Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania

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THE SAD REALITY OF DEPRESSION, Dec. 21

With festive holiday lights and decorations almost everywhere we look, and joyous Christmas music playing nonstop at the malls and on the radio, it’s hard to imagine that anybody could be feeling down at this time of year.

But some people do. More than we think. In fact, people suffering from depression feel down almost all the time. Those awful feelings can get so bad that some lose the will to do much of anything, including even getting out of bed. A few eventually lose the will to go on - young people among them.

It is particularly disturbing when kids are victims of depression. Kids like Drew Bergman, who reporter Marion Callahan featured this week in her series on dealing with and triumphing over adversity.

Drew, a Burlington, New Jersey, resident is 23 now. Depression started ravaging his life when he was 12. By 16, he had twice attempted suicide. In between, Drew dealt with his illness - among other ways - by cutting his arms and legs. He concealed the bloody evidence by wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts. That way nobody knew. He suffered in silence.

But as reporter Callahan wrote, Drew is silent no more. He speaks publicly about his illness in an effort to help other victims take control of their lives. That means getting the help they need. But getting help, even finding out what kind of help is available and how to access it, is a huge challenge - one that can consume the lives of parents. The fallout can affect every member of a family. Such is the destructive reach of depression.

Yet, tragically, the illness is misunderstood. It is too often treated merely as a behavioral issue, not a disease. Just as cancer or heart disease can run in a family, depression likewise is in the genes. Victims aren’t responsible for their depression. Still, many psychiatrists don’t accept insurance; neither do some therapists. So families have no choice but to pay out-of-pocket for treatments that can quickly become a hardship.

This is what Drew’s family encountered.

“I was scared and didn’t know what to do, and there was no one to help,” Drew’s mother recalled. First she had trouble finding a psychiatrist who would treat an adolescent. Finding one who’d take insurance was the next challenge.

Eventually, Drew spent two weeks receiving in-patient care. That was followed by intense four-times-a-week outpatient therapy, a regimen that lasted several months. Slowly, Drew put his life back together. He returned to school and got involved socially. Life got better.

It is the truth he holds out to others suffering in silence.

Drew Bergman’s triumph over adversity is inspirational for us. It should be educational for those who can make a difference - legislators and insurers primarily - by using the power they have to make help both more accessible and more affordable. In this season of giving, let us all put it on our list.

- The (Doylestown) Intelligencer

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REFUGEES ENRICH ERIE AND THE NATION, Dec. 18

Among the best antidotes for stereotypes and exaggerated fears are faces and names.

Take Pradip Upreti, who came to Erie in 2009 as a refugee from Bhutan and began pursuing the American dream. Now he’s living it.

Upreti, who’s 28 and married with two young children, became a U.S. citizen in 2015. He runs a thriving market near East 11th and Parade streets, and counts many from Erie’s refugee community among his customers.

As Erie Times-News reporter Gerry Weiss detailed last week, these are uncertain days for refugees and other immigrants in Erie and throughout the country, and for people abroad who harbor American dreams of their own. The source of the uncertainty, of course, is President-elect Donald Trump.

As a candidate, Trump made harsh rhetoric and stoking fears about refugees a fixture of his campaign. The question now is whether his policies as president will match those words.

“What he said about refugees was really disturbing to hear,” Upreti told Weiss.

Officials with agencies that help refugees build new lives in Erie expressed optimism that what Trump said will turn out to be just words. They also pointed out that resettling refugees in this country historically has had bipartisan support.

Whether Trump will govern as he campaigned is anyone’s guess at this point. But here in Erie we have more reason than most to hope the new president will take a more nuanced and humane view.

Erie is one of the largest destinations for resettling refugees in Pennsylvania, in part because of its relatively low cost of living and affordable housing. The two agencies that aid refugees resettling here - the International Institute of Erie and Catholic Charities and Adoption Services - typically resettle hundreds of refugees each year.

Providing haven for people fleeing injustice, violence and hardship in their native lands reflects America’s, and Erie’s, core values. Offering them access to our freedoms and opportunities stays true to and enriches the American experience.

But the case for welcoming refugees goes beyond values and the vitality and dreams they add to our community. It’s sound policy as well.

Erie’s refugee population of about 10,000 is a major factor in stabilizing the city of Erie’s declining population. And as Ken Louie, director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie, noted, refugees are good for Erie in other ways.

“Immigrants definitely have a positive effect on Erie’s economy,” Louie said. “They start businesses and generate jobs once they get settled. They buy cars, groceries, day-to-day essentials.”

Those realities can get drowned out amid the noise of the presidential campaign and the jitters that come with dangerous, unsettled times. Just ask a good American like Pradip Upreti.

- Erie Times-News

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INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE RUSSIAN HACKING, BUT DON’T MAKE IT A PARTISAN PROBE, Dec. 21

More than 40 years ago, we Americans kicked a president out of the White House for various offenses linked to a burglary at the opposition political party’s office. Republicans and Democrats united in outrage about that crime and others linked to it.

So now we’re arguing about whether we should investigate another break-in, also aimed at getting information from the Democrat Party?

There should be no arguing. Republican President Richard Nixon was given the boot because of a scandal that began when some operatives were caught in a physical break-in at Democrat Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington. Even then, few people knew what the thieves were seeking.

Fast forward to 2016. There is evidence the government of Russia was behind leaks of information from digital communications involving top Democrats. Yet some politicians argue investigating that is, somehow, a partisan proposal aimed at proving Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Donald Trump win the presidency.

President Barack Obama has said that simply isn’t so. Trump won because he appealed to enough voters with his pro-America message to make a difference.

Fortunately, both Democrats and Republicans in Congress seem to agree Russian hacking needs to be investigated. Of course it does, but with every effort made to ensure the probe does not turn into a partisan one. Americans need to know what happened - just as we did when the Watergate scandal erupted.

- The (Lock Haven) Express

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COOL HEADS PREVAILING: TURKEY, RUSSIA STAY THE COURSE AFTER ASSASSINATION, Dec. 21

The assassination Monday of Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov in Ankara, Turkey, had the potential to destabilize already strained relations between the two nations, which back different sides in the Syrian war and have other points of conflict. To their credit, Russia and Turkey have responded prudently, launching a joint investigation of the assassination and vowing not to let the killing drive them further apart. That is welcome news for a part of the world roiling with conflict.

A 22-year-old police officer, Mevlut Mert Altintas, riddled Karlov, 62, with bullets as the envoy spoke at an exhibit of Russian photography. Altintas shouted, “Don’t forget Aleppo! Don’t forget Syria!” and “We are the descendants of those who supported the Prophet Muhammad, for jihad.” Three other people were injured before Altintas was killed by police.

Russian-Turkish relations already were tenuous, partly given Turkey’s role as a U.S. ally and NATO member and its downing of a Russian military jet near the border of Turkey and Syria last year. Russia backs the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has played a prominent role in the Syrian war, including the bombardment of Aleppo, while Turkey supports Syrian rebels. Russia and Turkey nonetheless have cooperated on the evacuation of civilians and fighters from Aleppo, a rebel enclave where government-backed forces have been accused of indiscriminate killing of innocents. The Syrian war has sent streams of refugees across the border into Turkey, another element of instability in a nation still reeling from a coup attempt last summer against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The assassination of Karlov could have been like pouring gasoline on the smoldering Russian-Turkish relationship. However, the two nations’ leaders quickly agreed on a course of restraint. Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone, Turkey agreed to receive a team of Russian investigators for a joint probe into the killing, and both governments not only condemned the killing but also renounced it as an attempt to divide them. One of Erdogan’s key supporters even suggested that the assassination was related to the coup attempt against his government, calling Altintas a follower of an exiled cleric whom Turkey has blamed for fomenting the uprising.

On Tuesday, representatives of Russia and Turkey said they would work together to end Syria’s war. More than anything, Karlov’s death highlights the need for multinational efforts - involving Turkey, Russia and the United States, among many other nations - to join forces against terrorism wherever it appears.

- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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UNIONS WOULD DO WELL TO LEARN FROM DALLAS STRIKE, Dec. 17

And just like that the Dallas teacher strike is over.

Residents endured a month of acrimony, and Thursday’s negotiation session showed no promise. The union insisted it had presented a valid case, the district begged to differ.

Along with repeating the claim that there isn’t enough money to pay what the union proposes, District Solicitor Vito DeLuca accused the union of conducting an illegal strike.

“They’re in defiance of Act 88,” he said bluntly, referring to the state law that lets teachers strike twice in one school year, provided the first strike ends in time to have 180 school days by June 15 and is followed by non-binding arbitration.

The state had determined teachers should return to work Dec. 13. Union lead negotiator John Holland insisted the board had nullified that calculation by announcing a change in the last day of school, so the strike continued.

Holland echoed the claim Thursday evening. Yet by 1 p.m. Friday, the teachers had agreed to return to work Monday.

What happened to prompt such a fundamental change?

The official explanation from Holland was that “the teachers are concerned about their students and community, which is why they are returning Monday.”

And while the teachers surely are concerned about students and community - their daily delivery of free lunches to families for the last several weeks shows it - they could have returned any day since picketing began Nov. 14.

There are other reasons that likely will never surface, in the interest of keeping peace.

The reality is that unions are made of people in different situations. When a teacher strike - or any strike - lasts too long, solidarity can fray, often along lines of longevity.

Veteran teachers at the top of the pay scale can afford a longer stretch without income, and may have a deeper commitment to the organization that helped get them where they are. Newer teachers at the lower end of the scale may see household budgets get tight and question a hard stance that is hurting their families.

A strike stretching into Christmas can amplify such fissures.

It is reasonable to suspect pocketbook issues and a passion for their work prompted the union rank and file to buck leadership.

It’s also possible that, despite Holland’s insistence to the contrary, the union majority feared the strike was indeed now illegal. The school board never voted to change the last day of school, and without such official action, Holland’s argument for continuing the strike could have faced a tough legal challenge if the district pressed it.

Good teachers take their positions as role models very seriously, and it would be hard to return to a classroom where some students saw the top scholar as scofflaw.

The teachers are returning, and that’s a good thing regardless of the reasons. But this notion of stretching a strike beyond the date set by the state is unsettling. Dallas teachers - and teacher unions statewide - would do well to figure out how they got there, and learn to avoid it in the future.

- (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader

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