Editorial voices from around Pennsylvania
Editorial voices from newspapers and websites in Pennsylvania as compiled by the Associated Press:
The “new normal” resulting from the Great Recession continues to exact an economic toll.
The term “middle class” used to apply to a broad swath of American society. But a recent Pew Research Center study found that the share of upper- and lower-income households have both expanded to a point where the middle class no longer constitutes a majority of the adult population. The middle class accounted for 61 percent of the population in 1971, according to Pew, and it now includes 49 percent.
The drop was quickly accelerated by the recession of December 2007 to June 2009, in which 7 million homes were lost to foreclosure and $16 trillion in household wealth vanished.
This bleak trend was reinforced in a recent Harvard University poll of people ages 18 to 29. The proportion of those polled who think the “American dream” is dead was 48 percent, just 1 percentage point behind the total who think it is alive.
The American myth that you can be whatever you want is losing credibility and that leaves Americans collectively worse off for the loss.
It’s been nearly a decade and a half since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks stunned America, which led to necessary and meaningful adjustments keep the United States safe.
Emerging were the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act and the secret data collection outed by Edward Snowden. Agree or not, the idea behind each of them has been to give law enforcement personnel and federal agencies tools required to succeed.
What Americans continually learn, however, is that agencies still aren’t sharing information and communicating well enough, a troubling point reinforced when a Harrisburg man was charged for attempting to provide support to terrorists.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz was clearly discussing entry into the U.S. with potential terrorists. Casey notes the FBI and other agencies still lack tools and funds to identify and pursue homegrown terrorists. Additionally, the flow of information between agencies remains inconsistent, an unfortunate truth hammered home after the San Bernardino attack.
Homeland security has been a primary focus since Sept. 11, 2001. Billions of dollars in assets, personnel and programs have been put into place to shutter possible gaps. It is imperative all the pieces function as one unit.
Few would envy Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred the responsibility of figuring out how to handle the complicated matter of disgraced former player Pete Rose.
The game’s all-time hits leader and perennial all-star has been giving commissioners fits for nearly three decades, from A. Bartlett Giamatti to Manfred, who reaffirmed that decision, rejecting Rose’s request for reinstatement.
It is worth a reminder that Rose’s continued ban comes from a misdeed that – while inarguably serious – seems almost quaint by today’s standards: He bet on baseball. More specifically, he bet on games in which he played and managed.
But in this post-steroid (allegedly) age, where Major League Baseball has made its peace (and a tidy profit) with daily fantasy betting by declaring that it is – cough, cough! – not gambling, it is worth reassessing whether the punishment continues to fit the crime.
After all, other sports induct players into their halls of fame based solely on their on-field merits.
A perhaps-over-the-top example: the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, includes a bust of O.J. Simpson.
And while Rose has proven over the past 26 years that he can live – albeit sullenly – without professional baseball, it may be incumbent on professional baseball to ask itself whether it can live without Pete Rose. Forever.