Sounding off: Bring on the election investigations

Republicans “won” many seats in this election. Every row office in Westmoreland County is now in Republican hands, as is the governorship of Virginia. So I’m sure that they will do the responsible thing and investigate the obvious election fraud and conduct responsible audits of the voter rolls. After all, it couldn’t possibly be the case that when Republicans lose an election, it is completely due to fraudulent ballots and shadowy figures tampering with voter registration. Yet, when they win everything is totally legal, and there is nothing to worry about.

We’re eagerly awaiting press conferences in front of landscaping companies and a fresh round of bombast from Donald Trump himself informing everyone of how unconstitutional and illegal these Republican victories are. I’ve got the popcorn ready to go.

Let freedom ring!

Brian Luce, Buffalo Township

Following science saves lives

Just a story. My daughter-in-law told me that her best friend’s sister recently died from covid but not before she infected her husband and grandchildren. She was not vaccinated. Nor her husband.

She and her husband believed covid was a hoax and they had the freedom to choose. They did not believe the science that their family doctor relayed to them. Now she is dead, and he is struggling to stay alive.

The tragedy of her death is actually an irony because, about one year previously, she had beaten cancer by following the science and the treatment recommended by her doctors.

Richard Dulemba, Washington Township, Westmoreland County

Why didn’t Gov. Wolf drop off his own ballot?

Why did Gov. Tom Wolf have his wife mail in his ballot (“Gov. Wolf describes having wife drop off ballot as honest mistake”)? I think it was to show us how easy it is to have other people vote for other people and get away with it.

If voting by mail was easy, why didn’t he do it himself? Was it a common mistake?

This guy signed the bill to make voting easier. Of anybody, he should have read the bill. Sounds like he didn’t, or he just didn’t understand what he was signing.

If it was you or me, we would probably be paying a fine and/or going to jail.

If we’re manning the drop-off boxes, isn’t someone there to validate this? Think of all the costs to have someone there to check this. Sounds like we better rethink this, because it didn’t work.

Why is it easier to drive to the drop-off boxes than to drive to your own voter precinct on Election Day? Think of the money the taxpayers will save.

Remember, we vote twice a year. You should plan for it. If you can’t, then don’t blame someone else for your laziness!

Cliff Long, Unity

‘Socialist’ labels on Democrats is a dishonest strategy

It’s a good time for the Democrats to expose what Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in economics, refers to as the “dishonest political strategy” used by conservative Republicans: calling most (if not all) congressional Democrats names like “socialists,” “Marxists,” “communists,” “far leftists” and “radical leftists.”

I do not believe any of them are true socialists. They are “social Democrats” just as most of our allies are in Canada, Australia, western Europe and Scandinavia. What Democrats really want is simply to make our country more like our allies in that their federal governments do more and spend more than ours does (in proportion to population size) on social programs in order to help their lower and middle classes be able to pay their bills and receive good-quality health care and a decent overall quality of life.

I know that some Americans actually believe that the Democrats want to abolish our market-based capitalist economic system. I want to assure them that none of them want to do this. Democrats know that a truly socialist economy has never worked or been successful in any large-scale society.

Don’t fall for this right-wing propaganda. If the truth were to be told and revealed, I believe that about 95% of conservative Republicans know that the Democrats are not really socialists.

They just want to scare the American people, and that is why they keep telling this lie.

Stewart Epstein, Rochester, N.Y.

The writer is a former Squirrel Hill resident who taught at West Virginia and Slippery Rock universities.

Ask leaders to read entire Build Back Better bill

I have been examining the content of the social infrastructure (President Biden’s Build Back Better) bill that Congress is writing, now 2,500 pages. There are many free gifts, snooping options (financial privacy?) on your banking by 87,000 new IRS agents, free child care, clean energy give-aways to affluent groups vested in electric vehicles, wind farms and solar. Think the average American can afford a Tesla, let alone have a way to charge it if it is on the street?

I was wondering, what can I do about this socialist bill? Then, on Nov. 6, I asked my representative, Conor Lamb, to pledge that he will read the entire bill before voting on it. Hopefully, I will get an answer.

I suggest you go to your representatives/senators and ask the same. Then you shouldn’t ever hear “I didn’t know that was in there.”

You do have a voter’s voice — it takes just five minutes to Google representative/senator sites, click on contact and ask for the pledge. No computer? Call for the pledge. It’s their duty. It’s reasonable. It’s national debt.

Terrence Feitknecht, Tarentum

UPMC workers deserve more

I’ve worked in food service assembly at UPMC Presbyterian for almost a year. I make less than $16 an hour, and even with five roommates, there’s not a lot left over at the end of the month. I just want to have some money in my pocket for once.

We need a $20-an-hour starting wage. Being short-staffed means I have to pick up extra tasks, including delivering trays. I even unknowingly walked into a covid room once. It was awful and scary.

I can’t even afford to be a patient in the hospital that I work in. I’m living paycheck to paycheck, and I can’t afford to be sick. I can’t afford to get hurt. I’m already $5,000 in medical debt to UPMC from when I had a bad fall a few years ago.

Now UPMC says it’s creating health savings accounts, meant to make health care more affordable for their lowest-paid employees. That’s rich, coming from an employer that sets wages at poverty levels, sets health insurance costs, is its own health care provider and puts its workers into medical debt to their own employer.

I’m tired of being called essential when I’m being treated as expendable. I’m tired of my low wages. I’m tired of eating ramen every night.

UPMC is supposed to be a center for care, health and healing, but all they do is line their pockets. We need a union so we can have a voice and have a say in how things are run.

Cameron Best, Larimer

Ending abortion would benefit Social Security

Hurrah to Texas voters for eliminating abortions in their state. Hopefully more states will follow suit. Keep up the good fight!

More than 60 million babies have been killed since 1973, the year abortions became legal in the U.S. If those 60 million babies had the right to life, they would be eligible to be part of our Social Security program. We would be happy to have them, as they would eliminate the problems we will be facing in the very near future.

The average yearly wage (2019, the latest year reported), was $51,916. The average median wage for 2019 was $34,248. There is a big difference between the Social Security Administration wage and median wage data. The average numbers are bigger because high earners jack them up. The 60 million would fit in the SSA average wage. There are 46 years between 2019 and 1973. Sixty million divided by 46 equals 1,304,348 abortions per year, times the average wage of $51,916 is equal to $67,716,531 for this year’s total.

Eliminating abortions would enhance the future of Social Security!

Catherine Kelly, Greensburg