Cheer

Congratulations and best wishes to the Pittsburgh Penguins as they advance to the Stanley Cup finals on Monday, hosting Game 1 against the San Jose Sharks.

With the Pens’ new training headquarters, the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex situated in Butler County, we all have a stake in the team’s good fortune.

The Pens dominated Tampa Bay in the final of their seven-game series to secure their place in the final. They had lost their previous five straight playoff Game 7s at home, including a 1-0 loss in 2011 to Tampa Bay. Star players Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both missed that series due to injury.

We’d like to believe it’s more than coincidence that the team endured an arduous nine-month season, to make their way through the playoffs with a healthy nucleus of star players.

At least some of the success has to be attributed to the organization’s commitment to conditioning, training and rehabilitation as represented by the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

The Stanley Cup is not yet on display in Cranberry Township, but it’s that much more within reach.

Go Pens!

Jeer

Pennsylvania Secretary of Corrections John E. Wetzel wants to change the culture of our state prisons by banning the negative labels used to describe the people coming out of them.

Wetzel is implementing a policy for the state Department of Corrections to stop using words like “offender,” “felon” or “ex-con” to describe those who have paid their debt to society. In their place, he wants to use “re-entrant.”

“If we’re really going to embrace rehabilitation, then we can’t send re-entrants back home wearing a label that dehumanizes them,” Wetzel wrote in a guest column in Wednesday’s edition of the Washington Post. “We add nothing by placing a label on a person’s chest that says, ‘Hello, I’m an OFFENDER’ other than making an already daunting task next to impossible.”

What’s next to impossible these days is eluding the truth about one’s criminal record. The rise on universally accessible online databases and social media make the scars of previous bad judgments indelible.

It’s not as though a criminal record even matters anymore. Seven months ago, President Obama ordered the standard question about felony convictions dropped from federal job applications.

The only thing Wetzel will change is the language. “Re-entrant” now becomes the politically correct euphemism for a former prison inmate or parolee. Say re-entrant; think ex-con. With added cynicism.

Cheer

Cheers to Butler Downtown as it strives to add some vibrancy to the Butler City Farmer’s Market when it opens this weekend.

The market, at 205 S. Chestnut St., will operate from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday through Oct. 8.

The marketing objective is to make the market an experience — “more vendors, more diverse offerings from our vendors, and more of that social, fun atmosphere of not simply a place to buy vegetables,” says Bob Dandoy, Butler Downtown’s board liaison for the market.

Different events are planned throughout the summer especially for children, including crafts, a pet day, and a “Touch a Truck Day,” when the Butler Fire Department will bring a fire truck for children to see. Parties and Playdates Studio, which provides art and play stations for children, also will be there.

For adults, there will be a health and fitness day, a gardening day, and cooking demonstrations by Chef Bill Atkinson of the Chop Shop, 108 N. Main St.

The market is lining up home-grown talent to provide live music each Saturday, too.

Of course, there still will be the staples of a farm market — the locally grown fruits and vegetables as well as locally raised meats.

The market will feature locally-grown products at affordable prices. It deserves a celebration — and that’s what’s envisioned for it, every Saturday through the summer.