Cheers & Jeers
Cheers: The Mount Pleasant and West Greene softball teams reached the PIAA championship game in their respective classifications by defeating teams in the semifinals on Monday that had antagonized them in the past. The Lady Pioneers routed DuBois Central Catholic, 12-1 in Class A, eliminating a team that stopped their drive for a potential third straight state title with a stunning 3-2 loss in the 2019 semifinals. This will be West Greene’s fourth appearance in the PIAA final. The Lady Pioneers are 2-1 in their other two appearances. The Lady Vikings blasted Punxsutawney, 13-0 in five innings in Class AAA, knocking out the team that ended their hopes of back-to-back state championships with a 3-1 loss in the 2018 PIAA semifinals. This will be Mount Pleasant’s second appearance in the PIAA final. Ironically, both revenge wins came on the same fields as those past heart-breaking losses, West Greene at Slippery Rock University and Mount Pleasant at Saint Francis University.
Cheers: Some of Greene County’s summer traditions will be returning this year after last year’s hiatus, forced by the pandemic. We recently spoke with organizers of the Rain Day Festival, Jacktown Fair and Sounds of Summer concert series, all of whom were excited to announce that their events would be back in 2021, and that the safety and well-being of attendees would be a top priority. We commend the folks who are working diligently behind the scenes to bring back the cherished events that are steeped in strong Greene County history and tradition, and we welcome any opportunities in returning to some sense semblance of normalcy that these events provide.
Jeers: Last week, President Biden announced that the United States will be purchasing 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and donating them to lower-income countries, and that’s both compassionate and smart. If we can help the rest of the world get a handle on COVID-19, there’s less of a chance that a new, even more dangerous variant of the virus will reach our shores. If you want an indication how some parts of the world are lagging behind the United States and Europe in getting their populations vaccinated, consider the plight of Africa. The Associated Press reported last week that less than 1% of South Africa’s population had been fully vaccinated, and many health care workers were still awaiting shots. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, less than one-tenth of 1% of had been fully vaccinated. As many experts have pointed out, we won’t fully get COVID-19 under control until it’s under control all over the world.
Jeers: Lordstown, Ohio, was handed a crushing setback in 2019 when GM announced that it was shuttering the sprawling assembly plant that sits along the Ohio Turnpike, leading to the loss of more than 1,000 jobs. And that was on top of years of job losses that region has already sustained. The plant was purchased by Lordstown Motors, an electric truck manufacturer, offering some hope that the community would be able to rebound. The air is rapidly leaving that balloon, though. The CEO and chief financial officer of Lordstown Motors both resigned Monday, shortly after an announcement that the company did not have enough cash to start production and might have to close. If the end of the line is rapidly approaching for Lordstown Motors, let’s hope that some other entrepreneur or company sees the value of that plant and the products that could be made there, and the value of the workers they could hire.