Letters: Terry Smith has earned the chance to lead PSU football
Terry Smith has earned the chance to lead PSU football
You can feel the change around Penn State football. It shows up in the parking lots before the game, in the noise and pulse inside Beaver Stadium, and especially in the renewed spirit of the student section. That shift is real, and it isn’t accidental. It reflects the leadership of Coach Terry Smith.
This Penn State team is playing with purpose, discipline and belief. They compete for four quarters. When they faced a top-ranked Indiana program that has dominated nearly every opponent this season, Penn State didn’t break. They fought to the end. That is not something you can fake. That is a program rediscovering its identity.
Across college football, schools routinely spend millions chasing high-profile names who fail to connect with players, fans, or the community. We don’t need to repeat that cycle. Penn State does not need to buy an identity — it is being rebuilt from within.
The smart step is measured and responsible:
Offer Coach Smith a short-term contract, allow the culture to continue taking root, and evaluate progress based on performance.
Coach Smith has earned something money cannot purchase: the respect of his players, the trust of students, and the belief of the Penn State community.
We see it.
We feel it.
We know it.
Coach Smith bleeds blue.
Warren Hudak, Camp Hill
Congress must step up, do its duty
I write this on Veterans Day. As a veteran, I worry about our service members now involved in hunting and killing those aboard suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Has the Trump administration placed these men and women in an impossible position that goes against their right and, in some cases, their duty to refuse an unlawful order?
The Trump administration has claimed that it can declare that our country is at war with drug cartels in Latin and South America. Yet only Congress has the legal, constitutional authority to declare war, and it has stayed silent on the strikes against boats and the killing, so far, of more than 75 aboard.
Congress must step up and do its duty. Yes, I’m talking to you, Messrs. McCormick, Fetterman and Thompson. Either it declares a war — thus those aboard drug boats become enemy combatants and, under the laws of war, can be killed — or it refuses to do so. If it refuses, suspected drug boats should be the target of police actions such as seizure and arrest, not military strikes.
Sen. McCormick wrote an op-ed on Veterans Day in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette advocating for better mental health services for all veterans. Yet he appears unconcerned about asking service members to kill in a so-far unlawful war. What toll might that take on the mental health of some of those who are ordered to do that.
Take a stand, Congress. Don’t dump the hard choices onto patriotic service members who will have to live with the consequences of your inaction.
John Dillon, State College
We are ... Pennsylvania
I remember how impressed I was when Stacy Garrity was interviewed on TV as the Republican candidate for treasurer a few years ago. A lifelong Republican-Independent, I was glad when she announced that she was running for governor because I feel Republicans need to put forth strong candidates.
But then I learned that Garrity is a Trump devotee, and while I am a never-Trumper, I believe even more strongly that his politics — whatever they are — have no place in Pennsylvania. We Pennsylvanians (my first ancestors arrived in Philly in 1733) should solve our own problems and live our own lives independent of national political ideology of any party. We don’t need less government or more government; we need the right amount of government.
So I would urge Garrity, a fellow Pennsylvania native, to campaign on behalf of Pennsylvanians. Forget the folks in Washington. Show us what you have for us.
R Thomas Berner, Benner Township