Sounding off: Politics week's top letters' topic

Why don’t we better protect our presidents, candidates?

How many times have we heard the same refrain from a U.S. president, federal officials serving in the Secret Service, FBI and Central Intelligence Agency, and news media pundits after a president or presidential candidate has been assassinated or wounded in assassination attempt?

There have been multiple attempts to assassinate a U.S. president, of which four were successful. There also have been multiple attempts to assassinate a presidential candidate, of which one was successful.

Why is the protection of our presidents and presidential candidates so flawed? Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stated that the rooftop was too slanted for the Secret Service agents to be secured on the roof; yet the assassin who attempted to kill Trump in Butler July 13 had no problem being secured on the rooftop.

It has been reported that the Secret Service was notified of the assassin on the rooftop 30 minutes prior to the shooting. This appears to be the same policy to defund the police and release without bond killers, rioters, rapist, drug dealers, etc. What have we become as a nation, a people, to tolerate such indifferences to the well-being of every American?

John Kostelac

White Oak

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Democrats’ bait and switch

I find it curious how quiet the mainstream media is about the bait and switch pulled by the Democrats. It was President Biden who got the votes and the delegates, not Kamala Harris. If the Republicans had done this prior to the nomination, you know we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

The mainstream media continues to show its bias by lauding Harris as the greatest thing since sliced bread while having no qualms trying to change the narrative about President Trump’s attempted assassination by saying it was shrapnel and not a bullet that hit his ear.

For all you Harris supporters, remember she has called for less police. She supported the Minnesota Freedom Fund in 2020 during the George Floyd riots by tweeting “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.” The MFF bailed out criminals, one of whom later killed someone.

She was put in charge of the border regardless of what she is now saying. She should have been in the Senate last week while a foreign prime minister was speaking, but gave a talk to a sorority instead.

Ida Smith

Harwick

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Only one old guy left standing

Well, it looks like the only old guy left in this race is Donald Trump. What is he, 78? That’s old!

OK, no more Sleepy Joe, or Dementia Joe, or whatever childish names the GOP tagged President Biden with. Now all attention is on Trump. New scrutiny will now befall Trump.

Moving on: Weren’t Rep. James Comer and his merry band trying to impeach Biden a few months ago, and didn’t Trump himself mention 37 times in one rally that Biden should drop out? That he is unfit to be POTUS? Alas, that’s exactly what Biden did. Then they tried to keep Biden from dropping out. Which is it, fellas? Hilarious!

It’s a whole new ballgame now. The MAGA crowd is already in full attack mode against Vice President Kamala Harris. I suspect many MAGA folks aren’t willing to admit even to themselves her being “unqualified” has an awful lot to do with the fact that she is a strong, intelligent woman of color. The MAGA cabal is scared. They should be.

One last thing: A women’s right to choose will be a big factor in this election.

Jeffrey Hice

Penn Township, Westmoreland County

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Trump has integrity, honor

Donald J. Trump is a man of integrity and honor; he possesses all the qualities required to faithfully serve the common good. Unless applicable substantiating facts are clearly delineated, the listing (see Alinsky’s Rule 13) of faults and assessments by the 13 Cranberry Catholics are meaningless (“Trump doesn’t have qualities needed to serve common good,” July 19, TribLive).

Was the Lord inherently lacking in empathy when he drove the money- changers out of the temple or cursed the fig tree?

The following biblical maxim may moderate the vitriol: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast a stone at her.” Read and understand Catechism of the Catholic Church 2477, offenses against truth.

This format precludes any refutation of the obviously political talking points. Nevertheless, concerned Catholics may not in good conscience vote for anyone advocating any of the intrinsic evils. It is the prime duty of every Catholic to inform their conscience and to understand the nature and consequences of the intrinsic evils.

Confucius advises, “Attack the evil that is within yourself, rather than attacking the evil that is in others.” Seems quite appropriate in this situation.

Peter A. Caruso

West Mifflin

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Republicans’ thoughts on Trump

I think that the opinions of leading Republicans about Donald Trump are more powerful than anything I can say. Here are some of them:

“I can’t stomach Trump. I think that he’s noxious and is leading the white working class to a very dark place.” From an op-ed for The New York Times titled: “Mr. Trump Is Unfit For Our Nation’s Highest Office.” — J.D. Vance on NPR, 2016.

“We all were here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.” — Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at his weekly news conference, Feb. 8, 2022.

“The problem now is he is not the same person he was in 2016 … . He is unhinged; he is more diminished than he was, just like Joe Biden’s more diminished than what he was.” — Nikki Haley on the “Today Show,” August 2023.

Charles Henry

Greensburg

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Olympics abomination

After the abomination depicting the Last Supper with a drag queen performance, rest assured that no member of our family will watch one second of the Olympics. Let’s see how the advertisers like that. You should be ashamed of yourselves. We notice you did not cover that in the morning news.

Can you imagine if the show depicted Mohammed in a similar light? Paris would still be burning.

Please spare us the French president’s apology. They didn’t know beforehand that the production would depict something so offensive? Very unlikely. It was offensive to people of all faiths. And therein lies the problem. Today’s world is all about not offending the minority, and the hell with mainstream values.

We were surprised that the NBC team did mention that any activities involving the Seine River are canceled due to the pollution of human waste in the river.

But now it appears there is more than human waste in that river. There is the polluted waste of human souls in France and NBC.

Peter A. Mamula

Venetia

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Hamilton situation an outrage

Enough is enough! As a hard-working, taxpaying citizen of Westmoreland County, I am outraged and angered by the Sherry Magretti Hamilton debacle. Her level of arrogance and self-entitlement and total lack of self-accountability is totally unacceptable and a huge slap in the face to all county residents who work hard every day to pay their taxes. She was elected in good faith by her constituents to perform the duties of the Register of Wills Office, and it has been proven that she has failed miserably for years while continuing to collect a hefty paycheck.

It is not enough that she resigns at year end. It is not enough that she pay a small $10,000 fine. She needs to resign immediately, her paycheck needs to stop now and she should be held financially responsible to pay the salary of the conservator who had to be hired to clean up the job she so irresponsibly and willfully failed to do.

The questions I have now: how did this situation go on for so long without coming to light sooner, and how to we assure this never happens again? The citizens of Westmoreland County deserve better!

Gail Follador

Penn Township, Westmoreland County