Letters: America deserves better; Future casino ‘a sad situation’

America deserves better

People often surround themselves with those who reflect their values, interests or character. President Donald Trump exemplifies this pattern. Eleven of his associates have been convicted of crimes, and Trump himself has faced legal consequences, including 34 felony convictions and a court-ordered payment for defaming a woman he allegedly raped.

On Monday, Jan. 20, a (metaphoric) paddy wagon/clown car pulled up in front of the White House, and Trump took office.

Trump’s cabinet will include individuals accused of various ethical breaches and criminal activities. This raises serious concerns about leadership by example and the tone set at the highest level of government.

Leadership should inspire trust, accountability and integrity. If the company one keeps reflects one’s character, what does it say about a leader whose circle is riddled with allegations and convictions? Americans deserve leaders who model the values they profess, not those who undermine them.

Future casino ‘a sad situation’

I regret very much the insertion of a casino in State College. I truly believe that this insertion is a reflection of how little the local and state authorities respect our will, and also how poorly the casino authorities regard State College. Our police and hospital services will be burdened with a load that will prevent them from adequately responding to taxpayers when required to. It is a sad situation.

New threat to customer base

As businesses try to navigate the economic environment in the next four years, they should make a cold blooded assessment of what policies can impact them, and what the effects can be.

They all talk about taxes and regulations — because this is what they know the government is involved with, but there is a bigger concern: customers.

What kills a business is the lack of customers. Anything else can be handled, but if people stop shopping you must switch careers.

Usually a government cannot deliver customers to businesses. But it can cut off the supply. When the government was shut down in 1995, Maryland’s and Virginia’s economies took a hit because federal workers no longer shopped. Businesses went bankrupt then.

Now there is a new threat to the customer base: Getting people off Medicare and SNAP, or cutting benefits to millions. And any person kicked out of those programs or with benefits cut is a lost customer. (Because at the bottom SNAP is a farm subsidy program).

You might not like the idea of tax money going to food stamps, but it is not your job to pass judgment on the lives of your customers. That’s their priest’s or counselor’s job. Yours is to get money from them in exchange for your goods.

If you own a small business think of this. And share it with your Representative in Congress..

Don’t blame Altoona

Throughout the decades, PSU students have enrolled in our 19 commonwealth campuses guided by the national prominence of Penn State. In our most recent commonwealth campus cohort (datadigest.psu.edu), nearly 2/3, except Erie, completed their Bachelor’s degree at University Park. However, over the past decade our commonwealth campus enrollment has declined 30%. Apparently, Penn State prominence, as seen by students/families, has declined as well. In an effort to ameliorate this loss of revenue, 400 commonwealth campus faculty/staff (10%) accepted buyouts this past year. At a recent Faculty Senate meeting, concerns were expressed about possible campus closures. Asked directly, the vice president for the commonwealth campuses did not give a direct answer about closures. “Instead, she acknowledged the very challenging times” (CDT, Jan 22). Later, the vice president said, “We’re exploring creative avenues to keep our campus system vibrant ...”

Here is a creative idea: Choose a campus, say Altoona, and negotiate with our BIG10 peer Michigan (hypothetically of course) to allow Altoona students to transfer to either Michigan (US News #3 public university) or Penn State University Park (US News #30 public university). No doubt, Altoona would be overwhelmed with applications, sending an unambiguous message to our trustees about prioritizing our academic standing. Here is another creative idea: Since we have 36 trustees, assign a trustee to each campus as a liaison to connect with the students, faculty and local businesses. In doing so, the trustees would gain first-hand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities at our campuses, and greatly strengthen campus morale.