Letters: Questions before voting; PSU president failed in event response
Editor’s note: The Centre Daily Times welcomes letters endorsing candidates in the Nov. 8 election and will accept letters that are received by Nov. 3. Letters are subject to editing, must be based on facts and should avoid attacks on other candidates.
Questions before voting
In these challenging times, what is our next move to manage our energy supplies? Wonder about returning to being energy independent? What is our risk by tapping into our strategic oil resource again? What benefit is it to our country, including the environment, to burn the dirtier oil from the Saudis or Venezuela? By becoming energy independent again, it will have a positive effect on our economy, which is badly needed.
What is our next move to manage our open southern border? Is is humanitarian for the illegal immigrants to be found dead in the back of a truck? To be used for human trafficking? To be spreading COVID? To drown in the Rio Grande? While the cartels continue to get richer and richer while killing our people with fentanyl? I suggest we finish the wall and return to ”the stay in Mexico.”
Will this be a fair election? Will social media interfere again like they did in 2020 by suppressing the Hunter Biden story or another one? How will mail-in ballots be counted when they are not completed properly? Will we have another claim of Russian interference like 2016 which was unproven? It seems it would be prudent to follow the voting rules and not change them along the way as was done in 2020. These are some of the questions I think we need to consider when going to vote.
PSU president failed in event response
Monday night’s event on campus demonstrated the total lack of vision and clarity that a university president requires. I did contact four or five different offices at the university two weeks ago to tell them what would likely happen if this event were allowed to continue. Everything that I told them did indeed happen. The safety of our Penn State students and community was put into danger by a group that has a long history of inciting violence. The Penn State president needs to take a lesson about what this group is, what their history is, and what happens almost every single time they are allowed to appear in public. My support and feelings for my university are now forever changed. I was further enraged by the statement made by the president after the cancellation. She mentioned a victory for the sick group that came to campus to speak, and at the same time admonished our students protests, which by the way are also covered by constitutional rights. We need a president who will protect our students and protect the Penn State community. Clearly, this president has failed to do that.
Send carpetbaggers packing
In Pennsylvania it’s the year of the Republican carpetbagger.
First, New Jersey resident Mehmet Oz decides that he’s just the guy we need here in Pennsylvania to be our Senator. This, despite probably not knowing Pottstown from Pottsville from Potter County. Go home Dr. Oz and try running for Senate from New Jersey where you live. And be sure to tell us if the voters in your home state want you, because we don’t.
Then, in central Pennsylvania, long-time Luzerne County resident Justin Behrens decides that he’s just the ticket for the newly created 82nd House District in Centre County. But the voters who know him best, back in Luzerne where he was Republican county chair until December 3, 2021, and where he still has a job, have rejected him all five times he’s run for office there. But he’s undeterred. Apparently, he thinks he’ll have a better chance if he runs for office in Centre County where few know him, and where he has little record of community involvement.
Voters across the state and in Centre County should send both of these Republican carpetbaggers packing. They have no business running for office in a state or in a county where they have left few, if any, footprints.
State investment critical for Penn State
Growing up in Pennsylvania, the colors blue and white always had a special meaning to me. It is funny to reminisce on old photos and see myself draped in Penn State gear knowing where I am now. When my sister transferred to Penn State, I saw her personal and professional prospects bloom. As I would visit her in State College and surround myself with this community, it led me to make one of the best decisions of my life — choosing to attend Penn State.
One of the organizations I have joined as a freshman on campus is Lion Caucus, a student government advocacy organization. An issue that has quickly become apparent to me is the disparity faced by Penn State students from the state government. On a per student basis, Penn State students receive funding far below the national average and $2,600 to $3,400 lower than any other in-state institution.
Just because our university is large, does not mean our students should be undervalued compared to our in-state peers. The 47.6% appropriations request by Penn State is crucial state dollars that will allow Penn State to continue to offer a reduced in-state tuition rate for both current and prospective students. A state government investment is an investment in the students, families, alumni, faculty, and communities that all contribute in making Penn State what it is — a world-leading institution.
Your vote is our future
If you’re on the fence about this election stop for a moment to consider the loved ones in your family who gave their all on or off the battlefield during WWII. The massive sacrifices they made countering the naked aggression of authoritarian leaders like Hitler and Mussolini secured the freedoms we enjoy today.
Now America is threatened again ... this time from within. From American leaders who venerate authoritarian regimes like Putin’s in Russia and Orban’s in Hungary. These “leaders” promote authoritarian actions while undermining democratic principles and institutions here in America. Our loved ones, after everything they endured to ensure our freedoms, surely must be turning in their graves.
Reflecting on the failure of the free world to stand up to authoritarian aggression from the start, Eleanor Roosevelt offered this sobering insight: “I have the feeling that we let our consciences realize too late the need of standing up against something that we knew was wrong. We have therefore had to avenge it but we did nothing to prevent it. I hope that in the future we are going to remember that there can be no compromise at any point with the things that we know are wrong.”
Before you vote understand that it’s less about who wins when we help elect someone who supports authoritarian leadership ... and more about what we lose. Eleanor Roosevelt reminds us what happens when we turn a blind eye. The question is whether we value our democracy enough to listen.
Missing candidate?
I watched the CDT’s Candidates Forum wondering why Rep. Scott Conklin’s opponent wasn’t there. Then I double checked the League of Women Voters’ Guide to confirm he did not respond to them, either.
I know he’s had a lot to say to selected voters, knocking on their doors and sending them mail.
Those are time tested ways of contacting voters, but normally they go hand in hand with participation in public forums where neutral questioners hold candidates accountable.
Scott Conklin has been an elected official in this county for 22 years. He participates in public forums. He’s available to reporters. He’s easy to find. You can ask him anything you want and get an answer. Why would voters want to trade that for some guy who can’t be bothered to show up?