Letters: Democracy starts with us; Casino silence from Penn State equals consent
Democracy starts with us
The Pennsylvania legislature is among the largest and highest paid in the country. Unfortunately, Democracy is not measured by how many state and federal representatives we have, or even by how much we pay our representatives. It is what they do. Pennsylvania’s “full-time” legislators in the House met 69 days, and Senate members only 52 days during 2020. True, some of their time was spent in travel to the Bahamas, for off-site “discussions,” but we need to do better.
Pennsylvania’s essential role in the founding of our country earned it the nickname the Keystone State. That’s a lot to live up to. Our state legislators have a decisive role in democracy, but we have the most important role. Democracy starts with us; we select our representatives to act for us. Make your preferences known.
Now is a great time to meet with our representatives, to understand redistricting, gerrymandering, the Electoral College (win without a majority of total votes), “foreign” interference, and new voter ID laws. That’s our responsibility. We have to understand the issues, and tell our representatives what we think, and to be sure our representatives understand. For example, we can discuss “under-resourced cities,” gun-violence, the pandemic and mask mandates, school inequalities, the health of our natural environment, unionization and voter suppression.
The midterm election (2022) is very important. Yes, we hold our politicians accountable for democracy, but we have the most important role.
Casino silence from Penn State equals consent
Over 400 public comments on the proposed casino in College Township are already posted on the College Township website at collegetownship.org. Hundreds of area residents opposing the Nittany Mall casino have already e-mailed their input to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) at boardclerk@pa.gov. Many of those comments of casino opposition strongly emphasize the casino’s proximity to the Penn State campus as a major detractor that will also be a major distractor for the students of Penn State.
Has Penn State’s leadership or the board of trustees spoken out publicly as to whether or not they support or oppose the casino? Absolutely not. Do you think they plan to do so? Not a chance. The university’s continuing silence on this subject clearly indicates their consent and their support of the casino’s license application being approved by the PGCB later this spring.
Due to legal challenges by the non-winning bidder, the vote to approve or deny the casino’s license will not happen before the PGCB meets on May 18. Do not let this problem of the university’s continuing silence be passed to the incoming president to solve. You can e-mail the Office of the President now at president@psu.edu. The board of trustees can be reached at bot@psu.edu. Are they hoping to hear from you? Not hardly. When you e-mail the PGCB, please consider including Penn State’s leadership mentioned above as cc: addressees. Not everyone in Happy Valley can be kept silent by them. Penn State’s own silence equates to their consent.
Time to revisit US energy policy
There is a list of notable climatologists such as Dr. Roy Spencer, former senior scientist for climate studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center; Dr. Steven E. Koonin, Undersecretary for Science in the U.S. Department of Energy under President Obama; and Dr. Timothy Ball former Chief Science Advisor of the International Climate Science Coalition, who have warned that the human contribution to global warming has been greatly exaggerated. But their voices have been silenced and U.S. energy policy has significantly cut back on domestic energy production. Consequently, the U.S. has joined the ranks of energy-dependent European nations lining up to pay Russian president Vladimir Putin for oil and gas.
But now Putin’s military is slaughtering Ukrainians and Putin has essentially threatened to use nuclear weapons on any nation getting in his way. China’s president Xi Jinping appears to agree with Putin’s aggression and the two communist leaders have struck up a closer bond.
Isn’t it time to revisit a U.S. energy policy that is enriching Putin’s war machine and causing worldwide instability? If human lives aren’t enough, consider how environmentally unfriendly would a world war would be.