Letters: Why the need for lies?; Hurricane aid hypocrisy

Why the need for lies?

Candidates for public office should try to win “fair and square.” This includes the race for State Representative in Pennsylvania’s 82nd District.

Justin Behrens isn’t following that code. His campaign literature and ads distort his own record and promote blatant, half-baked lies about his opponent, Paul Takac. If a picture speaks a thousand words, Behrens’ use of a Photoshopped image of Takac in a campaign mailer speaks volumes about Behrens’ poor judgment and character.

Behrens claims to be a community leader, but he only recently moved to Centre County. He lies about Takac, calling him an “outsider” because he worked for Apple, a California-based company. Takac has lived here for 20 years — and has actually held positions in local government. His career in education technology took him into all 500 school districts in Pennsylvania. Paul Takac is no outsider.

Behrens says he’s a social worker, but his behavior is inconsistent with the National Association of Social Worker’s code of ethics, which includes integrity, dignity, and competence.

Takac is the real community leader. He’s a model of decency, trustworthiness and vision. He’s committed to good governance, public education and workforce development. He’ll focus his energies on infrastructure, clean energy jobs, unions, health care, human rights, dealing with the opioid crisis, raising the minimum wage and addressing the needs of his constituents.

We can learn a lot about a candidate by how he campaigns. Paul Takac deserves our support. Let’s send Paul Takac to Harrisburg on Nov. 8.

Hurricane aid hypocrisy

I’m going to raise an inconvenient truth at what some will see as the wrong time. Ron DeSantis was a Tea Party conservative with anti-federal government credentials. The Tea Party folks were against taxes, and for reduced government spending, especially social welfare programs. They famously fought aid to homeowners during the Great Recession, and fought Obamacare from the beginning.

Remember, too, that on Jan. 13, 2013, as a freshly minted congressman representing the Jacksonville-Orlando area, Ron DeSantis voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. Holy hypocrisy Batman!

Was his vote then because he is a fiscal conservative, or because the victims were from blue states?

Note, however, that when Florida faces what looks to be an epic disaster, Governor DeSantis already has his hand out expecting the federal government to advance 100% of the cost of disaster relief. So what else is new? When your own ox is being gored, assistance from the federal government doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

I fully support the federal government’s efforts to provide relief from natural disasters, just as I support federal relief for those victims of economic disasters, pandemics, poverty and soaring health care costs. I just wish those Republican governors weren’t so hypocritical.

Meanwhile, when are Republican governors in states at exponentially greater risk of natural disaster due to climate change going to get with the program and support an aggressive policy to remediate?

Disasters like Hurricane Ian are a prologue to the future.

Unite to stop destruction

By an eerie coincidence, I just wrote a play that ran at The State Theater. It was the true story of a Hiroshima pilot who was brave enough to stand against nuclear war.

I cannot believe that we are now facing the extinction of our world. Nothing could be more important. Yet we are so busy hating each other that we are letting this madness happen. If the nuclear bomb drops, it won’t matter whether we are Black or white, or Democrat or Republican, or Russian or American. We must unite to stop our leaders from blowing us all to bits.

It’s time we followed that pilot’s example. We have to stop this madness. We must make our leaders stop churning out weapons and start negotiating for peace. Because this is no play. This is reality, and we must act now, before it’s too late.