Cheers & Jeers
Brad Hundt
The bridge on Interstate 79 at the Bridgeville exit could be subject to a toll to pay for repairs and road widening.
AP
U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., receives the 2022 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
Cheers: Ramona Reeves of Uniontown is a mother on a mission. Her son, the mother of his children and Reeves鈥� nephew were all killed as the result of gun violence over the past five years. On Friday, June 3, National Gun Violence Awareness Day, Reeves will lead a peace march and then plant flowers to memorialize those whose lives were taken away by firearms. The march comes as families in Texas grieve for the children and teachers killed in a Tuesday elementary school shooting. Renewed calls have come for changes to our laws, and the political debate will begin anew. As it wages, we need more people like Reeves and the grassroots efforts of her nonprofit SKW Foundation, dedicated to eliminating gun violence. Her strength in the face of tragedy and willingness to fight for change should be an inspiration to us all.
Cheers: The fact that many young people in America are facing mental health-related issues came front-and-center last year when the American Academy of Pediatrics and other organizations declared that child and adolescent mental health woes had reached the level of a national emergency. Social media, school shootings and the specter of climate change have all taken a toll, especially when it鈥檚 combined with routine adolescent worries about relationships and grades. An article in Monday鈥檚 缅北禁地 pointed out how school districts throughout the region have confronted this challenge. In Burgettstown, for instance, there is now a wellness homeroom where students can relax and focus at the start of the day. Others have rededicated themselves to making students aware of the resources available to them. Teachers and administrators deserve kudos for recognizing how fragile the well-being of their students can be. Adults outside the classroom need to do their part in making the lives of today鈥檚 young people a little less stressful.
Cheers: The plan to toll nine interstate bridges in Pennsylvania, including the one at the Bridgeville exchange, hit a serious roadblock last week when Commonwealth Court issued a preliminary injunction against it. The idea has proven to be about as popular as a plague of locusts, and both candidates to be governor have stated their opposition. State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee, has called for reforming the public-private partnership that would lead to the bridges being tolled, and last week Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania鈥檚 attorney general and the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, told the Courier-Express in DuBois that he also disagrees with the Wolf administration鈥檚 plan. He said resources were available in the state budget to invest in infrastructure and Harrisburg needs to 鈥渦se those resources in a smart way to repair infrastructure, not by asking motorists to pay more.鈥� Even without intervention from the courts, the bridge-tolling plan could well be doomed if the next governor is opposed.
Cheers: John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage awards are given annually to public servants who make tough decisions and take heroic stands on critical issues when it would be just as easy to keep their heads down or swim with the tide. Some of the recipients this year stood up against the lies and misinformation that the 2020 election was somehow stolen from President Trump. One of them was U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican who was booted from leadership in the U.S. House because she voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. In accepting the award, Cheney asked, 鈥淭he question for every one of us in this time of testing, will we do our duty, will we defend our Constitution, will we stand for truth, will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics?鈥� That鈥檚 a question many of Cheney鈥檚 colleagues need to ask themselves.