Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: Richard Watson is to be commended for remaining calm and drawing on his experience as a first responder earlier this week when the school van he was driving was struck head-on by another vehicle on Furnace Run Road in Dunbar Township. Despite being trapped in the vehicle with severe injuries, Watson蘑菇视频 immediate concern was for the three Dunbar Township Elementary students he was driving that afternoon. Watson, 73, a Dunbar firefighter for about 40 years, calmly explained the situation to emergency dispatchers, according to Mark Trenker, president of the Dunbar Volunteer Fire Department. 鈥淗e just kept saying, 鈥楾ake care of those boys. Take care of my kids,'鈥� Trenker said. Two of the students were treated at a local hospital, and the third was flown to UPMC Children蘑菇视频 Hospital. Watson was taken to Allegheny General Hospital with a broken leg, broken ribs and sternum and a back injury. 鈥淓verything he has is nothing he can鈥檛 overcome,鈥� Trenker said, adding that Watson is an active man who will be eager to get back to hunting, fishing and softball. To help support Trenker蘑菇视频 family, Dunbar Fire Department will hold Chinese auction raffles at their fish fries beginning today. Those who wish to make a direct donation can do so by mailing a check to the fire department, or with several digital options such as Venmo, Apple Pay and PayPal.
Jeers: If you鈥檝e watched television news over the last week or so, you鈥檝e undoubtedly seen images of angry protests in France 鈥� rocks being hurled, police charging, fires being set and tear gas filling the air. Are the French protesting an unjust war? Racism? Flagrant police brutality? No, they are furious because the eligible retirement age in France has been raised from 62 to 64. French president Emmanuel Macron has insisted that the change needs to be made to protect the solvency of the public pension system, particularly in light of falling birth rates. It should be noted that, even at 64, the French can still retire before workers in Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia and Spain. That Macron worked around the French legislature to make the change is cause for concern. And it has been said that the French love a good protest. But the protesters will have a hard time finding much sympathy from workers elsewhere in the world who will have to toil on their 65th birthdays or beyond.
Cheers: A child going into cardiac arrest is not something most of us would like to think about, and thankfully it is a relatively rare occurrence. But an estimated 1 in 300 students has an undetected heart problem, so it would make sense for schools to have an automated external defibrillator (AED) on hand. Pennsylvania does not require that AEDs be in schools, but a bill introduced by state Sen. Katie Muth, a suburban Philadelphia Democrat, would change that. If approved in its current form, the bill would require that school buildings have an AED in a central location. A separate measure would require coaches and supervisors of after-school activities be certified in CPR and the use of an AED. Muth characterized it as 鈥渁 public safety issue.鈥� Many of our neighbors, including West Virginia, Maryland and New York, have AED requirements for their schools, and Pennsylvania should join them.