Opinion category, Page 315
Athan Koutsiouroumbas: How Kim Ward helped Pa. GOP hold Senate
This past midterm, Pennsylvania state Senate Republicans managed to meet electoral expectations while the remainder of the commonwealth’s GOP suffered stunning losses — many of them unanticipated. Why? The story begins 99 weeks before Election Day, when state Senate Republicans elected Kim Ward as the legislative chamber’s majority leader. Much...
Letter to the editor: Thanks for the right votes, Pa.
Thank you Pennsylvania. This past November you went to the polls and voted for democracy, for the rule of law, for action on the climate crisis, for bodily autonomy, for good-paying union jobs, for the right to have clean air and water, for affordable health care, for quality public education,...
Letter to the editor: The whole of our society is less than the sum of its parts
Whenever I interact with individuals, I find that they are for the most part decent, caring, kind and generous. And yet, I find that our culture as a whole has become more and more mean-spirited, violent and vile. Why is this so? Why is it that our society is so...
Editorial: Shared grief and the tragedies of McIntire shooting, Hamlin injury
There is a difference between sorrow and grief. Sorrow is the emotional state we feel when confronted by great loss or devastating disappointment. It isn’t depression, but it might lead there. Grief is different. It is a process that one goes through while experiencing the crushing blows of a trauma....
Letter to the editor: Protecting our people, planet
This past election, voters turned out in extraordinary numbers to protect our families and our planet. The Shapiro administration begins at a time of opportunity to help Pennsylvanians take full advantage of federal resources that could help cut energy costs and keep our families healthy. But we know the old...
Mathew Schmalz: Pope Benedict XVI leaves legacy of intellectual brilliance, controversy
Benedict XVI leaves behind a complex legacy as a pope and theologian. To many observers, Benedict, who died Dec. 31 at 95, was known for criticizing what he saw as the modern world’s rejection of God and Christianity’s timeless truths. But as a scholar of the diversity of global Catholicism,...
Elwood Watson: Can the Miss America pageant survive in today’s culture?
Earlier this month, Grace Stanke, a 23-year-old nuclear engineering student from Wausau, Wis., was crowned Miss America 2023. Stanke is a beautiful, blond-haired woman who is obviously gifted in math and science. She was crowned by her predecessor, Emma Broyles, Miss Alaska, who became the first woman from her state...
Letter to the editor: We’re being gaslighted on Biden’s ‘success’
The false narrative that the Biden presidency has been a great success for Americans and America is possibly the biggest lie ever invented by a political party in U.S. history. From the contracting economy, rampant inflation, poor job and wage growth, foreign policy debacles, massive numbers of illegals, soaring crime...
Letter to the editor: Homeowner’s obscenity contrasts with neighbor’s generosity
I visited a super light display on Bernice Drive in North Huntingdon. Kudos to the folks who spend the time and effort to present this display each year and provide an opportunity to raise funds for a great cause. While enjoying the light show, my curiosity drew my eyes to...
Editorial: The bubble of higher education costs
Education is not just a building block of society. It is more than a public good and a public right. It is also a commodity. Like a new car or a house or a dozen eggs, a quality education above and beyond high school graduation is something many people pay...
Letter to the editor: Lest we forget — Apollo Police Officer Leonard C. Miller
Apollo police Officer Leonard C. Miller was a distinguished graduate of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Police Academy. He began his full-time tour of duty Jan. 1, 1980. Miller, the first Black police officer for Apollo, was killed at age 21 in the line of duty on Jan. 3, 1980....
Tom Purcell: The regrettable return of earmarks
Earmarks are back and they’re costing American taxpayers a bundle. In case you’ve forgotten, earmarks, says FactCheck.org, “are government funds that are allocated by a legislator for a particular pet project, often without proper review.” Often attached to the 12 large appropriation bills that Congress by law is supposed to...
Dick Polman: George Santos and the normalization of bald-faced lies
Decades ago, Holocaust scholar Hannah Arendt warned: “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, i.e., the reality of experience and the distinction between true and false, i.e., the standards of thought, no...
Cal Thomas: A new year but nothing new
People speak of a new year as turning the page, or starting out fresh, or forgetting the past. At the start of a new year, I like to look back a century ago to see what has changed and what hasn’t. In 1923, America had finally recovered from the Spanish...
Letter to the editor: Look in the mirror and make a change
To whomever cares to read and adhere: In order to make this world a better place, we all have to change in some form. It has to be an individual’s change before it can become corporate. It can be hate, selfishness, envy, pride or just plain meanness. I say that...
Letter to the editor: Where are the workers? They’re gone.
The writer of the letter “Where are all the workers?” (Nov. 28, TribLIVE) suggested Americans don’t want to work. The simple answer is that the pool of eligible workers is maxed out. As of November 2022, the number of people employed was approximately 160 million, which is at or above...
Editorial: Address suicide by respecting mental health
It is always hard to lose a loved one. Whether it happens because of disease or accident or criminal act, death is a gut punch. It hits hard and deep. It is aching and empty. When the loss is self-inflicted, it leaves something else behind. Families and friends can struggle...
Letter to the editor: Two-party system failing
Our two-party democracy is not working! The U.S. economy for middle-income Americans is hanging by a thread with the rate of inflation of food, housing, utilities and fuels at 42-year highs. Stock market retirement savings are down about 25%, and federal spending and debt are at massive high levels. The...
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 2
Editorial cartoons for the week of Jan. 2....
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 1
Mallard Fillmore cartoons for the week of Jan. 2....
Ray Lombardi, Angela Antipova and Dorian J. Burnette: Record low water levels on the Mississippi River in 2022 show how climate change is altering large rivers
Rivers are critical corridors that connect cities and ecosystems alike. When drought develops, water levels fall, making river navigation harder and more expensive. In 2022, water levels in some of the world’s largest rivers, including the Rhine in Europe and the Yangtze in China, fell to historically low levels. The...
Michael Reagan: Ukraine is America’s latest stalemate war
We don’t fight our wars to win anymore. We fight them to get to a stalemate. We’ve risked untold lives and wasted trillions of dollars to poorly fight wars for decades in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and Vietnam. Then we negotiate and leave. And then the countries where we...
Rachel Kyte: How Putin’s war and small islands are accelerating the global shift to clean energy, and what to watch for in 2023
The year 2022 was a tough one for the growing number of people living in food insecurity and energy poverty around the world, and the beginning of 2023 is looking bleak. Russia’s war on Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain and fertilizer feedstock suppliers, tightened global food and energy...
Letter to the editor: Don’t judge Robert E. Lee by 2022 standards
West Point just removed artwork of Robert E. Lee, who as a cadet received no demerits. Later, Lee was the commandant of West Point. Lee was offered to be the leader in command of the entire U.S. Army in the field at the beginning of the Civil War, but Lee...
Sounding off: Franco, new year, cold weather, pay raises topics of interest this week
Thank you, Franco If you spent any significant amount of time in Pittsburgh over the past several decades, you were bound to occasionally run into Franco Harris. About 10 years ago, a small group of us were excited because there was a rare day that the Pirates and Steelers (albeit...
