Cheers & Jeers
Associated Press
This photo from Paramount Pictures shows Al Gore in 鈥淎n Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.鈥�
Mark Hofmann | 缅北禁地
Members of Boy Scout Troop No. 469 from Hookstown, Beaver County, walk along Route 40 in Uniontown last week. The trek was part of their 36th annual weeklong 100-mile hike from Hookstown to Farmington to the Boy Scout summer camp at Heritage Reservation.
Cheers: Those of us who feel like we鈥檝e fulfilled our daily requirement for exercise by taking a brisk, hour-long walk in the morning can only feel a sense of admiration toward the Beaver County Boy Scouts, who recently hiked 100 miles to get to the Heritage Reservation Boy Scout Summer Camp in Farmington in Fayette County. Sure, the six Scouts from Hookstown could have hopped in a car and gotten to the camp in a a couple of hours, but instead they endured summer heat, rain and sore feet. The adults who led the hike said it builds maturity, and helps the boys earn several merit badges along the way. Allen Cox, a 17-year-old Scout who was on his seventh hike, offered this bit of wisdom during a break caused by a thunderstorm: 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about the lessons you learn along the hike. It鈥檚 all about perseverance, sticking it through even when the skies open up.鈥�
Jeers: Gallup recently polled Americans on their retrospective views of recent presidents, and the fact that John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan remain the most popular was not all that surprising. In fact, Donald Trump and Richard Nixon were the only two of nine recent presidents who fell below 50% in retrospective approval. What was surprising about the survey was that neither Lyndon Johnson nor Gerald Ford was included because, according to Gallup, about 20% of Americans could not offer an opinion on them in a poll that was conducted five years ago. Granted, Ford was only president for a little more than two years, but should be highly regarded almost 50 years later for how he steadied the nation after the Watergate debacle. And Johnson鈥檚 presidency was enormously consequential. He signed Medicare and Medicaid into law, launched the War on Poverty, ended restrictive immigration laws and championed civil rights. On the minus side, the Vietnam War escalated on his watch and helped bring his presidency to an end. The fact that Johnson and Ford have apparently been forgotten by so many Americans is an indication that we have a bad case of historical amnesia.
Jeers: A little more than a year ago, Charleroi Borough hired former Washington City Councilman Matt Staniszewski to be its manager. In recent days, Staniszewski鈥檚 tenure came to an end in a blaze of rancor 鈥� Staniszewski has filed suit against the borough claiming breach of contract and Sunshine Act violations, among other allegations. The borough suspended Staniszewski without pay in June for what it called 鈥渄isrespectful鈥� behavior, and he did not return after his suspension was done. The substance of Staniszewski鈥檚 claims will be hashed out in court, presuming that both sides don鈥檛 settle beforehand. That Staniszewski would only last about a year in the job was an outcome many could have foreseen. His time as a public official even before he went to Charleroi was tempestuous, and included charges for driving under the influence on multiple occasions. Most puzzling of all was that Staniszewski was the only candidate the borough council even considered. What were they thinking?
Cheers: Canadian wildfires have sent a haze across northern parts of the United States. Flooding has devastated parts of Vermont. Phoenix has had high temperatures over 110 degrees for three weeks and there鈥檚 no end in sight. In Death Valley, the high temperature reached 128 degrees. In the Middle East the heat index reached 152 degrees. Climate scientists agree that unless we cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, we鈥檙e going to experience a lot more extreme weather like this in the future, and it could be even worse. It鈥檚 not something that breeds a lot of optimism, but one climate-change expert who believes brighter, less dangerous days might be ahead is Al Gore. The former vice president brought climate change to the fore with his 2006 documentary 鈥淎n Inconvenient Truth,鈥� and he told The New York Times this week that he thinks we can forestall the worst effects of climate change, with the evidence being the increasingly low costs of clean energy and the rising sales of electric vehicles. 鈥淲e know how to fix this,鈥� Gore said. Let鈥檚 hope his optimism is justified.