Oct 2, 2020 3 min read

MISS: Anyone with a connection to the region’s nonprofit or cultural worlds will be familiar with Linda Dickerson. Afflicted with muscular dystrophy, she was an advocate for people with disabilities and served on the boards for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium and Carnegie Mellon University, among other organizations. Her unexpected death last weekend at the age of 59 leaves a void that will be hard to fill. Ginny Thornburgh, the wife of former Gov. Richard Thornburgh and an advocate for individuals with disabilities, offered this tribute to the Tribune-Review: “Linda has used a wheelchair to get around since she was a young child, but she never let that stand in the way of accomplishing anything she set out to do. She had too much to do, too many ideas and too many problems to solve to be engrossed in self-awareness and self-pity.”

MISS: Terms like “icon” and “legend” are tossed around way too casually, but within Washington County, Jack Piatt lived up to the “legend” designation. With grit and entrepreneurial spirit, he founded Millcraft Industries, and was a prime mover behind the development of Southpointe, which is now home to 300 businesses, 1,000 residents and a locus of economic activity in the northern part of Washington County. Piatt died last weekend at the age of 92, and has been fondly remembered by colleagues and elected officials for his vision and moxie. Mike Swisher, a principal Horizon Properties, which is based in Southpointe, offered this remembrance to the Observer-Reporter: “Jack was tireless and a grand thinker with great ideas. You’d say you’re going to build a house, he’d say, ‘Let’s build a city.'”

MISS: One of the more noteworthy revelations of The New York Times‘ blockbuster examination of President Trump’s tax returns is that he has deducted $70,000 worth of work from hairstylists as a business expense. Obviously, most everyday American men don’t deduct the $15 haircuts they get every month or so, and it’s questionable whether Trump is getting value for his money. But the fact that Trump was able to claim such a staggering amount as a business expense is evidence enough that our tax system needs to be reformed. The fact that Trump paid no federal income taxes for years and only paid $750 in others should be eye-opening to everyone who makes $17,900 or more every year – that’s because $17,900 is the rate at which a single adult with no children has to pay $750 or more in income tax.

MISS: The United States has thankfully come a long way since the days when thousands of Americans were members of the Ku Klux Klan, both in the North and the South. But the organization, and its rancid peddling of hate, has never fully gone away. That is evidenced by the Klan flyers that have been turning up in recent days at homes in Greene County. Kris Kreuzer, a resident of Morris Township, told the Observer-Reporter that “the hair stood up on the back of my neck” when she saw the flyer. Residents of Greene and Washington counties need to stand up and speak out against the everything represented by the Klan and all other white supremacists.