Letters: It can happen anywhere; Tired of ‘the last straw?’
It can happen anywhere
If this happened here — would we stay silent?
If a woman were to die during an ICE enforcement action in State College, Pennsylvania — steps from where our children go to school and where we live our daily lives — we should all be asking the same question: Where has the morality gone?
State College is a community that prides itself on being welcoming, educated and grounded in shared humanity. We teach our children about due process, restraint and the inherent value of every life. Those values do not disappear because someone is undocumented, nor because an agency is enforcing policy.
When armed government agents operate on U.S. soil, their authority comes with a duty to preserve life, not treat it as collateral damage. If lethal force is even remotely part of immigration enforcement, something has gone profoundly wrong.
What safeguards failed?
Who is being held accountable?
And why does it feel as though the public is expected to look away?
This is not about left versus right. It is about right versus wrong. No badge, no agency, and no administration should be beyond scrutiny. Silence is not neutrality — it is permission.
If this can happen anywhere, it can happen here. And if we would not accept it on College Avenue or in our neighborhoods, we should not accept it at all. State College can — and should — demand transparency, investigation and accountability. Human dignity does not stop at jurisdictional lines.
Nicole Feaster, State College
Tired of ‘the last straw?’
It was the last straw when he said he liked to grab women by the p----. It was the last straw when he pretended COVID didn’t exist, until it did, until it didn’t again. It was the last straw when he encouraged his supporters to violently attack the Capitol to invalidate the results of an election. It was the last straw when the DHS put children in cages. It was the last straw when the FEMA secretary was too busy to help flood victims in Texas. It was the last straw when his handpicked Supreme Court let states make abortion illegal. It was the last straw when he was good friends with a convicted pedophile. It was the last straw when a jury took three hours to unanimously agree that was liable for sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll. It was the last straw when he pardoned convicted drug dealers, financial fraudsters and insurrectionists. It was the last straw when he suspended an SEC fraud investigation into a crypto billionaire just weeks after that billionaire invested $75 million into a crypto company he owned. It was the last straw when he called a state governor “retarded.” It was the last straw when he destroyed the East Wing of the White House, which isn’t his house, even if he thinks it is. It was the last straw when measles started killing people again. It was the last straw when ICE shot a woman dead in Minneapolis.
Aren’t you tired of this, America?
Eric Hayot, State College
Blame for weak labor market falls on GOP
As of the Jan. 9 release, the official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) December 2025 jobs report had just been published and showed evidence that the labor market remained weak. The U.S. economy added an estimated 50,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in December 2025, a sharp slowdown compared with recent historical norms but still a mainstream gain. This was far weaker than prior years.
According to the BLS, the most recent report showed the U.S. only added 64,000 jobs in November, following a 105,000 job loss in October, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, its highest level in more than four years. Meanwhile, job gains have shown “little net change” since spring, with payrolls broadly stagnant. The U.S. lost 1.1 million jobs due to downsizing in 2025.
Let’s be blunt: These are not numbers that reflect a booming economy. They reflect uncertainty, weakened hiring, and slow wage growth that barely keeps pace with inflation. And the blame for this malaise lies squarely on Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and their fixation on imposing tariffs, deporting harmless immigrant grandmothers, and disrupting real economic strategy.
Tariffs touted as “pro-American” have instead crimped hiring — slowing average monthly payroll gains by as much as 19,000 jobs and nudging unemployment higher. Businesses exposed to international supply chains have frozen expansion, foreign markets have retaliated, and investment hesitated.
This isn’t happenstance — it’s policymaking by ideology, not insight. Working Americans deserve leaders who champion jobs and real growth, not trade wars and political theater.
William Rothwell, State College
Efficiency improvement ideas
According to a CDT article, Benner Township pays about $48,000 per year per supervisors for health insurance even though some are 65 or old and qualify for Medicare. Well, you get the government you deserve. I do not live in Benner Township so good luck to the citizens of that township, I sympathize with you. As part of my own cost savings recommendations to the Borough of State College Council I suggest that you immediately pass an ordinance restricting health insurance and require people who qualify to use Medicare. Then use that money to help out poor people instead of increasing property tax and associated rental costs to poor people. What is wrong with that idea? What is good for the serfs should also be good for the lords; or to use another cliche, eat your own dog food. There are plenty of good suggestions from the serfs, but the lords must listen. In modern management it is called agile and requires a system be set up to react to efficiency ideas. I have suggested many efficiency improvements to the Borough that could possibly save millions of dollars but it falls on deaf ears. The old-style legislative waterfall management methodology is breaking down in this new era and the Borough Council needs to get up to speed especially with automated data systems.
Ed VanVliet State College