Sounding off: Trump, Biden, county commissioners lead week's topics

Don’t vote as a ‘fan’

In this forum, people write that they either favor President Trump and bash President Biden, or favor Biden and bash Trump. Whomever you vote for, I ask that you not vote if you are a fan. Fans vote for their favorite regardless of the candidate’s credentials. Fan voting is voting with emotion. You are a fan voter if you love one candidate or you hate the other.

People need to vote with their intellect. Analyze the policies the candidates wish to pursue. Look at what bills got through Congress. Look at the candidates’ websites and see which policies are most in line with what you think is best for America. Look at the foreign policies the candidates are likely to pursue and determine which ones would be best.

Most importantly, vote. Don’t be discouraged if you dislike both candidates, because that is an emotion, too. Choose the one you think will be best for America. Notice I did not say, choose the one that you feel will be best for America. The emphasis here is “think” and not “feel.”

Richard Patton

Franklin Township, Beaver County

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Tax hike and wasted ARPA funds

In response to the letter “Vote out county commissioners” (March 13, TribLive): I have been beating that drum for several years, pointing out that I believe Commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew were using the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to keep taxes down so that they would be reelected and could then raise taxes on county residents.

Ted Kopas, just elected, is only one vote of three. He has pledged to donate his raise to charities, so he should not be blamed for this obscene raise, as he alone could not have changed the outcome of the 32% tax increase. If Lisa Gephart had been elected instead of either Chew or Kertes, perhaps this increase (which was needed) might have been less egregious. Keep in mind that elections, whether national or local, have serious consequences.

At the January commissioners’ meeting, Chew also admitted that remaining ARPA funds are spent, dumped into the general funds. Under federal law every penny of these funds need to be accounted for, although Chew stated he didn’t think this would be possible. I am currently looking over the last quarterly report to determine if a request for fraud investigation by the Treasury Department is appropriate.

Elizabeth Veronica Weaver

Hempfield

The author is a member of Voice of Westmoreland.

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GOP must embrace mail-in voting

The 2019 Act 77 election law enabled “mail-in ballot voting” in Pennsylvania. Many Republicans are totally against this practice. I am against this practice. However, we are stuck with it. Until Republicans actually win control of the Pennsylvania House, Senate and governorship, it will not change.

Recent elections substantiate the Democrats’ dominance in local races even though Republican registration outpaces the Democrats by a 50%-38% margin in North Huntingdon. The Dems are winning because of the “mail-in vote.” They have outworked us by getting their voters to apply for mail-in ballots. Therefore, on Election day, due to mail-in balloting, the Democrats already have a substantial lead when the polls open at 7 a.m. No candidate can overcome this.

Election Day apathy by Republicans in North Huntingdon had 6,000 registered Republican voters who chose to not vote.

We may not like it, but we have to play the game with the cards we are dealt. Mail-in balloting affords you a convenience. Do you realize that the upcoming Pennsylvania primary is April 23, not in May as it has been recently? Are you sure that you will not be sick? Are you certain that nothing will interfere with your ability to physically get to the polls? A family emergency? We can not control the future but we can make sure of our ability to cast our vote.

Republicans must close the gap on mail-in voting. If not, we may never win another election.

Rich Walczak

North Huntingdon

The writer is a committeeman for Westmoreland County Republican Committee’s District 3.

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Another side of Trump

In 2005, Donald Trump sent a handwritten letter to former Miss Wisconsin Melissa Consin Young, who was lying gravely ill in a hospital room. She described the letter in 2016 during Trump’s presidential campaign, noting that he wrote, “To the bravest woman I know”; “I remember, such a wonderful, beautiful woman, I mean just an amazing woman”; “You’re gonna hopefully be all right, those doctors are going to be so wrong, we’ll be helping you!” Young said Trump provided, through his foundation, a full-ride college scholarship for her then-7-year-old son.

On abortion, Trump has said “every child is a gift from God.” At a recent rally in Georgia, Trump met with the parents of slain nursing student Laken Riley, and during his speech commented that she is in heaven with God.

It’s sad that Trump haters never get to hear these and similar remarks. It is apparent that they are subject to mainstream media propaganda and their censure of anything pro-Trump. The press was given a prominent place in the Constitution to be a watchdog against the formation of a tyrannical government, and I think they have failed miserably.

Trump is not the ogre they make him out to be. In my opinion, he’s the only one standing between a tyrannical government and our freedom. If your vision of America for your descendants is that of Joe Biden and his ilk, good luck!

Rudolph Puchan

Latrobe

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We deserve better than Biden

Most of the media coverage of President Biden’s recent State of the Union speech focused on his prepared speech. Little attention was given to what was said in those rare moments when he went off-script. However, these moments provide insight into his true character. They are not written in advance and read from a teleprompter.

Consider Biden’s response when challenged about Laken Riley. His initial response to this tragic murder was not one of sorrow, compassion or understanding. Instead, it was a casual “yeah but” defense of his immigration policy: “An innocent young woman was killed. That’s right. But how many thousands of people have been killed by legals.”

Let that sink in a moment.

Here is our commander-in-chief, the man who’s supposed to feel our pain, the great uniter. When given a chance to show some compassion or sympathy, or maybe some responsibility and leadership (“I need to make sure we do a better job vetting the migrants”), his initial response was, “hey, thousands of people are killed, what’s one more?”

This was not the first time he has exhibited such shameless behavior. Remember his response to George Stephanopoulos in an ABC interview about the chaotic Afghan withdrawal? When asked about the people clinging to and falling from planes, he cynically replied, “That was four days ago, five days ago.”

We deserve better leadership than this.

Daniel A. Hosko

Green Tree

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Biden’s mental fitness

Consider President Biden’s stamina, his schedule so full, reporters traveling with him — some half his age — worn out. Others describe him as “vigorous intellectually,” “an intellectual firepower,” “his mastery of the geopolitical world astounding.”

Research shows two-thirds of Americans over 85 do not have dementia. That reality is evinced by people in their 80s and 90s leading active, productive lives. Many congressional members are older than Biden: Mitch McConnell, 81, Charles Grassley, 89, Bernie Sanders, 82, Jim Clyburn, 82, Steny Hoyer, 83, Hal Rogers, 85.

Diplomat Henry Kissinger was 100 when he jetted off to visit with his old pal Xi Jinping last summer. Anthony Fauci is 87. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch, 92. Can you imagine anyone fussing about financial whiz Warren Buffett’s age (93)?

Equally impressive, entertainment octogenarians and more. Robert Redford, 87, Robert De Niro, 82, Ridley Scott, 86, Anthony Hopkins, 86, Willie Nelson, 90, the Rolling Stones, 79-80. Paul McCartney, Harrison Ford, Martin Scorsese, all 81. Dick Van Dyke, 98, still dancing. William Shatner, 92, still going where no man has gone before.

Biden’s mental acuity? Listen to his State of the Union address.

Dar Thomas

Whitehall

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Basketball just a game? Not in Jeannette.

They say basketball is only a game. Tell that to Jeannette Jayhawks sophomore Kymone Brown, playing with flu-like symptoms after watching practice from a computer screen all week and finishing with 10 points in an unthinkable and absolutely unbelievable 48-46 overtime upset win over Greensburg Central Catholic (“Jeannette shocks rival Greensburg Central Catholic in PIAA 2nd round,” March 13, TribLive).

“I was sick tonight,” Brown was quoted as saying. “But I had to keep playing. I’m never going to quit. I won’t quit until I’m dead.”

Will someone please tell Kymone Brown that basketball is only a game? Go ahead, I dare you!

Greg Stock

Jeannette