Letters: Disappointed in delivery change; Seeking solutions to ‘pollution blanket’

Disappointed in delivery change

We have received our Centre Daily Times via carrier for at least 45 years. Our son was a delivery person in junior high school and made enough money to buy stock. He did it when the paper was in the early morning, and when it changed to afternoon. We have always valued our carriers, especially for the last 19 years when they were super reliable, saved our papers, in order, when we were away, and always delivered the papers the next day when the weather was bad and they couldn’t come.

Recently they got a notice from the owner, McClatchy, with no prior warning, that said, “Your services will no longer be needed.” The carriers could receive no unemployment benefits since they were “contractors”; they were paid 15 cents for each paper they delivered, had a $2 penalty charged if anyone complained about service, received no compensation for gas or maintenance of their vehicle, and had to purchase the plastic sleeves for the papers.

It’s too late to change this decision, but it makes one wonder about corporate greed and the pain it causes for the workers that distribute their products. The CDT had no part in this action, and we will go to the post office to pick up our paper, except when it’s a federal holiday, and send a check to help our past loyal carriers.

Seeking solutions to ‘pollution blanket’

I want to thank Representative Thompson’s staff for welcoming me and fellow constituents to his office on Tuesday, during Citizens’ Climate Lobby Day in Washington, DC. Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots advocacy organization focused on national policies to address climate change.

I have been alive for over 50 years, and I remember driving in the car with my parents. Sitting by a fire. Riding a bus to school. What I didn’t realize was that everything my family was doing was putting pollution in the air and creating a “pollution blanket” around the earth. And we were just one of the millions of families around the United States doing similar things. The pollution my family put in the air that long ago is still there and we are still driving a car and keeping warm in the winter. Only now, the pollution blanket is thicker. And with a thicker blanket comes more extreme weather events, like stronger storms and hotter days.

I recently watched Representative Thompson on WPSU talk about the positive impact the Farm Bill will have on our environment and climate. I encourage Representative Thompson to continue to work in a bipartisan way as the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act gets reintroduced in Congress. Putting a fee on carbon at its source and redistributing that fee equally to the American people could be the economic incentive that we need to stop our pollution blanket from getting any thicker.

Grateful for Spotlight partnership

My first letter to the editor was over 20 years ago. In it I advocated for the paper having a full-time reporter in Harrisburg.

So today I am very happy for the paper’s partnership with Spotlight PA. Now our state government is more visible and because of the publicity, less likely to be corrupt.