Letters: Support candidates who want BASD to be the best; Stop a casino at Nittany Mall

Support candidates who want BASD to be the best

I see that Win4Bellefonte is back in business, this time promoting five candidates for the Bellefonte School Board. You may recall that the group arose out of a movement to save the school’s racist Native American mascot, even though other schools (including mine) and professional sports teams had retired such images in favor of something inoffensive.

OK, you say, the Bellefonte School Board isn’t woke. Actually, it’s worse. The board is asleep at the switch.

Evidence of that appears in the last U.S. News and World Report ranking of schools throughout the country. In Pennsylvania, the breakdown for the four school districts wholly within Centre County: State College ranks a respectable 45th followed by Penns Valley at 150, Bald Eagle at 255 and Bellefonte 287. The school district affiliated with the home of governors comes in last.

Is this what we want for our children? Last.

I urge voters to carefully check out all candidates for school board. Don’t be fooled by vague statements about history and tradition. Don’t support candidates who will continue the tradition of being last. Support candidates who want our school district to be the best.

Stop a casino at Nittany Mall

I ask everyone to deny the efforts for the Nittany Mall gambling casino. In regard to the letter of H. Perez-Blanco of State College in the Jan. 20 CDT, it addresses precisely my feelings about this issue.

Balachandran would strengthen county judicial system

It is not often that someone with the qualifications and abilities of Gopal Balachandran comes forward as a candidate for judge of the Centre County Court of Common Pleas. His background in criminal law, his many years as a trial lawyer, and his leadership experience at the Penn State Law Clinic have worked together to create someone with both the knowledge and the temperament necessary to render wise decisions for the citizens of our county.

Balachandran supports justice combined with fairness and equity — meaning that he will treat everyone that he encounters with respect and compassion. Additionally, Balachandran’s candidacy represents a special opportunity to enhance and strengthen Centre County’s judicial system. With no other current judge with a specific background in criminal law, his election will broaden and deepen the expertise that exists among our current judges. Beyond the question of expertise lies Balachandran’s broader understanding the role of larger social ills in contributing to crime. This orientation will go well with the emerging vision of our existing county judicial system, which has recently established both a drug court and a mental health court. Gopal Balachandran comes at the right time for the needs of our county. I am grateful for the opportunity to offer my endorsement.

Who shouldn’t be let ‘off the hook’?

I would like to comment on the Jan. 13 CDT letter “Don’t let pro-chaos Republicans off the hook.”

1. During a period of 60 years I served as secretary for five organizations as diverse as: a church based organization; a hunting camp; a family reunion committee; a veterans association; and a condominium association. At no time — ever! — were individual disagreements thought of, or considered as “anti-democratic” “pro-chaos” or in violation of the groups governing rules or by-laws. Our elected Representatives in Washington are certainly no different.

2. Employed many years in marketing and sales management, I counseled young sales persons to avoid making strong, positive, statements, for they will surely pop-up to bite you sometime.

3. The writer concludes with the admonition “don’t let them off the hook” Oh! how sweet it is!

I am looking forward to watching the Democrats serve their turn in the proverbial “barrel” as my fellow Republican Representatives don’t let Joe Biden and associates “off the hook.”