Joseph Sabino Mistick stories, Page 7
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Our real Groundhog Day, an endless loop of tragedy
Another Groundhog Day has come and gone. It was started by German immigrants in Pennsylvania in 1887 in Punxsutawney. Historians say it is based on a pre-Christian ritual that used the behavior of small animals to predict the weather, back when believing that you could predict the start of spring...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Can we save Downtown Pittsburgh?
People are worried about Downtown Pittsburgh. The recent daytime killing of a young man in broad daylight in the heart of Pittsburgh’s business and entertainment district has some businesses and residents worrying that Downtown might be over. It was the latest in a string of violent encounters and brazen shootings...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Now is Gainey’s leadership moment
Most Pittsburghers are sickened and exhausted every time they turn on the news and see another street killing in our town. There was another fatal shooting Thursday in broad daylight on Liberty Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. Mayor Ed Gainey, a man who knows the personal tragedy of random gun violence,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Kevin McCarthy and the GOP nihilists
The general public has not heard much about nihilists since “The Big Lebowski” was released in 1998, but during the recent GOP fight to pick a speaker of the House in Washington, D.C., we learned that nihilists now have their own caucus in the Republican Party. In the movie, three...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Honoring Chief Justin McIntire, a hometown hero
Police officers have the toughest job in America, and Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire gave it his all while pursuing an armed and dangerous fugitive last week. McIntire was shot and killed doing what we ask our police to be ready to do — protect the public from the terror...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The good and the bad from 2022
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves,” according to the late William E. Vaughan, author and longtime columnist for the Kansas City Star. It is never that simple. There are always some bad things...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: O Holy Night
It turned out to be my last chance to shine at Christmas Eve Midnight Mass with the boys’ choir of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in East McKeesport. By the next year, my voice would be changed, one more sign that I was moving along in life, aging out of things....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Safe communities at top of holiday wish list
Everyone has a personal holiday wish list, but we all should have a wish list for our communities, as well. These are not luxury items at all. Those who live in Pittsburgh’s East End or pass through it for work or pleasure or to shop will have one wish come...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: No need for GOP autopsy — the lessons are obvious
The headlines that appeared last week after Republican Herschel Walker lost the Georgia runoff election to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael G. Warnock struck a common theme. The Washington Post said Walker’s defeat “spurs new GOP handwringing, calls for new strategy.” As The New York Times described it, “After Georgia...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Citizens’ work is never done
Most Americans have moved on from politics now that the 2022 midterm election is behind us. They voted in record numbers, defied the self-proclaimed political experts and rejected extremism in many places. It raised the hope of a revival of good citizenship. Possibly, Thanksgiving dinner was a little less stressful...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Giving thanks for our ‘exceeding blessings’
On Nov. 12, 1945, just seven months after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President Harry S. Truman issued a proclamation to mark the first Thanksgiving since the end of World War II. “We give thanks with the humility of free men, each knowing it was the might of no...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Happy Birthday, President Biden
If this is what 80 looks like, America could use more of that. President Joe Biden is celebrating his 80th birthday this weekend, and he was the oldest president in American history when he took office on Jan. 20, 2021. Ronald Reagan was nearly 78 when he left office and...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: No political eclipse this Election Day
In the dark hours of election morning 2022, before the polls opened, a rare blood moon total lunar eclipse — a sign of revelation and great change, according to astrologers — was visible across America. It was the first time in our history that Election Day coincided with a lunar...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Paul Pelosi and our lack of decency
Whoever wins these upcoming elections, the malignant responses to the recent attack on Paul Pelosi show that we all have reason to mourn the near total loss of decency in civic life. A politically motivated, skull-fracturing hammer attack on an 82-year-old man is not funny. But the public air is...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Defining moments from the Oz-Fetterman debate
The long-awaited debate last week between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz in the race to become Pennsylvania’s newest U.S. senator produced far more flash than substance, but each candidate gave one response that defined his performance over the whole hour. Fetterman hesitated for too long and then...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Dr. Oz’s cruel experiments dog his campaign
“Every dog has its day” means that sooner or later, everyone will have a moment of great influence. For actual dogs, that moment might be the upcoming election between Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman for Pennsylvania U.S. senator. A recent ad paid for by the...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We need more leaders like Tony DeLuca
When Aristotle described politicians as craftsmen — creating paths to a “good life” for the people they serve — he could have been describing Penn Hills state Rep. Tony DeLuca, who died last week at 85. DeLuca was in his 39th year in the Pennsylvania Legislature, representing Penn Hills, Verona...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: DeSantis now looking for the help he denied others
Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis was on his political tippy-toes last week when Democratic President Joe Biden arrived to inspect the devastation by Hurricane Ian. Biden pledged all the machinery of the federal government to get Florida back on track. This was a common gesture of human solidarity. DeSantis was...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Women uniting in Iran and worldwide
“The world is going backwards. Women are whole human beings, but government is still trying to control us, even here in the U.S.,” according to Fayezeh Haji Hassan. The Pittsburgh lawyer was barely a teenager when her family fled Iran for Afghanistan to escape the political persecution of her activist...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Oz. vs. Fetterman and the future of the nation
In the peculiar race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz for a Pennsylvania seat in the U.S. Senate, those voters who proudly say that they vote the candidate and not the party might well be tempted to sit this one out. That would be a mistake. Both...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Four present threats to the republic
It’s a well-known story, but it bears repeating from time to time. As Ben Franklin was leaving Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 1787 after the delegates had finished writing our nation’s Constitution, he passed through the crowd that had gathered on the steps hoping to learn what kind of government...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We could use a little of Jack Bogut’s storytelling these days
When Jack Bogut was the king of morning radio in Pittsburgh, waking up to your favorite station was not as scary as it is these days. We always seem to be on the brink of something terrible or faced with something terrible that happened overnight — political violence, mass shootings,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pair’s industrial art a love letter to steelworkers
An accidental discovery on social media led to a partnership between New Castle businessman Chip Barletto and Pittsburgh industrial artist Cory Bonnet, and, because of that, our community will always have permanent reminders of why we celebrate Labor Day. Barletto has been visiting old steel mills for 50 years, starting...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pa. voters deserve to see debates
As the shortest kid in my fourth grade class, I played the 5-foot-4 Stephen Douglas in our school production of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and my tallest classmate played the 6-foot-4 Abraham Lincoln. It was the 100th anniversary of the 1858 debates. Our school had no auditions for these nonspeaking roles,...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: We need leaders who support our laws
For most of my life, politicians in both parties have stood for law and order, and Republicans have been traditionally strong in their support. But while my Republican friends quickly denounced the Jan. 6 violence by the far right, a large group of Republicans chose safe reelection over their party’s...
