Sounding off: Libraries, Steelers, Idlewild purchase, DOGE cuts on readers' minds

Our communities need libraries

As a former public librarian and current school librarian, I am in a position to tell you about the impact libraries have on communities.

At the Carnegie Library, the staff and I helped elders learn how to use computers for the first time, taught them how to sign up for health care programs and how to use email, and gave free help with online tax returns. We taught expectant mothers the importance of reading to their babies, did storytimes for toddlers and school-age children, and provided a safe place for children from elementary through high school after school to participate in activities ranging from science and math projects, to gaming, to cooking new kinds of foods.

Public libraries provide Wi-Fi, computers, books, movies and a safe place to be where your presence is welcomed without the need to purchase anything to be there. There is no other place in America where that is true.

School librarians enhance students’ reading fluency while supporting schools’ curricula. Many students do not live near a public library, or cannot walk safely to one, so checking out books at school is their only access to the books they need to keep reading.

We desperately need to increase the number of librarians and libraries in our schools. When schools have full football stadiums but an underfunded library, or no librarian, you know their priorities are completely out of whack.

Sheila May-Stein

Wilkins

The writer is a librarian at Perry High School.

***

Steelers need an overhaul

I get tired of reading and hearing in the national media about how much players around the league love Mike Tomlin. The Steelers consistently miss signing priority free agents and only retain their own priority players when they give “highest paid at the position” contracts.

The Rooneys need to conduct an honest evaluation of how they run the team, including player relationships, facilities, quality of staff, etc. They are consistently rated near the bottom of the league in nearly every category.

Anyone who follows them knows it isn’t because they make the hard decisions to part with aging but declining veterans that they keep on inflated contracts for sentimental reasons. Based on players’ ratings of NFL teams, that sentimentality goes one way. When The Chief ran the team, players professed love for ownership and sometimes stayed on discount contracts to play for the Steelers.

I’m not saying they have sunk to Pirates’ level yet, but that is the general direction they have been heading. It has been a long time since neutral observers have given the Steelers any chance of competing for the Lombardi Trophy, which they profess to be their goal every year.

Tom Maher

Rosslyn Farms

***

Hoping for a return to tradition with new Idlewild owners

So glad to hear another company is taking over Idlewild & SoakZone, along with Kennywood and Sandcastle. Hopefully, the new owners will restore the beauty and traditions Idlewild once valued before it was sold to Palace Entertainment.

Joanne Thornburg

North Huntingdon

***

Long covid will be here a long time

Your editorial “5 years after covid, scars linger” (March 13, TribLive) was (almost) right on target. I will give two examples.

1. My grandmother, born in 1898, had the 1918 Spanish flu but survived. On Thanksgiving morning 1974, she woke up with the strangest cough. I was home visiting my parents, and the next morning I called an EENT doctor I knew. He saw her that afternoon and after an exam he asked her about the 1918 flu, having just read an article about that flu’s return in immuno-compromised older adults. He was correct. My grandmother lived another 10 years with proper meds.

2. I was asked to consult on an example of post-polio disorder in a 70-year-old man who had polio in the 1950s but went into remission. Unfortunately his polio came roaring back and he lived less than a year.

Like the famous Farmingham studies (1948), we need both longitudinal and cohort studies of covid victims into their older years. Long covid will be with us for a long time.

The Rev. Robert J. Marks

Grapeville

The writer is a registered nurse and former infection control officer.

***

Musk and DOGE saving America

With over $36 trillion in debt (over $100,000 per person) and increasing at about $2 trillion a year, the United States is on a spending spree that could very soon lead to bankruptcy. If that were to happen, government spending would stop, the dollar would plummet and our great nation would rapidly descend into chaos. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would be gone, our military would disband and crime would be everywhere.

The solution — the United States government must reduce its expenses and stop borrowing, and it must do so quickly if we are to remain a great nation.

The DOGE team is working to avert this disaster. They have started by identifying waste, fraud and abuse, and have found huge savings already. Much more will come, and our federal government will run more efficiently without sacrificing needed services, as corporate America has done over the past generation. While unnecessary federal employees and contractors are being terminated, they are skilled people and are in demand. Although somewhat distressing, most will land on their feet.

In this national emergency, it is astounding that this effort is met with strong resistance. Elon Musk, the focal point of the anger, is an extremely talented and successful individual. He has donated his time and accepted the enormous challenge of ridding our government of unneeded spending.

Americans of all political persuasions must become patriots first and support this vital effort. Enough of the hatred! The Musk team is truly saving the America we know and love for our children and grandchildren. Without it, we are lost.

Maury Fey

Murrysville

***

Cuts to research not good for region

As someone who was born and raised in Pittsburgh but a product of European immigration, I’d like to move on.

I’m a commercial union carpenter. I typically build local hospitals and research facilities for a living. A career anyone should be proud to have. Lately though, things aren’t looking so good.

The Trump administration has implemented steep cuts to the work medical researchers do. This means that hundreds of millions of dollars that were previously going to support research and the expenses associated with the overhead of facilities will be cut to offset tax breaks for the rich.

I think my kids are going to love living in Italy.

Philip Vecchio

New Kensington

***

Respect history and don’t use Nazi symbol

I have seen protests saying President Trump and Elon Musk are Nazis. The swastika, the symbol of the Nazis, is on the signs they hold and place in their front yards. This is emotional for me because I don’t think they have any idea of history.

My father-in-law endured 18 operations after being hit in Germany. He picked a Nazi armband off a dead soldier — not an ordinary soldier, a Nazi. Trained to brutally kill in any way possible. These Nazis tried to kill all the Jews. That’s called genocide. Many millions of people were brutally murdered.

To use this symbol is horrible. It lessens what happened in World War II. Please don’t use it. There are a few survivors out there, and it would cause much anxiety if they see it.

Terrill Woosley

Hempfield