Letters: Time is running out to donate books to AAUW; America First redux

Time is running out to donate books to AAUW

Many thanks to the generous community members who have donated books for our annual May book sale over the past ten months! Through our sale, your books will find new homes and generate dollars significant dollars for us to invest back into our community.

The final day for accepting book donations for this year’s sale will be Tuesday, March 12. Before bringing books to our Used Book Workshop, learn more about what books can and cannot be accepted: aauwstatecollege.org/used_book_sale_donations.

We are located near University Park Airport, off 2197 High Tech Road in the large blue building at the rear. Donations may be made 24/7 into the outdoor blue bins. For special assistance with larger donations, the workshop will be open Mondays from 6-8 p.m., and Tuesday and Wednesdays from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

After our March 12 closing, we will reopen for book donations for our 2025 sale on Tuesday, June 18.

Mark your calendar for the our 62nd sale, to be held at the Penn State Snider Ag Arena May 11-14. Learn all about it at www.aauwstatecollege.org. Funds raised from the sale support local scholarships and programs that advance equity for women and girls. Questions? Contact info@aauwstatecollege.org.

America First redux

Something we didn’t learn while studying American heroes: Charles Lindberg was a prime spokesperson for America First, a pre-WW II movement. This movement had eerie similarities to the current America First movement, championed by Donald Trump.

Lindberg admired Adolf Hitler and didn’t want the U.S. to militarily support or even provide supplies to our European allies as Hitler’s Nazi regime invaded country after country, slaughtering Jews along the way. In a November 1939 Readers Digest piece, Lindberg wrote of “the infiltration of inferior blood” and praised aviation’s development for giving the ability to “the White race to live at all in a pressing sea of Yellow, Black and Brown.” A spin-off group, the Christian Mobilizers, intended to keep Jews, refugees from the pillaged Europe, from entering the United States and, more broadly in the words of journalist Andrew Lapin, restore America to the militant national Christian.

Trump openly admires the authoritarian Putin, and has threatened to let Russia “do whatever the hell they want” in Europe. Present-day America First supporters oppose aid to Ukraine as Putin’s army commits war crimes in Ukraine. On the racial front, Trump said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and that “they’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world. They’re pouring into our country.” Just recently, a group calling itself God’s Army formed a convoy to stop an “invasion” of immigrants.

One glaring difference between then and now: Lindberg wasn’t campaigning for the presidency.

Hurtful words have wider implications

A Feb. 18 CDT letter to the editor linked being un-American to how long a person’s ancestors have been in this country and their country of origin. Although the hatred expressed in the letter was aimed at a particular political candidate, it has much wider implications. It is shocking that a highly educated person with local influence would hold a view that ethnic origin has something to do with being un-American. Unfortunately, the public discourse of recent years has made it acceptable to openly express any thought we have, no matter how hurtful to others. Looking at the news and knowing a little history, I conclude that being for or against America has nothing to do with whether your ancestor walked across a land bridge between Asia and North America, arrived on the Mayflower, was dragged from the hold of a slave ship, or waded across the Rio Grand.

Still another reason

As if we didn’t already have enough reasons to vote against DJT, here’s another one.

The man is accumulating personal expenses at a frightening pace. First it was legal fees to his defense attorneys for representing him in multiple court cases. Then came the $88 million judgment he was ordered to pay E. Jean Carroll. Now the $355 million fine, plus interest, he owes the state of New York. In addition, there are several pending civil cases in the District of Columbia, brought by the Capitol Police and various members of Congress.

Eventually, he may be looking at debts in the range of $2 billion. How are these to be paid?

The man hates parting with his own money, so has relentlessly pursued contributions from the public, and the RNC, to pay his legal bills.

Surely the public and the RNC have limits on their largesse. Where will the billions come from, if he’s elected POTUS again? Who has that kind of ready cash?

The answer might very well be Russia, or possibly Saudi Arabia. It’s easy to imagine Putin offering help in exchange for, say, DJT’s pledge to pull America out of NATO. Almost certainly Putin would demand an end to our military support for Ukraine.

Crushing debt poses serious national security risks. Would we want to risk our President making foreign policy decisions as a way to make his personal financial obligations disappear?

We absolutely must keep the man out of the White House!