Letters: Vote yes to retain Pennsylvania’s judges; Exercise the ‘power of righteous anger’

Vote yes to retain Pennsylvania’s judges

Judicial retention elections in Pennsylvania are usually quiet, nonpartisan affairs. This year is different. What is normally a routine vote has become a high-stakes political battle over control of the state’s highest court, fueled by national attention, outside money, and a flood of deceptive advertising.

The question before voters is straightforward: Should three Supreme Court Justices — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht — be retained for another 10 years? The answer should rest on truth, not misinformation.

Retention elections are simple: a “Yes” or “No” vote. Justices have no opponents, and political affiliations are not listed. The process is designed to keep judges independent while holding them accountable. Nonpartisan groups, including the Pennsylvania Bar Association, recommend retaining all three justices, citing their strong qualifications and judicial integrity.

Unfortunately, voters are being misled by a well-funded campaign backed by billionaire donors and political action committees. Mailers falsely claim the justices “gerrymandered districts to help Democrats,” when in fact the map in question was drawn by Republican legislators and struck down by the court as unconstitutional. Other ads distort the justices’ records on reproductive rights and election law. Spotlight PA has called these mailers “incredibly dishonest,” and The Philadelphia Inquirer depicts them as materially misleading.

The stakes are high. If justices aren’t retained, vacancies could paralyze the court and jeopardize rulings on voting rights, reproductive rights, education, and more.

Reject the lies. Vote Yes to retain Pennsylvania’s judges. A vote for retention is a vote for truth, transparency and judicial independence.

Nancy Chiswick, State College

Exercise the ‘power of righteous anger’

Each day I am angered and saddened by Trump’s latest incursions into cruelty. I feel helpless in the face of Trump’s contempt for humanity. He despises desperately poor people, especially those whose skins are dark.

Trump revels in smashing lives, bodies and hope: He plans to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy by slapping a work requirement on healthcare insurance needed by our poorest citizens. He gleefully blows up men in fishing boats, calling them drug dealers without proof. He sends helpless detainees, who came to the U.S. looking for a kinder land, to rot in El Salvador’s and Africa’s brutal jails.

Most sickening was Trump’s defunding and shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The poverty in Africa is immense — a legacy of western colonization. USAID’s work has countered that poverty. Its maternal and child health intervention demonstrated our humanity — a record we should view with great pride. USAID’s actions helped our own country avoid terrible tropical diseases by stemming infection abroad.

I worked with USAID in the poorest countries in Africa; I know how the application of American ingenuity brightens the lives of the very poor. Cuts in USAID funds are predicted to cause 14 million deaths — 4.5 million of whom are children — by 2030.

Denying medical support to U.S. families will have a similar affect.

How can we live with ourselves if we do not counter this growing catastrophe? We must exercise the power of righteous anger against these thugs-in-office!

Dorothy Blair, Boalsburg

Danger of one-person rule

Trump ordered that all generals and admirals of our military, around the world, must come to Washington, D.C. in order to hear his speech. It cost many millions of dollars, and disrupted military planning, but the Commander-in-Chief ordered their attendance. No exceptions.

At the meeting, Trump complained about the “ugly” modern warships (designed for stealth) and called for the return of old-school battleships with big guns, rather than missiles. He went on to state that military forces should be deployed at home to help wage “the war from within” against migrants and leftists (his words). And he declared we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for military forces. The generals and admirals all listened to their commander-in-chief lay out his plan for the “take over” of our country.

There was no cheering, just silence. It was clear that the military chiefs were not in the room to advise the President, but to exercise his orders, as Commander-in-Chief. Trump is quickly sending in troops, asserting control over the Central Bank, and taking stakes in companies, all with the intent of scaring us into submission. If a single idea has tied us all together, it’s that one-person rule is a mistake.

Carl Evensen, State College

We pay billions for Trump’s mistakes

Donald Trump has spent a lifetime never learning from his mistakes.

In his first term as president, he imposed such heavy tariffs on China that the Chinese took their agriculture business elsewhere and Trump had to bail out American farmers for more than $50 billion. Ignoring that history, Trump has done it again, this time again aggravating the situation with China, the biggest buyer of U.S. soybeans.

Instead, China bought soybeans from Argentina as the United States was announcing a $20 billion aid package for that country. He’s also promised to bail out the soybeans farmers who were penalized by his tariffs — another billion-dollar package also funded by the taxpayers.

Trump will never learn. Will we?

R Thomas Berner, Benner Township