Sounding off: Won't be listening to politicians' holiday advice

Regarding Dr. Rachel Levine’s holiday advice (“Pa. health secretary urges that gatherings be limited to households”): Limit holiday gatherings to those within your own home? Will you be avoiding your elderly mother this holiday season, Dr. Levine?

I will never forgive myself for following your advice this Easter. Many of my local family members, including my mother, live alone. They all missed the last Easter to ever spend with my husband, who passed away May 26 (not from covid-19). As I was alone and distressed making decisions in the hospital room, the TV blared, “We are all in this together.” Really? Next came picking and choosing which 25 total friends and family could come show their last respects and support because Pennsylvania was still in the yellow phase. Meanwhile, politicians marched, masked, shoulder to shoulder with protesters before the green phase June 3.

I wear a mask voluntarily with the belief that it is a minor change to make if it will help. My parents taught me hygiene and washing my hands long before you. Double standards are what cause division. Elected officials’ priorities are votes. Faith, family and your friends are the ones who truly care and support you.

Celebrate together because all our days are numbered.

Faye Daugherty, Mt. Pleasant Township

Gaslighting America

Postmodern theory, the concept that nothing is verifiably true, simply doesn’t work for everyone. For many, truths of religion and science still undergird their worldview.

Today’s progressive ideology seeks to reshape all belief systems to fit its cultural vision. This deconstructionist exercise is occurring in part through psychological manipulation known as gaslighting. The term originates from a 1938 stage play, “Gas Light,” in which an abusive husband attempts to render his wife insane by slowly dimming the gas lights while deeming his wife delusional when she perceives the gradually encroaching darkness.

Media and academia are imposing this technique on the American people. Reality is at odds with the narrative they assert. Looting mobs and burning buildings are backdrops of reporters claiming peaceful protests. Inner cities are overridden with crime, yet law enforcement is the problem.

The United States accepts more immigrants than any other country, yet the narrative contends America is irredeemably xenophobic. Capitalist countries are indisputably the most effective in alleviating poverty, yet capitalism is characterized as an oppressive system intent on holding people down. A white person living a respectable life, treating others fairly and respectfully, disavowing bigotry, is nevertheless categorically racist.

Gaslighting, where reality doesn’t reconcile with the narrative, has become pervasive in media and politics with the goal of restructuring the culture and the political system. For those who aren’t prepared to relinquish the American experiment in liberty, question everything and everyone, identify propaganda, search for truth. Most importantly, hang on to your sanity.

Stacey West, Sewickley

Pope’s redefinition of family is an outrage

Every born-again, blood-bought Christian must be in an outrage over Pope Francis’ recent decree concerning the sacred institution of marriage and his attempt to redefine “family” for a segment of society, in his own eyes.

Perhaps the pope should read and apply the Book of Genesis to learn the truth, that the Lord created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. The truth sets us free from the twisted perversion of men who want to justify their sinful behavior and gain acceptance by the broader society of their sin and even promote sin.

As recorded in Acts, the Ethiopian eunuch learned to respond by repenting and being baptized from the sin of homosexuality and all sin and become a true Christian and join the global family of God.

Is this redefinition of “family” by the Argentine pontiff of Rome “part and parcel” of the global socialist agenda? Now is the time for the true remnant to arise.

George Karpacs, South Park Township

Time to put America first

Now that President Trump will be out of the White House soon, maybe it’s time for the politicians to act as Americans first and Republicans or Democrats second. It’s time for everyone to pull together to do what’s best for the country. In the words of JFK, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Let’s concentrate on what unites us rather than what divides us. Dare I use the word we haven’t heard in a long time — compromise? There is so much to be done.

I know President Biden will have good people working with him no matter their party affiliation. I feel strongly that our best is yet to come.

Nancy Cochran, Springdale

Covid-19 relief needed amid housing crisis

I was surprised that voting decisions of many Pennsylvanians remained unaffected by covid-19, despite the fundamental effects of the pandemic on the 2020 election (“How covid-19 did and didn’t affect the election in Pennsylvania”).

What covid-19 has undeniably affected is housing insecurity in our state. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports 17% of renters in Pennsylvania were not caught up on rent as of last month. Furthermore, the national eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to last only until Dec. 31. It is against this dire backdrop that Senate leaders have continued to fail to move robust covid-19 relief legislation.

Let’s consider the effects. Not only does housing instability make it harder for families to stay employed, put food on the table and educate their children, but it also makes it harder to vote.

Therefore, it’s a matter of democracy that Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey work with leaders in Washington to pass a strong covid-19 relief bill that includes at least $100 billion in rental assistance for the coming year.

Keerthana Samanthapudi, Oakland

It’s not over — it’s just beginning with Biden

Well, you may think it’s over. I for one think it’s just beginning. Joe Biden must have had an epiphany after his 47-year sleep. Now he suddenly has all the answers to the nation’s problems. He’s miraculously going to stop the virus in days and going to add 5 million jobs (that probably illegal immigrants will get first crack at). His pro-union attitude is probably going to put nonunion shops out of business by not letting them bid on jobs to keep people working.

I’m betting that, little by little, your new savior is going to make America the suckers of the world by bowing down to every country’s whim. Pennsylvania, you voted him in, so we’ll see how you feel if he takes away all the fracking and energy jobs. Also take note that criminals probably will have more rights than the citizens they terrorize; it’s already become very difficult to arm and protect yourself, with carry permits backed up for about a year, no ammo on the shelves, hardly any handguns available. And the police might as well have squirt guns, because it seems they can’t use real weapons without a so-called protest.

This will be four years of “strap in and reap what you wished for.” Oh, and I almost forgot — if you need medical care, good luck, because the savior and the socialist will let you know if you can get an appointment.

Yeah, it’s over all right!

Dwayne Buffer, Youngwood

Now it’s time to repair election system

No matter who you voted for, what this election shows to the world is there is no integrity in our elective government, and never again will most people believe in the process. This election looks like something you would find in a communist or third-world country. It’s 2020, and with our technology we don’t have creditable voter ID. We all have fingerprints; how difficult would it be to touch a voting machine or electronically verify our prints?

It should be apparent that we the people will not be heard through our votes, but the outcomes will be determined by criminals, i.e. politicians.

There is absolutely no reason why we can’t count all the votes in a single day unless someone is adjusting the vote to meet a predetermined outcome.

Ronald Kolowitz, Belle Vernon