Letters: Keep up fight against casino; Go fragrance free to help others

Keep up fight against casino

Please help continue our community’s fight against approval of the casino proposed for Nittany Mall. Here’s a quick update on the status of the casino’s application approval process. Some serious legal wrangling is currently taking place where the winning bid on the casino license is being challenged by the sole non-winning bidder. To see details of this recent news from late October just do an online search for “mini-casino bid challenged.”

You may recall reading about our community’s concerns about problems a casino can bring. Those include break-ins, assaults, drugs, prostitution, pawn shops, bankruptcies, and the negative impact on property values in the area.

The news section at Casino.org has a “crime” tab section that describes very recent casino-related crimes, all in November 2021, that include fatal shootings and stabbings, DUI fatalities, sexual assaults, armed robbery, money laundering, and embezzlement. We absolutely do not need any of that chaos in Happy Valley!

After reading the online facts described above, please email the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) today at boardclerk@pa.gov to voice your casino opposition. We can write to our elected officials more than once on any topic and we certainly aren’t limited to contacting PGCB just once. Speak out now for the first time or as a follow-up to your earlier casino opposition views from several months ago. The PGCB Commissioners certainly won’t say “Haven’t we already heard from this person?” Please keep up the fight before it’s too late!

Fragrance-free helps others

I am writing on behalf of people who have a sensitivity to everyday chemicals. These include not just perfumes but also laundry soap, fabric softener, aftershaves, etc. These products produce microscopic particulates that are suspended in the atmosphere. You can’t see them. It’s an invisible disability.

I experience burning in my eyes, airways and lungs, and heart palpitations that can be mild to severe. Sometimes I also experience brain fog. If one has an underlying heart problem, as I do, the exposure can be life-threatening.

Please don’t use these products. For laundry detergent, please switch to “clear and free” products. There is a clear and free variety for just about every brand. I know it’s difficult to eliminate the use of these products. But I especially urge people who work in professional offices to modify their use out of consideration for their patients. It’s not about their choice for themselves, it’s about the well-being of others. The CDC policy already encourages employees “to be as fragrance free as possible” at the workplace. Fragrance is not appropriate for a “professional work environment.”

I just want to educate people and be an advocate for others with similar health concerns. For more information go to the CDC website, or look up “multiple chemical sensitivity,” or go to mcs-aware.com.

Dems put children first

“The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”

Our state’s investment in public schools, our investment in our children and the leaders of tomorrow, is inadequate. We typically rank in the bottom five out of all the states within our great nation and Pennsylvanians deserve better. We should be leaders when it comes to investing into our society and those who will lead it tomorrow.

Many Republicans and special interest groups say that our state is one of the largest spenders on a per student basis. Such a statement deflects attention from the burden that property tax places at a local level, especially for those in rural and economically poorer areas. The lack of state funding has forced many school districts to regularly raise local property taxes, which affects the farmers in rural areas, small business owners throughout the commonwealth, and veterans who came back home after doing their duty. State funding can help ease this local burden, and the gross negligence of the Republican leadership with their lack of investing in our future, whether it be education or infrastructure, has placed an unnecessary burden on the regular working person.

Republican leadership prefers to sit on over $7 billion in federal dollars instead of addressing this issue and investing in your future. Democrats are the ones putting people first by investing in your children and we are working for a better tomorrow.

This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.