Letters: Shame on Centre County GOP committee; Thankful for vaccine effort

Shame on Centre County GOP committee

As the fictional character Private Gomer Pyle, USMC, often said to those who had done something embarrassing: “... for shame, for shame ...”

Well, GOP committee of Centre County – for shame, for shame, for shame, you censured one of your own: Republican U. S. Senator Pat Toomey. Why was Senator Toomey censured? Because Senator Toomey, as well as six other U. S. Senators, voted to convict former President Trump on one impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6. Toomey, as well as each U. S. Senator, took an oath to vote on the evidence presented and not to sheepishly vote along party lines.

Therefore, I ask the GOP committee of Centre County what have you taught your children, the school children of not only Centre County, but of Pennsylvania — nay, the children of the United States of America, which you swore an oath to uphold the laws of the U. S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Since you swore an oath to uphold these laws and have failed to do so, I ask for your immediate resignation. By not resigning, you will have further embarrassed yourselves and the Grand Old Party which has as one of its guiding principles — law and order.

Thankful for vaccine effort

My wife and I received our COVID-19 vaccine shots from Mount Nittany Health at the hospital and Centre Volunteers in Medicine at the Mount Nittany Middle School. Although we were scheduled at two different times and with different medical groups, to us it was the medical people pulling together to help our community. Everything was well organized, workers were extremely friendly and we wanted to take this opportunity to say “thank you” to all involved. You are special!

Questions for congressmen after vote

While perusing the Congressional Roll Call in the Centre Daily Times on Feb. 8, I was not surprised to see that our “so-called representatives” Fred Keller and Glenn Thompson voted not to strip committee assignments from the newest looney repugnant representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Are we to assume that Fred and Glenn believe that school shootings in the U.S. have been staged? Do they believe 9/11 was staged? How about the wildfires in California last summer? Were they, as Green states, started by space lasers by a Jewish family?

Perhaps it’s not that they believe any of the above deranged nonsense. Instead, perhaps they are doing what the Trump cultists have been doing for the last four years. This is, act like the good little Eichmanns of the Trump cult that they are.

Vote no on amendments

I was mystified by the full-page advertisement by Commonwealth Foundation in the CDT Feb. 17 that thanks Kerry Benninghoff “for restoring the people’s voice” and “championing Senate Bill 2.”

There was no explanation of just what Senate Bill 2 was about, why Benninghoff merited praise for work normally done by Jake Corman, and what people’s voice was being restored.

After looking up Bill 2 on the web, I discovered that the ballot questions published in the CDT on Feb. 16 were the Senate Bill. In the “plain English statement,” I learned that the first amendment would “increase the power of the General Assembly to unilaterally terminate or extend a disaster emergency declaration, thereby removing the existing check and balance of presenting a resolution to the governor for approval of disapproval.” The second amendment would limit “the duration of the Governor’s declaration to 21 days unless otherwise extended by a concurrent resolution of the General Assembly.”

These amendments are sponsored by a party with a long track record of denying science. Many Pennsylvania Republicans complained about Governor Wolf’s prudent response to the pandemic. I hesitate to think what these legislators might have done when our ex-president told us that we were “rounding the curve” and that the pandemic would end in April 2020. States that followed his advice paid for their short-sightedness with the deaths of thousands of citizens.

Vote no on amendments 1 and 2 as if the lives of your children depended on it.