Sounding off: Book bans show that parents are concerned

The article “Hempfield is latest district to face book ban challenge” leads the reader to a conclusion that book challenges are wrong. The article states that 330 challenges were made in the last three months of 2021 compared with 156 in 2020, according to the American Library Association.

What does that number indicate? Just more parents are concerned about their children’s education. The article talks about a national trend and highlights a case of a school district banning a book and state legislatures limiting sexual material in books in schools. Guess what? Those actions taken are within the powers of those bodies of elected representatives.

Parents have a right to ask schools to remove books from the shelves. All have a right to direct the school to act as they wish. Schools should act as directed by parents and citizens, not the media. When a person reaches legal age, then they may make their own decisions on what they read.

I don’t agree with censorship of a book on the market. We have to avoid book burning by society, like Ray Bradbury wrote about in “Fahrenheit 451.”

All this parent involvement on either side of the issue is fantastic. It can only make for better education for our students. Our school boards and state legislatures need our input and involvement.

Keep reporting the news, Tribune-Review, but keep it in balance.

John A. Waite, South Greensburg

Real reasons why covid is still here

Regarding the letter “Nice pandemic plan, Biden”: I can provide an answer as to why the pandemic is still in our lives. It’s because covid was denied, then politicized; anti-masking was the fight for the excuse “my body, my choice.”

Then the vaccine was poison, it doesn’t work, I will never get jabbed, it is placing a tracking device in our bodies, and my favorite, it makes us magnetized. I can say it does not magnetize anyone. If that was the case, I would have exploded when I had my MRI.

If all of the above did not happen, we would have been rid of covid. There is too much evidence about the above actions to brush it off as “fake news.”

So there is your answer as to why covid has remained. President Biden caused none of the above. Put the blame where it belongs.

Kat Emery, New Alexandria

Democrats and simple math

With the recent addition of Ohio, 10 states require high school students to take a course in personal finance. Maybe Pennsylvania should do likewise. Many of our elected politicians are clearly defective in their understanding of basic finance.

President Biden proudly cites his Scranton roots. Sen. Bob Casey and Rep. Conor Lamb have all strongly touted the Build Back Better plan, which Biden repeatedly says is totally paid for. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Even Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin begs to differ and bravely bucked the party line on this bill, which would have approved spending of over $5,700 for every American man, woman and child to fund the wasteful progressive agenda, including the ill-conceived Green New Deal.

In this election year, expect any Democrat running for office to remind you of all the spending they have done to help you. Casey isn’t running, but he emailed me, a retired grandfather, that I should be sure to check my bank account for a child tax credit that I may have received.

Financial literacy requires managing a budget, and the first rule is to keep expenses at the level of income, deviating only on an emergency basis. Congress recently passed a 2,741-page bill with spending of $4,500 per U.S. resident while allowing the House less than 12 hours for review before the vote. The last time I looked, every U.S. taxpayer owes $240,000 for past congressional spending. Have Biden, Casey or Lamb ever reminded you of that?

Anthony T. McGartland, Murrysville

Biden stoked fires of inflation, war

In order to appease the Squad and the rest of the Democratic Party and counteract President Trump’s policies, President Biden’s first actions were to cancel plans for the Keystone XL gas pipeline to cross into the United States and stop our drilling on government lands. He also waived sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to enable Russia to supply Germany.

These actions had two effects: 1) the U.S. was no longer energy independent, and 2) Putin no longer feared that the U.S. would limit Russia’s major source of income. In my opinion, this emboldened Putin and caused our gas prices to spike, since gas prices reflect future anticipated gas availability and consumption.

Biden couldn’t have stoked the fires of inflation, or Putin’s war, any faster than with these extremely hasty and poorly-thought-out executive orders.

Ron Raymond, Buffalo Township

Durham’s filings revealing

The current media drumbeat is that nothing new in the Russian collusion scandal can be learned from Special Counsel John Durham’s filings. That’s not true. In a recent filing, Durham says that a private contractor, Rodney Joffe of Neustar, collected internet data from surveillance of Trump Tower and the White House and shared it with the Clinton campaign. The filing also shows that the Trump surveillance began during the Obama administration.

The contractor had access to information from a government-funded cybersecurity research contract. His purpose in spying was to gather derogatory information on then-President Trump. Apparently, the contractor was also offered a job in a future Clinton administration.

This recent information ties in with previous Durham filings. Durham says data was used by another Clinton-connected lawyer, Michael Sussman, to convince the FBI and CIA to investigate Trump. Remember the Robert Mueller investigation which droned on for three years? This investigation was conducted using information obtained illegally by the Clinton campaign from all these intermediaries.

What does this all mean? It means Durham has potentially uncovered the most destructive political assassination in the history of the U.S., and thanks to a routine court filing the nation now knows it. The Durham investigation needs to be pursued to the end and those responsible charged. So, to the media, there is something here and it’s long overdue to receive the proper coverage.

Andrew Jarabak, Murrysville

Let’s tell the truth about racism

In the article “Norwin director claims assignment on racism was critical race theory teaching,” Shawna Illagan accused a district teacher of “political indoctrination” because she questioned students about whether or not systemic racism exists in America. She claimed the teacher’s interpretation of critical race theory was “one sided.”

Systemic racism is systemic racism. I doubt Illagan is knowledgeable about systemic racism and that it has and continues to be prevalent in all facets of our society and throughout the world. People of color have been and continue to be denied job opportunities, housing preferences, wage increases and voting rights. She needs to speak to people of color and ask their opinions of systemic racism.

To fully understand the history of our country, we need to infuse into our curricula the evils of slavery and the disastrous effects of systemic racism. Let’s tell the truth and be honest about historical facts of which we are ashamed. Because the Norwin School District is neither multicultural nor racially diverse, district educators must provide students with historical and intellectual perspectives relative to these diversity challenges that they encounter now and in the future.

Michael J. Vranesevic, Irwin

Book ban hypocrisy

It is curious that those who are most vocal about “parents’ rights” and keeping government out of parental decisions are the ones who want to ban books. They are asking government to do their job, abdicating their own responsibilities. If they don’t want their children to read something, why do they expect government to prevent the child from doing it? Isn’t that their job?

Also what about the majority of parents who don’t have objections to the banned books? Don’t they have any rights?

If you don’t like a book, don’t read it, and make sure your kid doesn’t read it. Don’t make those decisions for the rest of us.

Mary Beth Walling, North Huntingdon