These policies will not benefit the common good
A rash of disturbing headlines appeared in the Post-Gazette over the past week: Trump administration proposes drastic cuts in the EPA budget (May 20). Families brace for safety-net cuts (May 21). Progress in reducing the U.S. uninsured rate comes to a halt (May 21). Donald Trump seals a deal to sell $110 billion of armaments to Saudi Arabia (May 21).
The first story addresses how the government department that monitors breathable air and drinkable water faces huge budget cuts in this administration.
The second describes how families of children with disabilities will be adversely affected by proposed Medicaid cuts. The third illustrates that the gains of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which dramatically increased health insurance coverage in the U.S., will be wiped out by the blind “repeal” action of Congress. The final one concretizes the continuing flow of American weapons to the already wartorn Mideast.
How can anyone think this is good news? How can we possibly label as “pro-life” policies that remove the safety net from services to the poor and vulnerable ones? How can we justify ignoring the environment, failing to protect water and air or selling $110 billion worth of armaments to anyone?
I write not as a disgruntled Democrat, but as a concerned citizen who is committed to the common good. SISTER PATRICIA McCANN
Oakland goes by without some article that heaps ridicule on a supposed gaffe in which President Donald Trump makes some outlandish claim that isn’t true. It could be the scope of what he accomplished the first 100 days, the size of the crowd at the inauguration, or whether anyone knew how complicated health care is and how terrific his team’s solutions will be.
Like squirrels, the media chase after every nutty and delicious statement instead of providing sustained focus on the big stories and insanity of this White House.
Ignore the distractions. Maybe Mr. Trump is a master magician who has gotten us to focus on his lovely assistant instead of his sleights of hand. If so, he is brilliant at getting his way.
The media congratulate themselves on correcting his grammar while he appoints an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who doesn’t believe in the EPA or in scientific consensus.
Alternatively, he is your crazy uncle who so amuses and bemuses us with his oddly racist, misogynistic and outlandish claims that we don’t realize he’s turned on the gas on the stove and blown out the pilot flame because the vapors are certain to drive away the gremlins that keep rearranging the sock drawer.
In either case, he needs to be watched and held accountable.
This is when the journalistic profession needs to put on its big-boy and big-girl pants and get to work and earn our trust. VIKRAM MANGALMURTI
Shadyside
The deaths of two 25-yearold kayakers who were swept over the Dashields Dam in Edgeworth are proof enough that the current warning signs and buoys are insufficient (“Family Agonizes as Search for Kayaker Continues,” May 24).
This has happened before and will keep happening if the authorities keep insisting that the current warnings are enough.
How many more people need to die before more is done to correctthis dangerous situation? PAMELA ROLLINGS
Fox Chapel