Letters to the editor
Consider kids
I understand both sides of the concerns about permanent daylight saving time and I agree with most arguments. The biggest concern that I have is the late sunrise during winter with children going to school. Has anyone considered a change of one half-hour, thus gaining a little at both ends of the day?
Being retired doesn’t have any effect on me other than the issue of changing all of the clocks twice a year. I think that this might be something for the government to consider.
Donald Barnot
Charleroi
Our homes belong to us
When is this vicious cycle ever going to end? The July 16 Observer-Reporter included the annual listing of Washington County Tax Claim Bureau Notice of Sale of Properties for Delinquent Taxes. This is 40 pages with 38 of those property listings. Has anyone in our county government ever consider making it a policy to call these property owners to inquire if they are seniors, widowed, disabled, struggling financially and ask what the county can do to help them keep their home? I am going to say most likely not. I guess it is not policy to show these property owners that someone has a heart and that they care.
There is always talk about property tax elimination. State Rep. Jason Ortitay created a plan called the Pennsylvania Education Endowment Fund. Sen. Doug Mastriano created the Sam Worley Elderly Tax Relief Act, which includes eliminating taxes for surviving spouses as well. I applaud him for thinking of surviving spouses because no one else does. Sen. Dawn Keefer has been holding town halls across the state. I called her office in November to ask if she would schedule a town hall here in Cecil to talk about her plan but so far Cecil hasn’t been included in her tour. Rep. Russ Diamond just created HB 900, which would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to prohibit all property taxes in Pennsylvania. Sen, Camera Bartolotta says she is a co-sponsor of a plan to eliminate property taxes, but she does not say what the plan is and I cannot find any listing on her website under co-sponsorship. And she never talks about it in her newsletters. Mastriano’s staff sent me a link that I could follow the progress of his Sam Worley Act.
Our homes do not belong to our county. They do not help pay our mortgage; our homeowner’s insurance, home maintenance and their name is definitely not on our deeds. For those of you who are considering bidding on any of these properties, have a heart, and don’t do it. Unless you don’t care either.
There are several property tax elimination plans out there. Start working harder to get one of them across the finish line and made as law. All property owners deserve dignity and respect because it is our home and not our county governments to sell.
Cheryl Bertolino
McDonald
We deserve a voice
This year’s election is an important one for the people of Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. Regardless of party affiliation, we should expect our representative in Congress to put the needs of the people who sent him there first.
For years, Congressman Guy Reschenthaler has been difficult for constituents to reach. While families have struggled with rising prices, public safety concerns, education, and the local economy, he has refused to hold regular public town halls where voters can ask questions and expect answers. Instead, he has spent time championing legislation to rename Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia after President Trump. This is nothing but a symbolic gesture that does nothing to lower grocery bills,
create jobs, or strengthen communities here in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Republicans have every reason to ask a simple question: Is our congressman fighting for us, or for status in Washington? Loyalty to a party should never outweigh accountability to the people back home, especially our families and children. We deserve a representative who earns our vote, not one who assumes they already have it.
Alan Bradstock offers a different kind of leadership. A Donora native, U.S. Army veteran, and former FBI special agent with two decades of experience in intelligence, counterterrorism, and drug interdiction, Bradstock has spent the past several months traveling the district, holding town halls, meeting with blue-collar workers, veterans, business owners, and community leaders. This election should not be about party labels. It should be about who will show up, answer to the people, and fight for Southwestern Pennsylvanians’ livelihood.
If you believe our district deserves a representative who is present, accessible, and accountable, I encourage you to give Alan Bradstock your vote this November.
Tasha Brownfield
Rostraver Township
In defense of immigrants
In his letter of July 13, “A Few Questions for Dems”, James A. Sanford indicates that he has swallowed whole the Trump-boosting propaganda of Fox “News” Channel, America One Network, and Newsmax.
He asked why Democrats are so enamored of illegal immigrants and why they would allow non-citizens to vote in our elections. The latter accusation has been thoroughly debunked, but the facts do not fit Mr. Sanford’s narrative.
A violation of immigration law is a civil infraction, a misdemeanor. The law does not mandate that everyone who violates it must be deported.
I wonder why it is so important to Mr. Sanford to oust from our country and to shatter the families of those who have built lives here, some of them having resided here and become a part of their communities for decades.
Does he know that immigrants: legal and illegal, commit far fewer crimes than native-born Americans, that they enrich government tax coffers to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per year, including contributing to the Social Security Trust Fund from which non-citizens will not be able to collect, that they perform critical functions as doctors, home health aides, and other categories, and that they take many of the jobs that American-born individuals do not want?
Haitians, for whom the president has particular contempt, are being forced to return to their native country, one which the State Department insists Americans not travel to due to instability and violence. These are the people who have helped the economies of towns like Charleroi, Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado, and no, Mr. President, they are not eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats. Even right-wing Republican state Sen. Camera Bartolotta felt compelled to speak out when the president of her party smeared the Haitians of Charleroi.
Our president has made it clear that he wants to welcome only white immigrants. He has opened the door to those from South Africa and he has asked why more individuals from “nice” countries in Scandinavia do not want to take up residence here.
Mr. Sanford asks if enabling non-citizens to vote is the only way Democrats believe they can win. Perhaps he missed the multiple schemes the president engaged in to steal the 2020 election, including asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes and threatening him with criminal sanction if he failed to comply.
We have always been a nation of immigrants yet we have a president who wants immigration to be virtually nil. The teachings of Jesus and the Catholic Church regarding the stranger and the migrant could be enlightening for some if they were open to hearing and heeding the message, which has never included, “hate them and oust them.”
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township