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It’s time for a woman president

The role of women in modern American culture is way behind the rest of the world. For centuries women in other countries have been heralded as exceptional leaders and heroes: Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Queen Victoria, Eva Peron, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, and Mary Queen of Scots just to name a few. That is not to say that the USA has not had great women who did great things. They just aren’t given credit for it. Locally we have had two women who left behind admirable legacies – Jessie Bloom and Marlyne Whaley. Now don’t get me wrong. There are many American women who have ...

Unveiling the truth about human trafficking

Human trafficking is a heinous and pervasive crime that entraps an estimated 27.6 million people worldwide. Yet, it remains cloaked in misconceptions and dangerous stereotypes. Many perceive it as a problem confined to faraway countries or vulnerable individuals in major metropolitan areas. This is a dangerous fallacy. To combat trafficking, we must confront the realities of this dehumanizing crime—its methods, its victims, and its presence in communities both large and small. In Pennsylvania, human trafficking is neither rare nor limited to urban areas. It infiltrates our small ...

Obama returns to a different Pennsylvania

PITTSBURGH -- When former President Barack Obama comes to Pittsburgh on Thursday to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the home stretch for next month’s election, he will be returning to a very different western Pennsylvania from the one he won robustly in 2008 and less so in 2012. In 2008, Obama ran on a message of aspiration, using a slogan of hope and change to create a coalition of working-class white people long part of the New Deal Democrats, minorities, young people and educated professionals. In that race against Republican John McCain, he won 18 of ...

COVID-19’s shift to endemic

A couple weeks ago I started feeling stuffy and sneezing and my throat felt scratchy. I thought it was probably my normal summer allergies, which have been especially troublesome this year. But then I thought, “What if it’s not?” I had recently been in a few more public situations than usual — potential exposure; and I had some appointments coming up — better not spread it around! So, I did a COVID test and another a couple days later. Both tests were negative. That was a relief, not only because I wasn’t sick or infectious, but also because it meant I could go ahead and ...

What immigration really means

American citizens are right to be concerned about immigration. I have met hundreds of immigrants over the past decades, in my work as an ER doctor and as a volunteer since I retired. Here is a typical story. This was a man from a Central American country that suffers from a lot of of gang violence. He owned a small store in his village, selling groceries and convenience items, and made enough to support himself and his family. One day, three gang members came into his store. They demanded he make weekly payments that amounted to about half his income. To make their point, they beat him ...

The Democratic Party today and devastation

I just finished reading the opinion of Verna Caruso on the Republican and Democratic national conventions. One of these things is definitely not like the other. The Democratic Party has not been the Democratic Party for well over a decade. It’s no longer the party of the working class but more the party of Who’s who and the very extreme far left. In my opinion the only thing she got right was that there was definitely a contrast between the two. To have an “overall feeling of Joy” while innocent life is being murdered/aborted in the parking lot as a “feature” of the ...