Letters: Sister’s death leaves emptiness, questions; Selective scrutiny of PSU presidents

Sister’s death leaves emptiness, questions

As my family and I prepare for another holiday without my sister, Justine Gross, the reality that she will never return home again sinks in more and more. Her seat at the dinner table will remain empty again for Christmas like it was on Thanksgiving. As we embrace the impact of a time of year designed to provide comfort and joy, we feel nothing of the sort.

We do not have all the missing pieces to explain what exactly happened to my sister as we agonizingly wait for details that will hopefully offer a glimpse into what actually happened. From what I do know about my sister’s last night alive, I know that quick action by an active bystander could have possibly made a difference. If someone had reached out to us or emergency services maybe my family and I would be in a very different place right now. A simple act of kindness goes a long way and can even save someone’s life.

The pain from losing my little sister and not fully knowing how she died is something I would not wish on my greatest enemy. In the spirit of Penn State’s famous phrase, my family and I: We Are Justine Gross. We want to make sure nothing like this happens to another beloved student ever again because every student matters to someone. We will find out what happened to her and the silence surrounding her death will no longer be deafening.

Selective scrutiny of PSU presidents

It has been widely reported that Eric Barron initially declined to apply for the Penn State presidency, and in fact in 2013 the trustees were about to hire a white male who was president of the small upstate medical school of the SUNY system when a scandal broke about his financial impropriety. The national search before that yielded Graham Spanier from Nebraska, a far less prestigious university that probably posed challenges less demanding than Louisville. When Berkeley hired a white male who had been provost at a much smaller Ivy League school without the research and athletics challenges faced by Cal, no one questioned it for a minute. Yet when an Asian woman who has led a major state university out of scandals and served as a private sector senior executive is chosen, critics assume that the overriding factor was the quest for diversity. I would like to suggest that the overriding factor among those who reach this conclusion based on publicly-available evidence is bigotry.

What is Corman restoring?

I wonder what freedoms Senator Jake Corman’s “Restoring Freedom” campaign slogan refers to? From his record, the freedom to pack a concealed weapon without a permit and the freedom to change fair and free election results if some noisy, violent constituents and one egomaniac don’t like the results.

Let’s not forget his staunch protection of other current freedoms. For instance, the freedom for Pennsylvania’s state representatives to accept gifts of any size from big business and their lobbyists. Wouldn’t these better be called bribes? And the freedom to gerrymander so congressional representatives choose their constituents instead of voters choosing the representatives.

There may have been a time that Senator Corman showed integrity. But since he, apparently, has decided that good, conservative Republican votes are not enough for him and is going after the Trump’s Crazies, he has thrown integrity aside. Good thing he’s not running for our State Senate again. But Governor? Say hello to a lot of new “freedoms” and the loss of democracy.

A disgusting comparison

In early December on Fox News, Laura Logan compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele. Well, let’s look at some of Dr. Mengele’s “accomplishments” and see just how disgusting Logan’s comparison is.

Dr. Mengele’s career centered on the Auschwitz concentration camp run by the Nazis in World War II. Dr. Fauci’s career has centered on combating infectious disease at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.

During his time at Auschwitz, Dr. Mengele conducted painful and often lethal experiments on young Jewish and Roma twins at the concentration camp. During his career, Dr. Fauci has been responsible for the efforts to create drugs and therapies to fight such scourges as AIDS.

It takes a special level of ignorance and arrogance (they often go together) for Ms. Laura Logan to make such a disgusting comparison.