Cheers & Jeers
Associated Press
Cheers: For more than 60 years, personnel in the U.S. military could be discharged for engaging in consensual gay sex, and not only be deprived of opportunities if they had hoped to make military service their careers, but also deprived of benefits upon their retirement. It’s not known how many service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation, but it is believed to be in the thousands. This week, President Biden corrected what he called “an historic wrong” by pardoning them. This will allow them to have their convictions erased, their discharges upgraded and recover the pay and benefits they lost. Modern Military, a national organization for LGBTQ+ service members and their families, called the pardons “a significant move in recognizing and righting the wrongs inflicted upon LGBTQ+ service members who faced discriminations and unjust convictions…These brave individuals stood in the front lines of freedom, risking their lives to defend our country, only to be met with injustice at home.”
Cheers: “People want to be able to walk through their neighborhoods and be safe. America should be a place where all of us can go to school, go to work, go to the supermarket, go to our house of worship without having to worry that that’s going to put our lives at risk.” That’s what U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told the Associated Press this week in reference to gun violence, which he has declared a public health crisis. And it’s hard to disagree with that assessment. Though the number of gun deaths has been falling since the depths of the pandemic, it is still unacceptably high. Studies have shown that the number of people killed by guns grew by 43% between 2010 and 2020, and that gun violence costs the country more than $500 billion per year when you tally up the health care and criminal justice costs and lost earnings. Murthy believes that in order to curtail gun violence, automatic rifles need to be banned, universal background checks need to be introduced, the presence of weaponry in public places needs to be restricted and gun owners who don’t store their weapons properly need to be penalized. Those are all sound suggestions.
Jeers: If it looks like cronyism and smells like cronyism, then it’s probably cronyism. And that’s what the hiring of Joe Bendik as Washington County’s special projects coordinator looks like. Bendik started on the job last month with a list of duties that include overhauling the county’s 911 emergency system, getting a new public safety building constructed, and acquiring a parking garage in the city of Washington. The problem, though, is that the job description is notably different than the one that was posted and approved, and it seems Bendik’s hiring was carried out in secret – Commissioner Larry Maggi had no idea who Bendik even was until he saw him at a meeting and was introduced. Bendik’s hiring was also not done at a public meeting, which is not consistent with Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act. Making matters worse, Bendik previously worked with county Chief of Staff Daryl Price when they were in the music industry in Nashville, Tenn., and has also had jobs in the oil and gas industry and as a volunteer firefighter. Bendik might do well in his new job. But was he hired because he was truly qualified, or because he was a friend of the chief of staff? And if he has all the qualifications and was a stellar candidate, why was he hired in such a hush-hush fashion?