Sounding off: America is on the right track

It is encouraging to see so many articles in the Trib pointing to our country moving in the right direction. Work is beginning on repairing bridges and roads which provide good paying jobs. Several presidents tried to develop an infrastructure plan but failed. President Biden got it done.

Unemployment is down, GDP is up, hiring is up, hourly wages are up. More people are able to look for better-paying jobs. Consumer spending is up. Union activity is up, guaranteeing workers better pay and benefits. In the past few months, our economy has been performing at a rate better than most people expected.

We still have several severe problems to resolve: the Ukraine situation, inflation, climate change, covid and Big Money’s attack on our democracy, but it looks like our country may have turned the corner. We are holding those who broke the law on Jan. 6 accountable. We are growing the middle class from the bottom up and middle out.

After four years of flirting with authoritarianism, democracy is coming back and pressing forward. We are not home yet, but we are moving in the right direction.

Sandy Kremer, Youngwood

Putin an antichrist of our time

Completely at sea described my state of mind when in a letter to the editor over a month ago, I wrote that Russia would not attack Ukraine. Russia did with a fury that has resulted in barbaric atrocities to soldiers and civilians alike. Over 4 million Ukrainian women, children, elderly and disabled are displaced and seeking refuge from the wartorn country.

The Soviet president bears total responsibility for this unhumanitarian attack on a sovereign nation. The barbarous treatment of innocent victims are on Putin and him alone. Mankind’s history has produced many definitions of the Antichrist. We know him as a fallen angel, the ultimate enemy and opposite of Christ. Some believed in a successor of antichrists recognized by the degree of evil perpetrated in their lifetime.

Vladimir Putin, a man of satanic sin and evil, is certainly deserving of labeling him an antichrist of our time.

Ken Mowl, Derry

Let’s discuss gun violence instead of Will Smith

For two weeks, America has been scandalized by the violent smack at the Academy Awards. A plethora of news articles, opinion pieces and Twitter comments have been unleashed. We are shocked to the core by this violent act.

Since the March 27 event, there have been 18 mass shootings in America, leaving 20 dead and 95 injured; and that doesn’t count suicides and the deaths of children playing with weapons. You probably haven’t heard much about those, and if you have, that news probably hasn’t entered your everyday discussions like the “smack” has.

Consider this: 2021 was the worst year on record for gun violence, with 693 mass shootings (defined as four or more people shot), 20,726 gun deaths and 24,000 suicides by gun. Yes, we have a right to bear arms, but that right is not immune to commonsense rules like universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and ghost guns, and laws to safely store weapons. It is time to press Congress and state legislatures to do the hard work of enacting sensible gun legislation.

We can summon the will to address this epidemic — or we could just go back to discussing the smack, since those conversations are so much easier.

Janet Gray, Squirrel Hill

Take a stand for freedom

Regarding Kathleen Bollinger’s letter “Let Ukraine, Russia duke it out”: In 1992, Ukraine signed the Lisbon Protocol, part of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Ukraine (along with Belarus and Kazakhstan) agreed to give up the Soviet-era nuclear weapons on its territory, making them a threat to no one.

Let me educate you on NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed to keep world peace and stop the aggression of rogue governments. If Russia comes after NATO, it comes after all 30 members of the alliance.

It’s easy to sit in Fawn Township and declare what should be done; after all, there are no bombs falling on you. Are you prepared to stand alone, or is it better to stand united?

How dare you deny Ukraine the right to freedom? How dare you you condone the atrocities committed against innocent civilians, women and children? How dare you turn your back on our Eastern European relatives and allies? This is something I take personally.

You worry about World War III, but how is a world of domination by a madman — where rape, torture, execution and other atrocities are the norm to keep people in line — better?

There are no winners in war, but you have to be willing to take a stand for freedom. A lot of heroes gave it all so bombs do not drop on Fawn Township.

If we don’t stop Putin now, there will be no stopping his kind of world domination. Should David have turned his back on Goliath? It is a matter of right and wrong, and what Russia is doing is wrong. If you can’t handle what is right, I suggest you move to another country.

Jack Juris, Buffalo Township

Why the green energy rush?

I don’t understand this headlong rush into green energy even before the country has the ability to manufacture components of renewable energy.

Nine of 10 of the largest makers of solar panels and six of 10 of the largest windmill makers in the world are Chinese. Europe has three of the largest windmill makers. America has only one company in each category.

Even Sen. Bernie Sanders and John Kerry can’t be contemplating an America of tomorrow operating on a Chinese power grid.

Frank Myers, Southwest Greensburg

Biden failing us on the border

Has President Biden fallen asleep? Does he not realize that he is failing the American people regarding the border?

Our government calls for hearings for Supreme Court nominees, and hearings regarding gas companies reaping profits, so why not call for the president of the United States to appear at a hearing for the American public to get some transparency?

I can’t understand why this president fails to address the border crisis. He should be made to answer questions as to why he is not protecting Americans by stopping the record numbers of illegal aliens crossing the border. He is allowing it to take place right in front of his eyes.

He talks about increasing taxes on some citizens looking for more revenue for the government. Maybe he needs to look at the unbelievable amount of money he is spending on all these illegal aliens allowed to cross the border, placing them in hotels, busing them around the country, feeding them and giving them other benefits.

The president must not realize that if he shut down the border, he would be saving an alarming amount of money and protecting U.S. citizens. Americans need to hold the president and his administration responsible for being so negligent; I believe they created this crisis.

I hate to think like this, but I have to agree with the statement I have heard about Biden, that he is a “one-man wrecking ball.”

Douglas Johnston, Franklin Township, Beaver County

Mail-in balloting should be here to stay in Pa.

Other states have been using legal mail-in ballots for decades. It allows more registered voters more time to research/compare the candidates and to vote without taking time away from professional or family duties.

A majority of Republican Pennsylvania state legislators introduced and enacted mail-in ballot legislation in the fall of 2019, to be in effect in 2020. Then the “plague” hit us. More voters than ever before voted by mail, and a Democratic president was elected. Apparently, a Democratic president elected this way was wrong, yet down-ballot elections won by Republicans were OK. Now some of those same legislators who introduced the legislation say mail-in balloting is unconstitutional.

Republicans throughout the U.S. are actively promoting legislation to restrict “certain” voters from voting. So much discrimination against so many people continues to be supported by so many GOPers, while Democrats want every single citizen to have the unrestricted right and ability to have a voice in electing our officers and leaders.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court should rule mail-in balloting constitutional and keep it in place.

Voting for Democratic candidates just makes so much more sense. “Justice for all!”

Bud Santimyer, Scottdale