Opinion category, Page 653
Letter to the editor: Westmoreland County, we will be OK!
My wife always tells my children, “I would jump in front of a bus to save your life.” Westmoreland County, I want you to know that the doctors, nurses and first responders of this county will jump in front of a virus to save your lives! Every day health care...
Letter to the editor: Universities should focus on medicine, not athletics
The onset of the covid-19 virus already has brought our “normal” way of life to an abrupt halt. Our health care inadequacies will result in many more deaths than need be, if we were better prepared. Our economy will be in recession and likely a depression. Covid-19 also brings us...
Editorial: $2.2 trillion is coronavirus intensive care
Don’t call it a stimulus. The bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump will pump $2.2 trillion from Washington into the pockets of Americans and the checkbooks of businesses and the coffers of cities and states. For people who have rent to pay and groceries to buy —...
John Stossel: Red tape pandemic
Coronavirus is frightening. I’m working from home, practicing “social distancing.” Experts say it’ll help “flatten the curve” so fewer people will be infected simultaneously. Then hospitals won’t be overwhelmed. But the infection rate grows. Doctors and hospitals may yet be overwhelmed. It didn’t have to get to this point. Coronavirus...
Lawrence McCullough: Anniversary of 15th Amendment & vigilance for voting rights
March 30 marks the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment’s addition to the U.S. Constitution. It’s the amendment that guaranteed the right of African American men to vote, declaring, “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any...
Mary Schmich: Covid-19 as ‘Boomer Remover’? Let’s talk about that.
Mary Schmich is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Until the past week or so, I’ve rarely thought of myself as old, at least not in the diminishing way the word is often used. I work a full-time job, walk 5...
Letter to the editor: God’s protection at Word of Life
I — and I’m sure those at Word of Life Church — believe and hope that letter-writer Dr. Marti Haykin is filled with love, compassion and courage as she attends to her physician duties (“For everyone’s sake, stay home!.” Those of us in attendance March 22 prayed for this nation,...
Letter to the editor: A look at covid-19 growth rates
The potential growth of covid-19 should be appreciated so as to maximize the hopefully short-term public response that is badly needed. If it takes its natural course, the virus tends to infect others at a compounding rate of 30% or so. That will lead to a peak infection supposedly around...
Lori Falce: Older Americans can’t be sacrificed
I have spent my life in the shadow of people who have lived more than I have. My grandma was 92 when she died. She taught me how to make the perfect chocolate cake and about facing the world with grace and dignity no matter what happened to you. My...
Paul Kengor: A professor’s coronavirus perspective
“Well, you know I’m graduating this semester. This may be the last time I see you.” So said one of my students somberly at the end of class last week. Typically, that’s a goodbye I hear in mid-May, not mid-March. It came in response to a campuswide email announcing that...
Laurels & lances: Pulling together
Laurel: To reaching out while staying in. Carla Chugani of Dormont isn’t letting social distancing keep her from helping people during the coronavirus pandemic. She’s doing it by creating her own free food pantry on her porch, in the style of Little Free Libraries. Stocked with things like nonperishable foods,...
Michael Krol: Amid covid-19 outbreak, don’t worry about your wealth
Cities began shutting down. Schools were closed. The government began limiting public activities to curtail the spread of the virus. That describes the atmosphere over the past few weeks as covid-19 spread rapidly across the globe, creating a multitude of fears that were seemingly unfathomable. But people had the same...
Philip Gasiewicz: 1918, when another pandemic struck close to home
In 1998, the 80th anniversary of the Spanish flu pandemic, I was fortunate to hear two survivors from Western Pennsylvania relate their indelible experiences. Marian McConkey and Lois Monahan were schoolgirls then, old enough to grasp the reach of the Reaper as the Spanish flu swept across the nation. It...
Letter to the editor: Politics & covid-19 pandemic decisions
I would guess that 35% of the people in the Tribune-Review readership fully, and I mean fully, support President Trump. Any information contrary to the president’s views is false or a hoax. Why would they believe that? Simple: The president told them it is so. If they need further assurance,...
Letter to the editor: Word of Life Church’s large gathering shocking
As a mother, a physician and a Christian woman, I was truly concerned to see the number of vehicles at Word of Life Church Sunday morning. Then I was shocked to read that 200 people had gathered for a service in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic (“About 200 attend...
Letter to the editor: Schools must go online
I am completely at a loss — am I the lone person to believe all school districts should go online ASAP? The excuse that because we can’t educate every student, we can’t educate any, is completely ridiculous to me. We are in a state of national emergency. In this situation,...
Letter to the editor: ‘Lion’ Fauci makes US a leader
There is a question regarding the origin of a quote about remaining silent and thought to be a fool versus speaking and removing all doubt. In his haste to discredit Donald Trump, letter-writer Robert J. Reiland (“Trump’s leadership not reassuring,” March 25, TribLIVE) displays his ignorance of virology and laboratory...
Editorial: Pennsylvania primary and coronavirus
Pennsylvania was so close to mattering in the presidential primary this year. Things were tight on the Democratic side nationwide, and maybe the Keystone State would be key in making a choice between putting former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Bernie Sanders on the ballot for the fall. And...
Abby Foster: Chemical manufacturers key in covid-19 fight
As many of us adjust to working from the couch, with daytime television in the background and a confused dog at our side, it’s business as usual or double-time for the majority of Pennsylvania’s manufacturers and their supply chains. Critical to our ability to contain covid-19, flatten the curve and...
Rep. Dan Frankel: Congratulations on your new gun. Now lock it up.
So many Pennsylvanians bought guns last week that our state background check system crashed. Twice. In fact, 4,342 of you bought or transferred a gun or applied for a license to carry a gun on March 17 alone, according to a press release from the Pennsylvania State Police. Of course,...
Letter to the editor: Why should we pay taxes if we can’t earn a living?
We now know that the government (both federal and state) thinks we, the proletariat, are “nonessential.” They showed us this by decreeing that some of us hold non-essential jobs and shut us out of those jobs, thus destroying our livelihoods. In my life, I’ve found that if someone hates me,...
Letter to the editor: Trump’s leadership not reassuring
President Trump has tried to reassure the public that everything possible is being done to contain the new coronavirus, but in the absence of extensive testing, this means nothing. The government’s slow response in developing accurate testing that can be used quickly is not excusable in a nation that spends...
Letter to the editor: Gov. Tom Wolf’s moves not an ‘attack’
I must disagree in the extreme with the tone of your editorial “Wolf’s excessive attack on the Pa. economy will hurt lives.” While many (including myself) disagree with the scope and execution of Gov. Tom Wolf’s rollout of measures to help stop the spread of covid-19, you can’t actually believe...
Letter to the editor: We need to offset China’s control
When Communist China was “opened up” by President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, American businesses salivated at the prospect of a brand-new, billion-person market. Fifty years later it has taken a coronavirus pandemic to make it apparent that we are totally dependent upon China to provide integral components of some...
Letter to the editor: Churches are not under attack
I would like to acknowledge Pastor Tom Walters of Word of Life Church for his willingness to graciously accept and respond to criticism for his decision to hold worship services this past Sunday (“Hempfield church pastor apologizes for open services on Sunday,” March 23, TribLIVE). He certainly does not deserve...
