Opinion category, Page 596
Letter to the editor: Sports and the covid-19 numbers
IF the covid-19 situation and numbers are as bad as we are led to believe 24/7 on most news stations, why would anyone consider starting national, college and high school sports? All that “contact,” plus traveling, when we’ve been told repeatedly to stay home. Just a thought: Check the numbers....
Letter to the editor: Press must help us meet in middle
A Distinction. — We hold that whenever a publication confines the bulk of its views to any particular line of thought, class of views, or side of a mooted question, it becomes to that extent a class publication, and inasmuch ceases to be a newspaper. — Code of Ethics, Kansas...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump campaign shouldn’t take solace from Bush-Dukakis race
In July 1988, Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis enjoyed a 17-point lead against Vice President George H.W. Bush in a Gallup poll. But Bush went on to crush Dukakis, taking 40 states and winning by seven percentage points. He did so by running an aggressive — critics would say demagogic...
Letter to the editor: What Trump is all about
I can’t believe the number of Trump supporters who have no idea what this president is all about after 3½ years of what seems like more lies than all the U.S. presidents combined. I look at what he does and not what he tells us, because in most cases, they...
Letter to the editor: Wayman should resign from Norwin board
I find the posts Robert Wayman made on his social media an utter disgrace, and I would implore that the Norwin School Board strongly suggest that he resign immediately (“Norwin director ripped over controversial posts; some call for resignation,” Aug. 3, TribLIVE). A person who makes such comments as he...
Editorial: College quarantine behavior no surprise
College is not just a place to learn. It’s also a place to show how you’ve applied what you’ve learned. If it wasn’t, colleges wouldn’t ask for high school transcripts and class rankings and test scores. No 16-year-olds would take AP chemistry. Eighth grade math class wouldn’t matter. But it...
Letter to the editor: Money for big business, not for unemployed?
I watched Austan Goolsbee, President Obama’s economic adviser, talk on MSNBC about the stalemate over the second stimulus package. I know, President Trump and his minions call MSNBC fake news, even though it relies on facts and not something someone pulled out of thin air and posted on the internet....
Letter to the editor: Trump’s flaws better than Dems’ shackles
I didn’t vote for President Trump when he won. I will now, when all polls say he’ll lose. I don’t want “fundamental transformation” of history’s fairest government. Or “Democratic socialism” that only puts lipstick on Marxism. Or $93 trillion Green New Deals (GND) that enslave generations of taxpayers. The GND’s...
Evan Davis: Time to end illegal sports betting in U.S.
In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), thereby allowing states to pass laws that legalize and regulate sports betting within their borders. Since that time, nearly half of the states across the country have legalized...
Letter to the editor: Past poll workers want to return
I read with interest the article “Poll worker needs ranked critical in Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette counties” (Aug. 13, TribLIVE). My sister and I worked the June 2 election and have yet to receive a call about coming back in November. Before a “drastic shortage” is a headline in the paper,...
Letter to the editor: How can veterans support Trump?
In reference to Ken Bossart’s letter “Civility lost in political disagreement”: I would never choose to call you a name if I disagreed with you. I would commend you for your service. But what I can never understand is a veteran supporting a “draft dodger.” Or whatever a person is...
Letter to the editor: Party over constituency in Congress
I find it very interesting that Speaker Nancy Pelosi found it necessary to announce a recall of Congress because of the potential for a postal slowdown. This of course could affect the election results for her party, which is counting large on mail-in voting. The next stimulus act has been...
Letter to the editor: Know the truth before you vote
The presidential election is very important. Presidential candidates have very different views. A search for the truth is not easy; it takes time and much effort. Who you vote for should be determined by knowing the truth. A large problem is that K-12 education and adult education does not always...
Letter to the editor: ‘Demon-strators’ not peaceful
It is just a peaceful demon-stration, as said by the mayors and governors of the liberal cities and states, and the Democratic Party. The word “demon-stration” starts out with the right word: demons, which means evil spirits, causing pandemonium, which means chaos, noise, bedlam, disorder and confusion. Next, the words...
Pat Buchanan: A most consequential presidency
As Donald Trump is about to be nominated for a second term, how his presidency has already altered the orientation of his party is on display. Under Trump, the GOP ceased to be a party of small government whose yardstick of success was how close it came to a balanced...
Tom Purcell: Join covid-19 homebuying rush, develop common sense
American home ownership is soaring, which is good for all of us. Home sales slowed during the early months of covid-19, as millions of Americans stayed inside. In the past few months, however, with interest rates at historic lows, homes have been selling at a record pace, USA Today reports....
L.E. McCullough: USPS delivers more than just mail
Title 39, Section 101 of the U.S. Code: “The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in...
Editorial: Journalism’s revolution against big tech
We need our news. Communicating information about what is happening in our world and in our government, around the globe and around the corner, has been critical from the start. The first newspaper in America was printed in Boston in 1690. The Hartford Courant is the oldest newspaper in the...
Jonah Goldberg: It’s not always as easy as asking, ‘Why not?’
In George Bernard Shaw’s “Back to Methuselah,” the serpent says to Eve in the Garden of Eden: “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” What’s funny is that a version of this quote is often ascribed to Robert...
Letter to the editor: Trump is draining the swamp
Please just remember: Our president, Donald Trump, promised to drain the swamp. I think he has done just that. Once you drain a swamp, all kinds of evils emerge. Just thinking. Please — just think for yourselves. Melanie Embrey Ligonier Township...
Letter to the editor: Trump and mail-in voting
Mail-in voting should not be the problem President Trump is saying it will be. That is, if: 1. Trump’s staffers in D.C. do not attempt to sabotage the process, and 2. Republican governors do not find a way to cheat for Trump and party, much like Jeb Bush did for...
Letter to the editor: Swimmers dedicated to safe practice, competition
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt of a letter sent to Gov. Tom Wolf and Robert Lombardi, director of the PIAA, before the PIAA’s Aug. 21 decision to move ahead with fall sports: Dear Gov. Wolf and Director Lombardi, We are athlete representatives of Allegheny Mountain Swimming and Middle Atlantic...
Letter to the editor: Experience matters when keeping the peace
After reading your two front-page articles (“Angry crowd shows up at Mayor Peduto’s home challenging Pittsburgh police arrest of protester,” Aug. 16, TribLIVE; “ ‘Low profile’ arrest creates firestorm as officials, experts blast Pittsburgh police tactic,” Aug. 17, TribLIVE) and editorial (“Low-visibility arrest a high- visibility failure,” Aug. 18, TribLIVE), I...
Letter to the editor: What sane leader would want to defund police?
Edward D. Roberts, known to his friends as Ned, was the police chief of Murrysville for many years. About 25 years ago, he and I were discussing the importance of local police departments when he said, “Police are the thin line between anarchy and a civilized society.” While Roberts passed...
Stephen Bloom: Eliminate barriers to crisis-ready health care
An emergency is no time to trifle with bureaucratic red tape. At the outset of the covid-19 crisis, many feared a surge of patients would overwhelm hospital capacity. Health officials sounded the alarm and identified policy changes that would enable them to meet the coronavirus challenge. And in many cases,...
