Letters: Homeowners alone in fight for clean water; Trump’s fake promises
Homeowners alone in fight for clean water
Penn State often purports to be a good neighbor, but with the PFAS contamination from the airport of the private wells in Walnut Grove Estates in Benner Township, Penn State is proving that its image does not align with its actions.
In the past five years, Penn State has done little to rectify the damage it caused to residents from these toxic “forever chemicals.” Despite our patience and efforts, homeowners have received virtually no help from any of the persons or institutions that should be invested in aiding their fellow citizens. Benner Township supervisors have ignored and even obstructed efforts for clean water. Our state representatives, Paul Takac and Cris Dush, have done nothing to expedite a solution or to work with Penn State to find a solution. The PA DEP has at least identified Penn State as the responsible party for the contamination and provided drinking water filtration. But water filtration is subject to failure and is not a permanent solution for our health and well-being. Additionally, State College Borough Water Authority has declined to assist in providing a municipal water line to Walnut Grove. Homeowners are alone in this fight for clean water.
All of us grow weary of hearing about another environmental crisis, but if you are concerned about clean water the time to act is now. Don’t wait until a crisis lands at your front door only to find out that you are alone too.
Where are these good neighbors that we hear so much about?
Rick Weyer, State College
Trump’s fake promises
Trump constantly repeats blatantly obvious lies knowing that some people will believe anything that’s said often enough; even when it’s not true.
This time is different. Everyone knows that affordability is not a “scam” or a “hoax.” Americans get reminded of rising inflation every time they pay their bills or shop for groceries.
In addition to not bringing consumer prices down “on day one,” Trump’s economic policies have failed to fulfill his other fake promises.
Despite reducing trade with the U.S., China continues to have a record trade surplus with the rest of the world. Trump’s tariffs hurt American farmers when China boycotted farm goods like soy beans. Trump then angered farmers proposing that the U.S. buy beef from Argentina.
To help himself politically, Trump overlooked our $38 trillion national debt and proposed a $12 billion farmer bailout. His boasting that tariff revenue would cover it was another lie. The bailouts are primarily coming from the Agriculture Department’s Farmer Bridge Assistance program.
Although promising “jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country,” unemployment continues to rise as America lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs since January. Trump even fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics back in July because he didn’t like the jobs numbers.
The complicity and cowardice of House and Senate Republicans emboldens Trump to continue profiteering off his office while damaging our national economy. These Republicans who put fealty to Trump ahead of America’s wellbeing need be voted out of office during our next election.
George Polycranos, Port Matilda
Health care reform, from a caregiver’s view
Americans are right to be frustrated with the insurance industry. Consolidation has reduced choice, increased denials and placed profit ahead of patient care. Calls to break insurance monopolies reflect a growing sense that the system is no longer working as intended.
But reform cannot end there. Weakening the social service safety net at the same time is not correction — it is displacement.
As both a caregiver and a clinician, I have seen what the safety net actually does. Programs like Medicare, Medicaid and community-based disability services are not abstractions. They are what allow medically complex children to live at home instead of institutions, help disabled adults remain in the workforce, and keep emergency departments from becoming default mental-health facilities.
When insurance protections erode while public supports shrink, costs do not disappear. They shift — onto families. Caregiving becomes unpaid labor. Medical decisions are made under financial strain. Preventable crises rise, including emergency department boarding, caregiver burnout, and avoidable institutionalization.
This is not efficiency. It is cost shifting.
Real reform requires substitution, not subtraction. If we break insurance monopolies, we must replace their essential functions: risk pooling, guaranteed access, and predictable reimbursement. If public supports are reduced, alternative systems must be equally reliable and humane. Markets alone have never filled these gaps for people with complex needs.
Health care reform should make caregiving sustainable, not sacrificial. Otherwise, we risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater — and leaving families to bear the cost.
Nicole Feaster, State College
Denying humanity
It is not antisemitic to oppose Israeli policy in Gaza. Indeed, that policy is antisemitic in spirit, for what Israel is doing to the Palestinians now is almost as monstrous as what the Germans did to the Jews in the last century.
In fact, if you will permit me to be morally fanatical, to make war on anyone fundamentally denies their humanity and your own in perpetrating it. Each time its hideousness cries out to Heaven.
John Harris, State College