Letters to the editor
We need a change
The policy positions of our legislative representatives are not the only factors to consider when choosing which one to vote for, and maybe they aren’t even the most important factors. We need congressional representatives who know us and understand our communities, legislators who work consistently to build relationships with their constituents and with the communities in their district. We should have regular and frequent opportunities to see them in our communities, to meet with them in open forums where they listen to their constituents’ concerns and answer their constituents’ questions. We need them to have regular office hours during which their constituents can meet face-to-face with them or at least with their staff members.
For the past six years, Guy Reschenthaler, the congressional representative for Pennsylvania U.S. House District 14, has failed on every point just listed. He has never held an open public forum with his constituents (a town hall meeting). He rarely (never?) appears in open community events where he might interact with the public. His local offices are rarely open and staffed for public interaction. He has been an absentee “representative.” He doesn’t know us. He doesn’t care about us. We need a change.
His electoral opponent, Alan Bradstock, is constantly out among the people of this district in open public forums, at community events, meeting anyone and everyone. I commend him to you. His credentials more than match the current incumbent. Bradstock has shown that he isn’t afraid of the people of the 14th District, whether they agree with him or not.
Gary Chorpenning
Canonsburg
Time to get real
At the midterm Republican convention, Donald Trump asked the audience in attendance to take a pledge, “I’ll do it anyway. I don’t care if I’m registered or not. I’m going to try and cheat like hell like they do.”
Do we honestly believe if elections were rigged Trump would still be in office?
Just like the $5,000 Trump is promising if Republicans win the midterms. Keep believing in the fake promises, tariff refunds, and DOGE dividends. How about start worrying about gas prices, groceries, healthcare costs, utilities, and data centers in your back yards.
Get real, people. Start voting for candidates like Alan Bradstock for Congress in the 14th District, Sydney Speicher, state representative in District 15, and others in your districts who care about what is going on in the world and your communities, not false promises.
Bonnie J. Rankin
Burgettstown
My prayer for America
Our country is not a Christian nation. However, it was founded on Christian principles found in the Bible. It recognizes that all people were created by God and have the right to freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It doesn’t guarantee that everyone will have everything because we are a nation of people and people by nature are selfish and sinful.
Our Constitution protects us as much as it can from our own nature. Our first 250 years have shown us how well it has worked to create a nation that has served its people and the world better than any nation before us.
Our God and the Bible that reveals His wisdom and love, the Bible that we swear upon when entering national service or when swearing to testify as to the truth of our witness, has been under attack, never as much as in recent years.
I pray that all who read this consider our history and all the administrations that have led our country and realize that whether we liked them or not, our form of government has been what has built our nation.
It is our Constitution and the biblical principles on which it is based that have brought us here. Recent efforts to take God and the Bible out of our governance is what have created the dire direction we are facing today.
As you consider voting this fall, I pray you put aside personal hatred, if you have it, and take a realistic view and understanding of the political views and tenets of those who are running for various offices as you make your selections and consider the government you want to hand to your families, your children and grandchildren, and the future of our country.
John Sieg
Bulger
More hot air
Although there are so many serious national and international issues swirling in the daily news cycle related to Donald Trump’s lies and blunders, the latest false bravado deserves attention for its disingenuousness.
I ask the reader to recall Trump’s disinformation concerning the crowd size at his first inauguration parade (2017) when he boasted that the crowd size was the biggest event in history, only to have that proven to be totally false when overhead photos were compared to the crowd-size pictures taken at Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Now, we have another episode of dense smoke blown about the viewership of the GOP midterm convention, versus the viewership of the NFL’s first game of the new season. As per usual, Trump intentionally corrupted the facts in the matter by wrongfully bragging that the convention beat out the NFL’s Wednesday night game in viewership. The true facts are as follows: Nielsen’s accounting for the viewership of the football game was over 21 million viewers, while the viewership of the convention was about 2.5 million. As a corrupter of hard facts that do not glorify him, Trump apparently cannot help himself when engaging in misinformation, disinformation and bold-faced lies at his any whim, ignoring that his false bravado will be exposed quickly and accurately by astute news reporting.
We are asked to believe Trump as the POTUS when he proclaims success in national and international affairs. How can we reasonably believe him when he can’t even be trusted to disseminate factual information as purely basic as television viewership data which is so easily obtained for verification?
Trump’s gamesmanship is always the same. Bellow as loudly as possible to rile up his legion of devotees while being intentionally ignorant of whatever he proclaims as fact. No one of intellect believes him, but his sycophants gleefully swallow any red meat he feeds them without the slightest desire to know the facts of the matter.
Some say ignorance is bliss, but we Americans cannot allow ourselves to be constantly deceived. How much more dense, black, smoke clouds of deception should this nation tolerate?
Ronald J. Yamka
Canonsburg