Joseph Sabino Mistick Columns category, Page 10

Chris Webb wore his “Buddy the Elf” costume again this year, right up until Christmas, on the job at Nordstrom in Ross Park Mall. Webb is a natural in a Buddy costume. At 6 feet 4 inches tall with an easy smile and a knack for astonishment, he could have...

It looks like the Star of Bethlehem may arrive just in time this year. The story of the three wise men following a mysterious star to the manger where Jesus had just been born is familiar to everyone. We cannot imagine that story without the light of that star. Some...

In Joyce Carol Oates’ 1985 New York Times essay “On Boxing,” she described the role of the referee as “our intermediary in the fight … our moral conscience.” The referee is there to make the tough calls, often stopping a fight before someone gets maimed or worse, all while the...

When Henry Gunther, a young American Army sergeant, was killed on a battlefield in the Argonne Forest at 10:59 a.m. Nov. 11, 1918, he became the last American killed in World War I, and his death made no sense at all. Earlier that day, before sunrise in the woods outside...

On Thanksgiving Day in normal times, we gather with family and friends for the annual feast, watch the big parade early and some football after dinner, before falling asleep on the couch or in a recliner. The company of loved ones and the smells and sounds and laughter make this...

Most times when you lose an election, that’s all there is to it — you lost. You are not alone, because the arithmetic in a two-party system means that about half of the candidates in a general election lose, but it still catches some candidates by surprise to be a...

Gloating is not our most attractive trait, but it is a natural human response. Republicans gloated plenty in 2016 when Donald Trump beat odds-on favorite Hillary Clinton for president. They kept it up for four years, celebrating Trump’s moves more if they aggravated Democrats more. And now Joe Biden has...

“Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision,” Abraham Lincoln said. That simple principle has been tested before and may be again. This time, the stakes could not be higher, for both the nation and the highest court in the land. By all appearances, it seems like we hold one...

In our history, the mix of guns and voting has only been associated with the goal of suppressing the votes of certain Americans. In the 1850s, the Know-Nothing Party, nativists who resented the Catholic immigrant population in Baltimore, used election violence to move the state’s electoral votes to Millard Fillmore....

“Tricky Dick” is looking pretty good these days. Richard M. Nixon’s public stance after he lost to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential squeaker makes him look like a real American patriot compared to what we are hearing during this presidential election. Nixon knew what we all still know....

Two hundred and ten thousand dead and counting. Millions infected, with millions more to come. The staggering toll of the coronavirus in America was the opening topic of the vice presidential debate between Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and Republican Vice President Mike Pence. “The American people have witnessed what is...

I painted my fence last week. It’s not a big deal to people who do that kind of work every day, but some of us got away from working with our hands, and fence painting revives those old memories without the likelihood of pulling a muscle or falling off a...

You might think that Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer” has no place in the crude arena that national politics has become, but Niebuhr would not have hesitated to invoke his prayer now. The public theologian believed that there is a core relationship between religion and politics. He immersed himself in all...

In our house there is an American flag, now a tightly folded triangle, that once draped the casket of a Navy veteran who returned from World War II, broken but hopeful, yet not healthy enough to live more than a handful of years once back home. The flag was presented...

On Labor Day, I think of the valley where I grew up. It was best seen from the middle of the Westinghouse Bridge. As far as the eye could see and the ear could hear, furnaces flared and trains slogged on and machinery clanked and whistles and bells sounded around...

It was a classic example of Donald Trump at his pugnacious best. During a back-and-forth with Jeb Bush over the Iraq War, Trump bashed Jeb and President George W. Bush by going where no other candidate dared to go in the 2016 Republican presidential primary debates. “The World Trade Center...

When “Shoeless Joe” Jackson was indicted for fixing the 1919 World Series, it rocked the nation. Jackson was a star player for the Chicago White Sox, a great hitter in his prime when he was accused of conspiring to throw the series to the Cincinnati Reds for $5,000. “Shoeless Joe”...

When Joe Biden announced that Sen. Kamala Harris will be his vice presidential running mate, Donald Trump and his supporters responded with a barrage of frantic personal attacks. It was as though someone had dropped the flag and said, “Let the hysteria begin!” When you were a kid, you knew...

The most tragic problems with this pandemic are the result of Americans who don’t seem to get it or don’t seem to care that they are putting others at risk. Without masks or social distancing, they crowd into bars and onto beaches, and even try to force themselves into stores....

To many of those watching the horse-drawn hearse take the body of U.S. Rep. John Lewis across the Edmund Pettus Bridge one final time last week, the most remarkable moment came when Alabama state troopers snapped to salute as his casket passed. What a contrast to 55 years ago. Lewis...

If you thought that those conspiracy theorists were nuts when they ranted about black helicopters and secret paramilitary troops taking over our towns and rounding up Americans without probable cause, you better think again. The so-called militia members who have warned us about this usually imagine an international conspiracy, some...

Presidential campaigns are complicated. Election Day comes after years of political maneuvering, primary elections scattered across the land, late summer nominating conventions and televised debates that are part policy and part showbiz — all ending in November after months of media coverage. While some of that will be different this...

There must be a reckoning. For some public officials, it may be as soon as the next election, or it may come with the judgment of time and history. But sooner or later, those who have led us away from prevention and safety and toward calamity during the coronavirus pandemic...

Stacy Smith has seen a lot. The award-winning KDKA-TV news anchor has met the pope, interviewed presidents and reported from the scenes of human disasters. He has covered princes and paupers. When interviewing a Missouri congressman in the U.S. Capitol, Stacy sat in the chair that a stunned Vice President...

This is a good time to talk about Ulysses S. Grant. As president of the United States and commanding general of the Union Army before that, Grant fought for freedom and equality and the end of slavery, giving it his all. That is why it was hard to understand, really...