that the Penn State community has attempted to whitewash and/or forget.

The reality is that the man Penn Staters consider a saint is a pedophile enabler. I feel this is especially true since many Penn State students are unaware of the sex abuse scandal and its cover-up. The roommates and friends of a Penn State student I dated were unaware of the entire scandal.

The reason these chirps persist is due to opposing fans’ disgust and bewilderment toward the Penn State community for supporting Paterno, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that he enabled Sandusky’s crimes.

Wesley Luke

Chambersburg

The writer is a senior majoring in exercise science at the University of Pittsburgh.

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Will abortion horror ever end?

At the end of each year, my Catholic church designates a daily Mass to commemorate the “Holy Innocents,” the infants slaughtered by King Herod in his effort to kill the baby Jesus. It occurs to me that the grisly slaughter of the “holy innocents” is also occurring in huge and shameful numbers in our time, day after week after month after year.

I believe that as a society, our consciences and moral compasses have been so desensitized, and abortion so normalized, that we have lost the true understanding and sense of repulsion over what abortion really is. Is it not truly the slaughtering of pre-born babies?

Abortion-performing doctors must defy their oath to “do no harm.” Expectant mothers must try to suppress any feelings of bonding, defy their natural instinct to give birth to new life and risk potential future haunting feelings of guilt and remorse.

In the run-up to the recent election, Democrats were proclaiming their total, unconditional support for abortion as one of the prime motivations for electing them … and half of our country voted for them.

We look back in horror at past civilizations that practiced the sacrificing of their children. Will future civilizations look back in horror at us? This shameful pox on our society will continue until we have an awakening and change of heart, mind and soul. Sadly, I don’t believe that any legal action could ever make that happen.

Bob McBride

West Deer

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A different look at Afghanistan pullout

I am really tired of Republican letter-writers harping about President Biden’s “humiliating Afghanistan surrender to the Taliban” (“Biden a flawed president, flawed man,” Dec. 21, TribLive). Another wrote of “A bungled, shameful Afghanistan pullout” (“Hope for a better tomorrow with Trump,” TribLive, Dec. 27). Where were these writers while we “humiliated” ourselves in the eyes of the world for 13 years during that stupid war? A war we lost.

It was President Trump who “surrendered” to the Taliban in 2018, then did nothing, leaving it to Biden to take the blame. The government we supported in Afghanistan collapsed overnight. We did not see it coming — an intelligence failure worthy of complaint and investigation. Instead Republicans complain about the billions in equipment we left behind. An honest Republican would call for sending in 100,000 troops to get that stuff back — but we know they would never suggest that.

Republicans tug at our heartstrings about the “needless loss of 13 U.S. troops.” Where were their heartstrings while 2,459 of our troops were killed and 20,769 wounded — or was that “needful”? Republicans never mention the Biden administration actually pulled off one of the greatest short-notice evacuations in history: 122,000 people. Is that what they mean by “bungled”?

So grow up. Pay attention to what’s really going on the world, not to some internet blog whose author you don’t know or how they’re getting paid. Stop turning everything into a political football. Concentrate on the things that should be. That would be real patriotism.

Robert Supansic

McKeesport

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Why are we letting the fox guard the henhouse?

Think about the fable of the fox guarding the henhouse.

Now think about the guy who took billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayers’ money to design and build electric cars with batteries that go boom.

Now think about giving him a government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency, that has access to the U.S. Treasury through cuts to government agencies that serve U.S. citizens.

Now think about the acronym for that agency — DOGE.

DOGE is the currency sign for Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency.

Coincidence? Or a billionaire joke on the American people?

Kathleen Acklin

Highland Park

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Why can candidates take a break from their ‘jobs’

During a national election, it always strikes me how different the political world is from the business world. For example, in the most recent election we had candidates who were a sitting vice president and a governor. Both kept their positions, receiving normal pay, while they campaigned for several months. Unfortunately, they were not successful and thus returned to their regular place of employment.

One can only imagine an analogous situation in the business world. An employee says to their employer, “I am taking several months off, with pay, to look for a better job. If I am successful, I will leave, if not I will stay here.” It seems highly improbable that such an approach would be successful.

Bob Regan

Greenfield

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