Letters: Corman’s Conway pick is concerning; Redistricting needs your voice

Corman’s Conway pick is concerning

With an ear-to-ear smile, Jake Corman announced via Twitter that none other than Kellyanne Conway, perhaps Donald Trump’s favorite apologist for the Big Lie, would be joining his campaign team in his pursuit of his party’s nomination for governor.

Yet Conway’s smiling facade hides a startling history of twisted explanations for her former supervisor’s bad behavior, an adeptness at changing the subject, and an expertise for “leaking and lying,” according to a Washington Post expose. As one of its headlines screamed, “Kellyanne Conway undermined the truth like no other Trump official.”

She now brings this expertise to Pennsylvania, courtesy of our Senate President Pro Tempore.

Is this the best person Jake Corman can hire as he aspires to move to the front of the pack?

Thank goodness we won’t have him any longer as President of the Pennsylvania Senate, where he has been a stumbling block to fair elections, but his recent inexplicable tilt toward Trump and Steve Bannon, and his association with Kellyanne Conway, does not bode well either for his representation of his current constituents or for the citizens of the commonwealth more broadly.

Redistricting needs your voice

I’m a voter in Centre County’s incumbent-safe House and Senate Districts with little representation in Harrisburg due to 2010 gerrymandered maps. Now, I am pleased and concerned about the proposed maps for 2020.

There are two proposed PA House districts in our region, which our population justifies. Thanks, Legislative Reapportionment Committee, for not cracking our area into four districts again. (That 2010 gerrymandering horrified many voters I talked with at polls).

However, the new PA Senate redistricting cracks SCASD, the Penn State community and our Centre Region Council of Government areas into two new districts, 25 and 35. We’ll be stretched with regions to the north and west of us, which is problematic as the economic interests are different. I support PA Fair District’s revised map which puts all of SCASD into Senate 25.

Citizens, please let your legislators know they should help districting represent our citizen populations, which is the basis of legislator’s governing — not the other way around, where districts are drawn to keep incumbents in power. If they work for their constituents, they’ll be reelected. You can let Rep. Benninghoff, who’s on the LRC, know your thoughts, or comment on the new maps before Jan. 18 (you don’t have to be an expert; voice your support for districts that truly represent our population) at www.redistricting.state.pa.us/comment/?

Hyperbole not helpful in COVID discussion

Pete Hatemi’s recent op-ed included some incorrect and dangerous hyperbole. First, it imputed positions or motivations to others. Media that relentlessly report COVID statistics can be accused of sensationalism, but failure to convey a public health threat could be construed as an abrogation of responsibility. Dismissing a danger against which you yourself are protected is a violation of public trust. Far too many still believe COVID is “just the sniffles.” It is not the case, as far as we know, that faculty are panic-driven (many teach this material). There are rational reasons to desire to reduce the exposure to omicron, and numerous work locations are practicing reduction.

Penn State’s position may be seen as reasonable, but does not require vaccination against COVID for all, even as it mandates such for measles, a far less dangerous disease. Factually, the university requires faculty vaccination (not testing).

The examples are weak. Grocery shopping, particularly with everyone masked, can be relatively low risk. Interactions there are temporally self-limiting. But, spending an hour in an enclosed space with others is a recipe for airborne disease spread even with masked. Mail carriers are not at particular risk working outside. We know of no one demanding that all faculty must work from home.

It is thus, to answer his question, just because others are taking risks, we should not require faculty to accept worse risks.