Opinion category, Page 636
Letter to the editor: Severance tax will cost Pa. jobs
It is truly inspiring to see Westmoreland County residents come together and help guide our community through the current pandemic. Pennsylvanians are resilient and we will overcome this challenging time. As we look toward the day when things start returning to normal, reopening our businesses and getting our neighbors back...
Letter to the editor: Why can’t we meet in the middle?
The view from the middle is bleak! Political extremes are ruling the day. They’ve convinced people there are only two sides to every issue. America is now a place where we can no longer give credit to anyone, or anything, that is remotely associated with the “other side.” We can...
Letter to the editor: Regulations not infringing on religion
Regarding the Rev. Tony Joseph’s letter "Government shouldn’t keep us from church": These are extraordinary times. For those of you who compare this virus with the flu, there is no comparison. This virus is new and more contagious than any other virus. It has killed more people in two months...
Letter to the editor: We must be bold to beat covid-19
I have my doubts that having all the requested tests would be enough to do effective contact tracing. I don’t accept that covid-19 is “like the flu.” We have exceeded the 58,200 death toll of the Vietnam War. The death total of British civilians in the “Blitz” in World War...
Letter to the editor: Coronavirus common ground for Dems, GOP
I get it, don’t trust the socialist Dems. I get it, don’t trust the racist Republicans. Thing is, we all have some common ground. Is no one confused yet? This virus has evened us all out, and if the Republicans want to ignore science and open up too soon, we...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The smart bet on electronic surveillance
“I’ll take Duquesne minus seven for a nickel.” With those words, spoken by gambler Charlie Katz in a phone booth on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1965, Duquesne University’s basketball team came to play an inadvertent but key role in Katz v. U.S., the leading U.S. Supreme Court case...
Editorial: More access is a welcome U.S. Supreme Court precedent
Pennsylvania will have a another place in legal history after this week. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the legal suit Trump v. Pennsylvania. It pits the president’s administration and the Little Sisters of the Poor against the legal minds in the office of state Attorney General...
Sounding off: Masks as campaign gimmick is insulting
During this viral catastrophe, our recognized heroes have been nurses, doctors, first responders, delivery people and many, many others who brave the danger of infection to help and protect us all. Also included on that list are the millions of Americans who are practicing social distancing and wearing masks when...
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler: Pennsylvania deserves better
Pennsylvania’s fight against the covid-19 pandemic has upended its economy and rendered one in four workers jobless, all while putting our seniors in care homes at greater risk because of a serious policy flaw by Gov. Tom Wolf. In mid-March, the governor issued an executive order — he has run...
Letter to the editor: Trump protecting our country?
I think Bob Serena’s letter “Trump is protecting our country” (April 9, TribLIVE) is bunk. Truth is not an exercise in myopic partisanship. If Serena had followed his own advice to “do your research before you write,” he might have read The Wall Street Journal or Christian Science Monitor, or...
Letter to the editor: China’s covid-19 response shouldn’t be praised
In early February, the World Health Organization praised China’s government for its response to the covid-19 virus. While China was able to decrease the number of new cases rather quickly, the protocols the country put in place may have lasting effects on its citizens’ basic human rights. The government was...
Letter to the editor: Advice for Gov. Tom Wolf
Gov. Wolf: It appears you refuse to deliberate with the General Assembly, or hear constituents, concerning covid-19 and instead make decisions alone. You decide what we do — if we go to church, school or work; if we go bankrupt, stay in business, feed our family, or survive things more...
Letter to the editor: Gov. Andrew Cuomo a responsible leader
On April 26, CNN aired New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus press briefing from noon to 1 p.m. In that one hour the governor, very clearly and in detail, described where the city of New York and the state stood in fighting the pandemic and the recent progress that’s been...
Editorial: Following rules the key to lifting lockdown
Everyone couldn’t wait to get to yellow. It has been weeks since Gov. Tom Wolf announced a color-coded path from a full coronavirus lockdown to a more moderate restriction. On May 1, he signaled the first rope to drop with northwest and north-central counties enjoying the slightly relaxed rules of...
John Stossel: Ban plastic bags! No, never mind!
Recently, many politicians were in such a hurry to ban plastic bags. California and Hawaii banned them, then New York. Then Oregon, Connecticut, Maine and Vermont passed laws against them. More than 400 cities did, too. Why? Because plastic bags are evil , didn’t you know? “Look at the damage...
Walter Williams: Bad marks on nation’s report card
The Department of Education just released results of the quadrennial National Assessment of Educational Progress tests in U.S. history, civics and geography given in 2018 to thousands of American eighth-graders: “Grade 8 Students’ NAEP Scores Decline in Geography and U.S. History; Results in Civics Unchanged Since 2014.” The tests were...
Paul Finkelman: Intellectual property and protecting Pa. jobs
Paul Finkelman, Ph.D., is president of Gratz College and a former law professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The novel coronavirus has ravaged Pennsylvania, forcing more than 1.5 million of our neighbors to the unemployment line. This represents 23% of the Keystone State’s workforce. The devastation far...
Candace McKinley: Covid-19 pandemic underscores urgency of ending cash bail
Candace McKinley is the lead organizer for the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund, which is working to end cash bail in Philadelphia. The mission of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund is to end the use of cash bail in Philadelphia and, until that day comes, post bail for as many of...
Letter to the editor: Why can Gov. Wolf see his barber?
This morning on the news I was listening to our governor and thought, “Gee, he looks well trimmed and coiffed.” His beard was very nicely trimmed and his hair was cut, and it made me wonder why or how can he get a barber and I’m not allowed to see...
Letter to the editor: Masks as campaign gimmick is insulting
During this viral catastrophe, our recognized heroes have been nurses, doctors, first responders, delivery people and many, many others who brave the danger of infection to help and protect us all. Also included on that list are the millions of Americans who are practicing social distancing and wearing masks when...
Letter to the editor: Bias in numbers
Regarding Lori Falce’s column “Truth, math and politics” (April 30, TribLIVE): Sorry, numbers do lie, numbers are biased, numbers are political and numbers do have agendas. You forget people with biases and agendas construct, collect and report the numbers. America’s one-third of all worldwide cases despite having 4% of the...
Lori Falce: The problem with pseudoscience
I love science. A casual glance at my high school report card might make that hard to believe, but it’s true. If social studies is the mythology of how we came to be where we are today, science is the magic. The simple recipes of adding this element to that...
Paul Kengor: Covid-19’s toll on tollbooths
As anxious Pennsylvanians push the commonwealth of Pennsylvania to open up and return to normal, I wonder about the new normal for state employees who collect tolls for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It could be a new normal they will not be welcoming. The thought hit me while hopping on the...
Laurels and lances: Hunger, rats and food
Laurel: To comfort food. Hunger isn’t something new. While the economic instabilities of the coronavirus pandemic may have exacerbated the issue, food insecurity has affected the Southwestern Pennsylvania area at higher rates than the rest of the country for years. According to the City of Pittsburgh, about 21.4% of its...
Alessandra Hirsch: A GI Bill for health care workers
Alessandra Hirsch, M.D., is a first-year resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology in Chicago, Ill. On Sunday, March 15, the single day that I was given to adjust from a full month of working overnight to my next rotation in gynecologic surgery, I received an email with new instructions: all...
