Letter to the editor May 19
Contrasting Styles
Two articles especially caught my attention in The Chronicle’s May 12 edition, and I consider them to be related in an offbeat way.
“Lynn Cullen is the perennial performer” provides some details of the life of a talented, brilliant, irrepressible longtime friend of the community, one who truly speaks for “the forgotten Americans.” I greatly miss Lynn’s days on the radio, and she deserved to remain in that high-profile media forum. We do not always agree, and she sometimes expresses herself in a way that is not my style, but she is sincere, dedicated and always adopts a position designed to favor the little guy rather than the rich, the powerful and the corrupt. Most surprising to me was her acknowledgement in the article of feeling insecure. She does not give that impression, and insecurity is not warranted for someone of her stature and intellect. I hope her powerful voice will be with us for many years to come.
“Jeff Bartos says Sen. Casey shouldn’t go to bat for Pennsylvania residents anymore” tells of the Senate candidacy of a man who fashions himself as a Donald Trump type: case closed. He endorses a border wall and bitterly opposes the Affordable Care Act. Bartos asserts that the president has assembled a “world-class cabinet,” a claim that is laughable in consideration of individuals who occupy it such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. DeVos and Perry are intellectual lightweights. Pruitt is seeking to empower polluters and global-warming deniers, setting aside science as he places the environment last. Sessions seeks to make us a country that imprisons more of its people for longer periods of time, including for minor drug offenses and to make this a place that causes immigrants — legal and illegal — to live in fear.
Bartos contends that Trump has “re-established U. S. leadership on the world stage.” How? He has cozied up to our Russian enemy, made common cause with mass killer Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, stated that it would be “an honor” to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and alienated traditional allies including Great Britain, Germany, Mexico and Canada. Allies are not certain whether to laugh at us or fear us, never knowing what our “leader” will do, given his lack of intelligence and knowledge of world affairs and his confusing pronouncements and shifting positions.
It’s people like Bartos who pose a threat to our way of life and who endanger us and all that our country has traditionally represented. It is someone like Cullen who will challenge him for so long as she remains in the public eye.
Oren Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair, Pa.
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