Letters: Threats to democracy; Affordable housing in State College still a problem

Threats to democracy

The greatest threat to our democracy is now the Republican Party.

Realizing that changing demographics are not on their side, the party that openly coddles white supremacists, celebrates the history of Confederate slave-holding traitors, and unabashedly embraces insurrectionists, is using aggressive gerrymandering, voter suppression laws, and putting partisan Republican politicians in charge of election results to subvert democracy and preserve their declining power.

Rather than stand on principle, Republican politicians, and those seeking elected office, slavishly fawn over a grossly immoral, authoritarian conman, feeding his insatiable ego. His rigged election lies undermine faith in our institutions and threaten our Republic.

Local politicians Keller, Thompson and Corman, among others, are his obedient water-carriers. Meanwhile, those same Republicans who ardently supported the massive expansion of the surveillance state after 9/11, who contorted themselves into pretzels to justify the torture that occurred at black sites around the world, continue to chip away at the rights of women to control their own bodies, cry with self-righteous indignation as they deny human and legal rights to LGBTQ people and pass laws to forbid teaching the history and impacts of racism in America, are overcome with hypocritical anger at the phony loss of freedom from being required to wear a little cloth mask over their mouth and nose.

It’s time for the good and decent members to leave this cult and start a party that once again embraces integrity, human dignity and intelligent policy-making over the desperate, destructive and increasingly immoral and anti-democratic chase for power.

Affordable housing in State College still a problem

I am dismayed by the latest failure to erect more affordable housing in State College. While it is true that in this case the problem was encroachment in a park, still it shows that there is a problem that has yet to be resolved.

Though there are many and good programs, both public and private they only cover part of the demand. Too many people who work for the residents — be it in groceries, or restaurants or nursing homes, or home maintenance or gardening or myriad of other services we cannot do without have to live so far away that their wages barely cover the cost of gas to drive them to and from work.

I knew a situation like this, in Annapolis where the cost of renting a place was so high that many people who worked for the city could not live in it. The police department had a big retention problem, because after a couple of years the recruits, having acquired training and experience transferred to another police department, which was closer to where they could afford to live. We may be going down that road.

Maybe it is time to consider a more aggressive policy so that people who do the jobs whose results we enjoy can be our neighbors and be able to enjoy State College like the rest of us.

Join a local NIL discussion

The effect of the Pennsylvania law and recent U. S. Supreme Court case does not appear to be having a negative effect on the Penn State football team or women’s volleyball players. For the first time, the athletes are freed to pursue financial deals using their names, images, and likenesses like every other student at Penn State has been allowed since the beginning in 1855. I have written a recent book, “The Myth of the Amateur: A History of College Athletic Scholarships,” that was used in the NCAA v. Shawne Case. Six of us historians wrote an amicus brief on the side of Shawne Alston that was used in the first five pages of Justice Gorsuch’s decision for Alston. I will be talking about the book and the amicus brief in a talk at Schlow Library on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m. I specifically look forward to a discussion with those who attend.