Joseph Sabino Mistick Columns category, Page 15
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Lessons from New Zealand
With 5 million residents, New Zealand is large enough to have some big problems but small enough to handle them sensibly. When a new national anthem was proposed — an issue that would polarize most nations — the new anthem was added without dropping the old one, a decision less...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Frank’s Barbershop offered more than a haircut
If you wonder why some Americans are divided and isolated these days, think about all the places like Frank’s Barbershop in New Kensington that are no longer there, places where folks got together for the sake of being together. Tony Buba, the great independent filmmaker from Braddock, shows us what...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Response to murders a departure from America’s values
From the beginning, the Founders of this nation understood that all eyes would be on America, and they made it clear in the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence that they cared about what the world would think of us. “When in the course of human events it becomes...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Courts keep Trump in check
Since 1803, February has come and gone with hardly any mention of Marbury v. Madison, which was decided by the Supreme Court 216 years ago. The principle of judicial review was established then, and without that, American history and these last two years would have been very different. The case...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Stop the ‘socialism’ labels, focus on policy
When Donald Trump accused Democrats of “becoming the party of socialism” at his El Paso rally this month, he left no doubt as to what his campaign message will be in 2020. Trump is anything but coy, and he once again telegraphed his punches. Earlier, in his 2019 State of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Judge Dillon, guns & Pittsburgh
Let us start with the fact that Pittsburgh City Council’s gun-control legislation is born of heartbreak, frustration and anger over the murder of 11 of our neighbors during morning services at the Tree of Life synagogue in October. Councilman Corey O’Connor’s proposal to regulate guns within Pittsburgh city limits is...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Trump’s State of Kumbaya address
At times during the State of the Union speech, Donald Trump sounded like he wanted everyone to love each other. If you just caught selected snippets, you might have believed that he had turned a new leaf, pushed the restart button and resolved to let bygones be bygones. “We must...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Moe Coleman, the man in the middle
For all his life, Moe Coleman, was the man in the middle. It is not that he was “stuck” in the middle as some people often bemoan. He picked that spot because it was where he could do the most good. Moe died last week at age 86. He had...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Potential 2020 Democrat nominees look like America
Too many political journalists and talking heads compare presidential primary elections to horse races. Predictably, they are now using the old racing expression “And they’re off!” to describe the upcoming campaign season. The truth is that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, while wide open now, begins with a...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Political fear cuts both ways
When newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he was not downplaying the economic crisis that Americans faced. It was 1933, the lowest point in the Great Depression, and he was warning his fellow Americans that “unreasoning, unjustified” fear was...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Free press, elections help debunk ‘official’ lies
In 1950, Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy, was speaking to a Republican Women’s Club in West Virginia when he hit upon a little theatrical device that would make him a national political figure. Waving a piece of paper in the air, McCarthy made a shocking claim about Communists whom he said...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Truth & politics
When Harry S. Truman was president, he displayed a painted glass sign on his desk. On one side were the words “I’m From Missouri.” On the other side, it said “The Buck Stops Here!” A friend of Truman’s spotted the sign when visiting a federal reformatory in Oklahoma, and he...
