Sounding off: Ukraine aid, middle class, A/C, librarians, greed among week's topics

We’ve helped Ukraine enough

President Biden, when is it going to be enough? You continue to send weapons, billions and billions of dollars, and all other kinds of help to aid Ukraine. What about the people of the United States?

Those billions of dollars that you keep sending to Ukraine could benefit people that are in need here in the United States. There are U.S. citizens who need housing, groceries, gas, clothing and medicine, too. Veterans, homeless, underprivileged citizens are in need of government help. Prices keep going up and up. Everything is becoming so expensive. It’s ridiculous that you continue to help and give aid to any other country before helping your own people.

Other countries aren’t shelling out billions of dollars to help Ukraine, only the United States. Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad for the Ukrainian people, but enough is enough. Will they pay us back? Will they help the United States financially if needed? I don’t think so. No one does.

I hope all of the people idiots who voted for Biden are happy with the way this country is being run. I know that we people who voted otherwise are beyond disappointed and angry. I think it’s time to start worrying about our veterans, homeless and all other people of our country.

Randy Geer

Vandergrift

***

Make America prosperous again for all, not just the few

With FDR’s progressive policies, strong unions and investment in public education in the mid- to late- 1900s, the United States had the first world-class middle class.

The 1950s, ’60s and ’70s were the golden age of middle-class America. People could buy homes for the first time, and their children could go to college. Then came the 1980s with Reaganomics, the trickle-down theory and the concept that greed is good and government is the problem. These ideas resulted in the shrinking of the middle class.

Today with such massive inequality, we have the ultra-wealthy attacking the very programs that created our once thriving middle class and the prosperity that came with it. Big Money continues to assault unions with right-to-work laws (which means right to work for less) while CEOs are outrageously compensated and industries are recording unheard-of profits while benefiting from corporate welfare. They continue to oppose a living wage for all working Americans, and this greed is putting an extra strain on an already struggling middle class.

Big Money continues to assault progressive policies by stating that they want to shrink government and debt when, in fact, our debt is caused by tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. Public education has suffered with the push to privatize education. Their goal is more money and opportunity for the few at the expense of the many.

Power, money and accountability can be challenged by numbers and voters. If the American people would come together for the greater good, we could reclaim our middle class and all the prosperity that comes with it. We could demand an end to the financialization of our economy and its obscene income and wealth inequality.

Katie Forsythe

North Huntingdon

***

Air conditioners cause problems

I was disappointed to see the column by Tom Purcell extolling air conditioners (“A/C has made life cooler,” July 24, TribLIVE). Air conditioners are a big part of the problem, hardly a solution.

I wonder if he knows that while they are cooling a living area, they just move the heat outside, while adding more at the power plant as well as locally due to the inefficiencies of the machine. Also they encourage people to migrate to areas where we are not suited to live, causing more overpopulation, which is already the root of virtually every human problem.

Purcell states that excessive heat is an equalizer between rich and poor, because everyone suffers equally from the heat. Maybe nature meant us all to be equal? However, the poorest of us don’t have the money for an air conditioner, or even a home in which to install it. Don’t we already have a big problem with wealth inequality in this country?

Considering so many policies of the right-wing regarding energy use and production, and attitudes like Purcell’s, I can only see that so many of us are racing us to human extinction.

Fred Durig

Delmont

***

Librarians not ‘sexualizing’ our children

A recent letter-writer denounced the “leftist hysteria” that he believes is defending “the sexualization of children in our schools” (“Books and the sexualization of our children,” Aug. 3, TribLIVE). It would be good if he had offered concrete examples of either the “leftist hysteria” or of the “sexualization” of children. The contents of school libraries are determined by school librarians who are usually trained to do that. Do you remember your school librarian? Did she/he look like the type to be foisting lascivious or pornographic literature on the kids?

But no! Something calling itself “Moms for Liberty” has declared war on school librarians. The letter-writer says a “diatribe” has been launched against that organization. Well, any organization that approvingly quotes Adolf Hitler earns my suspicion. Then you learn that they were founded by a small group of Republican women in Florida and are endorsed by that great educator, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as the Proud Boys. They started fighting covid-19 restrictions and have now expanded into a whole right-wing litany of targets. They have had repeated run-ins with the law. Doesn’t sound like something my mom would have done. Doesn’t sound like liberty, either. Maybe something Hitler would have approved of.

Robert Supansic

McKeesport

***

Greed is killing America

“The eagle and the arrow: An eagle was soaring through the air when he felt a pain in his side which caused him to crash helplessly to the ground. As he felt his life slipping away, he looked at the arrow which had felled him and found that the shaft was feathered with one of his own tail feathers, and he lamented for all the mountains and sky to hear: We often give our enemies the means for our destruction!”

Now think what our government, Big Pharma, the auto industry, the high-tech industry and big businesses have done to our country. They sold it out for tax breaks, cheap labor, low-quality products and money all in the name of offshore manufacturing. Now, they are letting foreign governments buy up our real estate.

It’s our own fault, because we keep reelecting the same lying, greedy politicians to office. Goodbye to the America we once knew. Maybe we should listen to the eagle, because the enemy comes from within.

Jack Juris

Buffalo Township

***

When will Hempfield get its own police force?

Hempfield Township, among many other current and future purchases, is spending $3.5 million to purchase the former SCI Greensburg state prison and additional money for cleanup (“Hempfield to purchase former state prison site, demolish buildings,” June 26, TribLIVE). What I would like to know is this: Why does Hempfield still not have its own police force?

***

We should all pay for our own choices

During our lifetimes we make many decisions. Some of these decisions will not only affect you, but cost others. Some of us will drink alcohol, some will not. Some will be satisfied with a drink or two, but some will become alcoholics. The same goes with drugs. Most will not use illegal drugs, but some will become addicted. But both were your choice; no one forced you.

Another choice is college. Again, it’s your choice; no one forced you. We are made to believe college is necessary. But is it? How many graduates actually work in the field they went to college for? I believe the percentage of people who benefited from college is very low.

The bottom line is, why do others have to pay for your bad choices? Some drug addicts are collecting Social Security disability payments. Why? I’ve been told Narcan costs at least $4,000 a dose. With no penalty.

It’s time these people paid their way instead of honest, hard-working people keeping them. We all have loans — a loan to buy a house, to start a business, to buy a car. Yes, it’s hard to repay money borrowed. But why must college loans be treated differently than other loans? A hardship is a hardship, but again it’s your choice; no one forced you. Get a job, pay your own way, quit being a leech on others’ money.

I believe in the pioneer way: Work hard and never put your hand out for others to keep you. Succeed or fail, it is up to you.

Calvin Fatchet

Freeport