Letters: Politics over nation’s well-being?; Cost of casino problems is high
Politics over nation’s well-being?
If you’re a member of the out-of-power party, not in the White House nor in the majority in Congress, you could have a challenging moral dilemma. If the country is doing well (economic growth, low unemployment, lower childhood poverty rates, etc.), you know the in-power party will get most of the credit, thereby enhancing its chances for reelection. That’s not what you want.
Does this mean you root for the country to not do well?
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh forcefully declared, “I hope he fails!” Mr. Limbaugh was too overcome by his anti-Democratic sentiments to understand that rooting for a President to fail is the same as rooting for the country to fail. His attitude was profoundly unpatriotic.
Limbaugh could root against his country, which is bad enough, but fortunately, his ability to contribute to its failure was limited to his influence and not his votes.
Influential members of Congress, on the other hand, do have the ability to sabotage the nation’s well-being if they think doing so enhances their future political futures. The only thing stopping (most/some?) members from doing this is a sense of patriotism and integrity. While congressional members of both parties have, by and large, done the right thing for years, that’s changing as partisan polarization intensifies.
Is the lust to become Speaker of the House or Senate Majority Leader overriding our “better angels” instinct to support the nation?
God help us if it’s come to that!
Cost of casino problems is high
Write to the PA Gaming Control Board, boardclerk@pa.gov, and tell them that we do NOT need a casino in State College.
We have enough trouble managing excessive alcohol consumption, opiod addiction, regional poverty, rising crime, rising homelessness, and depressed adolescents — especially as we ride out the continuing COVID-19 roller coaster. Our social services are already strained. Centre County and Penn State have enough challenges.
The cost of gambling problems to our community will be high. Any financial benefit will likely leave the area. We will be stuck paying for the inevitable mess.
We do not need the additional social sinkhole of gambling and its attendant withering impact on the people who are suckered in. My experience watching gamblers in places like Reno, NV was not the advertised “glamour” seen in ads, but instead a room full of grim, desperate faces of people hunched over the one-armed bandit machines burning through their paychecks on a Friday night.
Do not dump a casino onto our pile of challenges in State College. We do not want to be the regional magnet for gambling and its accompanying problems.
Footprints in the Field recognizes losses
Local nonprofit organization Footprints in the Field hosted a multigenerational gathering on Sunday, May 1 at their Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Garden on the grounds of Harvest Fields in Boalsburg. Along with those who care about them, parents who suffered a pregnancy or infant loss at one time in their lives were honored at this ceremony. As Mother’s and Father’s Days approach, this was a timely gathering to recognize the sad statistic that, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage or stillbirth. In an effort to continue their healing process, the participants remembered and recounted their losses, both recent and from decades ago. Participants shared stories, created personalized garden tags and engaged with nature in ways that were comfortable to them. The intermittent rain forced the gathering inside, but did not dampen everyone’s efforts to recognize these losses. One of the primary methods for remembering these losses is the creation of memorial stones engraved with the babies’ names. These complimentary stones can be kept at home or placed in the Garden. To learn more about the Garden, request a memorial stone and/or make a donation, visit www.footprintsinthefield.org.