Featured Commentary category, Page 6
Point: We’ve failed to teach our young people love of country, democracy
As we approach Memorial Day, it is sobering to recognize that today’s young people are unlikely to respond as enthusiastically to a call to serve their country as members of the World War II generation did 80 years ago. Young people do not exhibit the high levels of patriotism and...
Allison Schrager: America’s debt problem is also a retirement problem
The wise minds at Moody’s Investors Service finally acknowledged this month what the other two main credit rating agencies did years ago: America has a debt problem. Now it’s time for America to recognize that solving its debt problem will require addressing another hard truth: Americans have a retirement problem...
Beth Kowitt: The old model of billionaire philanthropy is ending
Bill Gates is an optimist. He believes the world will be a better place in 20 years, that diseases like polio, measles and malaria will be eradicated, and that there will be other rich people lining up to fill the void when, as he announced recently, his foundation shuts its...
Kevin Snider: An open letter to Penn State trustees, leadership
Penn State must evolve to survive. Penn State New Kensington already has. At a time when the university faces a choice between retreat and reinvention, it is poised to close one of the few campuses already evolving — and succeeding. That’s what is at stake in the May 22 vote...
Jay Paterno: For Penn State, today’s challenges vs. tomorrow’s dreams — a call for defiant optimism
On July 2, 1862, this nation was at war for its very existence. The Union Army was retreating from a campaign to capture Richmond. Victory was far from certain. On that day, the United States Congress and President Abraham Lincoln had their eyes on a future clouded by massive uncertainty....
F.D. Flam: Quantum computing could be the future of drug development
One of the first and most promising uses scientists envision for the rapidly evolving technology of quantum computing is a new approach to drug development. A quantum computer could, in theory, eliminate much of the trial and error involved in the process to help researchers more quickly zero in on...
Sarah Gundle: TikTokers are self-diagnosing. That’s good and bad.
“My ADHD? I figured it out on TikTok,” a new patient told me proudly. She hadn’t turned to social media for answers because she wanted to; she just couldn’t afford the cost of a formal psychiatric evaluation. Appointments for neuropsychological assessments, the gold standard for diagnosing conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity...
Jackie Calmes: Will the Qatar gift to Trump fly?
The real value of President Donald Trump’s acceptance of a $400 million “palace in the sky” — a super luxe Boeing 747-8 grift, er, gift, from the oil-rich Qatari royal family — could be in what it reveals to his fellow Americans about his unprecedented, global grab for wealth and...
Bradford Fitch: How veterans, plane travel and sausages lead to less partisanship
It’s no secret that partisanship is more intense than at any other time in recent history. And these intense political feelings don’t just play themselves out through gridlock in Congress. The threats of political violence have increased dramatically. Politics seeps into the workplace, resulting in coarse relations with colleagues (and,...
Abigail Auyeung: Reducing mental health to buzzwords and online trends may do more harm than good
If you’ve been on Instagram recently, you may have seen Insta stories of giddy teens dumping water — which doesn’t even contain ice — on their friends in the name of #SpeakYourMIND. Influencers give pretty speeches in which they claim “mental health is important!” and give a cheerful thumbs-up of...
Ronald L. Hirsch: Are liberals destroying America’s ideals?
The opening paragraph of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 wrote, “America is now divided between two opposing forces: woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the ideals of the American Revolution.” What a perfect example of fake news. By taking on the mantle of American values and attacking their opponents...
Chad Kultgen: What I’ve learned from doing a podcast with my MAGA parents
My family used to be very close. We took vacations together. We never missed a birthday or a Christmas, even though it meant traveling from different states. And we talked on the phone often. But something happened during President Obama’s second term that changed our family drastically. I don’t think...
Rep. Dan Frankel: Don’t let corporate cannabis hijack legalization in Pa.
Last week, something unusual happened in Harrisburg. A Senate Republican committee chair brought up the cannabis legalization bill I introduced with Rep. Rick Krajewski — just to vote it down. It was all theater. No legalization bill will become law without a negotiation with HB 1200, the House-passed legislation. So...
Allison Mathis: Cyber charter reform is unfinished business
Cyber charter schools were created in 2002, and the law creating them had remained largely unchanged in the 22 years of its existence until Act 55 of 2024. Act 55 implemented several critical reforms related to accountability, transparency and ethics that advocates have been asking to see for years. Act...
Mark Z. Barabak: Is there a middle ground on immigration? This Republican thinks so.
Bob Worsley has solid conservative credentials. He’s anti abortion. A fiscal hawk and lifelong member of the Mormon Church. As an Arizona state senator, he won high marks from the National Rifle Association. These days, however, Worsley is an oddity, an exception, a Republican pushing back against the animating impulses...
Gary Pezzano: Stop gambling with the care Pa.’s older population deserves
As Pennsylvania’s baby boomer generation continues to age, the commonwealth’s system is failing to meet the growing demand for nursing home care, the LIFE program and other critical aging services. In fact, at a time when we should be expanding services, nursing homes are removing beds and scaling back services...
Joan Mills and William Reeves Ferran: Allegheny County power outages make case for solar and storage in public housing
When the Blawnox Apartments, home to over 80 senior citizens, abruptly went dark early last week amidst the torrential rain and fierce winds pummeling Allegheny County, building maintenance wasted no time in attempting to fire up the old diesel generator. When it finally sputtered to life — hours after the...
Kelley Shepherd: We are not the waste — a DSP’s plea to protect Medicaid
Since 2008, I’ve worked as a direct support professional (DSP). In this work, I’ve witnessed miracles — small ones, daily — that show what people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism (ID/A) can achieve when they’re given a fair chance and real support. I remember someone with a traumatic...
Brian C. Rittmeyer: Penn State branch campuses provide more than memories
There’s a beaver plushie on my nightstand, and a glass bottle of Coke from 1990 in my living room. What do these two unusual — and one, advisably undrinkable — things have in common? Penn State branch campuses. More importantly, for me, the memories attached to them. And now that...
Cal Thomas: Bad political theater in Newark
Political theater extends back to the Greeks. William Shakespeare wrote about politics in “Coriolanus” and other plays. A personal favorite of mine was “Fiorello!,” a 1959 musical about New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. What happened in Newark last week was political theater at its worst. New Jersey Democratic Reps....
Alisa E. Harris: State funding is reducing violence and supporting youth — we must keep it going
Pennsylvania is home to more YMCAs than any other state in the nation — more than 700,000 Pennsylvanians are members of their local YMCA, and an additional 180,000 people participate in YMCA programs each year. It is hard to overstate the positive impact a YMCA has on a community —...
Ed Beck: Independent vets locked out of Pa. primaries
Consider this situation. A Pennsylvanian devotes over three decades to military service, most of it in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Along the way, he earns multiple degrees and becomes a management consultant, a college professor and an entrepreneur. He’s played by the rules, served his country and contributed to...
Jeff Kupfer: Hydrogen future begins in Western Pa. — if we seize it
Western Pennsylvania helped build America’s energy backbone. Now, we stand at the edge of another turning point – one where the region can once again lead, this time by investing in clean hydrogen technologies that power the future and support our workers, manufacturers, or communities. Let’s be clear: This isn’t...
A.J. Bauer: NPR and PBS aren’t threats. They’re treasures.
When President Donald Trump signed an executive order cutting federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, he was right about one thing: We do live in a moment of media abundance. But his market-based notion of abundance fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of public broadcasting, which is...
Mark Gongloff: Pope Leo XIV might be the climate champion we need
In picking a new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the Vatican had a chance to honor the late Pope Francis’ legacy as the greenest pope in modern history. In choosing the American (and Peruvian) Cardinal Robert Prevost — henceforth known as Pope Leo XIV — his fellow cardinals...
