For a community that prides itself on being enlightened, it continues to be very disappointing that access to outdoor space by people incarcerated in the Centre County Correctional Facility is still under debate. We should keep in mind, some of the people who are in the prison will be found innocent and are being held pending trial, but even those who are guilty of a crime are entitled to have access to sunshine and outdoor space.
Just like food, sunshine is a key ingredient of life, health and promoting a more positive mood. Who would believe that the jailhouse in Centre County has worse conditions for its inmates than many developing nations? This is something that we have been aware of since 2005 and yet has still not yet fixed.
Dr. Joel N. Myers
Founder & Executive Chairman
AccuWeather
Election Deniers in State Legislature
The States United Democracy Center has identified 201 state legislators in battleground states who denied the validity of the 2020 presidential election. Of the seven states studied, Pennsylvania has the most election deniers: 64 in the state House of Representatives and 22 in the state Senate (to say nothing of the seven election deniers who represent Pennsylvanians at the federal level, including our own Congressman Glenn Thompson).
The study reports that Pennsylvania’s election deniers “…make up more than 80% of the Senate Republican caucus and hold a majority of seats on several of the most important committees that handle election matters.”
Three lawmakers with Centre County constituencies were named in the report: State Senators Chris Dush and Wayne Langerholc and Representative Kerry Benninghoff.
“Because U.S. elections are administered at the state and local level, state legislators have broad power to shape election administration and voting procedures,” the report says. “Election Deniers in the state legislature, especially in leadership or on powerful committees, can push for barriers to voting, seek to hamper election administration, and erode trust in elections and the officials who keep them free, fair, and secure.”
The 2020 presidential election was fair. More than 60 court challenges affirmed that. The bedrock of democracy is the public’s faith in the integrity of elections. It is worrisome that so many of our state legislators have taken unwarranted actions to undermine that faith and remain in positions to do it again.
Ed Satalia
State College
Trust Those Who Know
There have always been voters registered as Party A who vote for presidential candidates nominated by Party B. We remember “Democrats for Reagan” in 1980, “Republicans for Clinton” in 2016, and “Republicans for Biden” in 2020. The Lincoln Project, made up mostly of Republicans, was strongly supportive of the Democratic candidate in 2016 and 2020.
Now, In 2024, we have a new group: “Republicans (Who Worked for Trump) for Biden.” It is one thing to have current (or former) Republicans, such as Michael Steele, Stuart Stevens, Steve Schmidt and many others voice their opposition to the candidacy of Donald Trump, but when this includes actual members of the Trump Administration we should sit up and take notice.
Mark Esper, Trump’s Secretary of Defense, has said, “I regard him as a threat to democracy.”
General John Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff, referred to him as “the most flawed person I have ever met.”
Bill Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, testified to the House January 6 Committee that Trump “shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.”
Chris Christie, who endorsed Trump in the 2016 election and served as chairperson of his transition team, now calls Trump “unfit to be president.”
Perhaps Rex Tillerson, Trump’s first Secretary of State, said it best: “He’s a (expletive) moron!”
It would be helpful if these people, who really know him, would publicly speak out more frequently, and we voters should be influenced by them.
Sandy Thomas
State College
Competing Visions
I’ve voted in more presidential elections than I care to admit. Some of my preferred candidates won, some didn’t. But I never doubted that each candidate was qualified and had the best interests of our country at heart.
Until now.
The once proud Republican party is hell-bent on nominating someone who pledges vindictiveness against his enemies and, in the process, destroy our democratic traditions. And his track-record indicates that, with the acquiescence of boot-licking GOP leaders, he is capable of doing just that.
The election this fall is about more than the contest between two men. An independent Justice Department, a fair tax code that doesn’t give outlandish benefits to billionaires, honest elections, our full participation in the Western alliance to counter despot aggression, women’s rights, a system of education that is unapparelled in the world, the advances we’ve made in providing a social safety net for all of us, a livable climate for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and more will reallybe on the ballot.
Your ballot choice in November will be Biden or Trump. But this election is about competing visions of America’s future.
Trump is about amassing his personal power to achieve dominion over his critics while stomping on our democratic norms. Biden is about preserving and enhancing a fair democracy to serve all Americans.
The choice for America couldn’t be clearer.
Harvey Gilbert
State College
Trump’s Cognitive Problems
Although many voters are focused on Joe Biden’s abilities, it’s Donald Trump we should worry about. His speeches are increasingly marked by garbled language and slurred speech, mental confusion and blunders—not to mention all the lies.
Over the past few months, Trump:
• Mistook Argentina for a person, calling MAGA the “greatest movement…maybe in the history of any country, even Argentina. You know, Argentina, great guy. He’s a big Trump guy. I love him because he loves Trump.”
• Stated that immigrants crossing the U.S. Mexico border “don’t speak languages.”
• Claimed he’d stop banks from “debanking” Americans.
• Mixed up former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with his only rival in the Republican race at the time, former Governor Nikki Haley—and claimed that Haley was in charge of security on January 6 (neither Pelosi nor Haley was).
• Described his plan for America’s missile defense system: “Ding, ding, Ding, Ding, ding, ding, … Boom. OK Missile launch. Woosh. Boom.”
• Claimed Biden could “plunge the world into WWII,” which ended nearly 80 years ago.
• Confused former Florida Governor Jeb Bush with former President George Bush, and couldn’t articulate the latter’s military actions. “When I came here, everyone thought Bush was going to win … They thought Bush because Bush supposedly was a military person … he got us into the, uh, Middle East. How did that work out, right?”
Trump is a danger to our country. He has limited knowledge of the world and can’t articulate the little he does know.
Diane Ebken
Port Matilda
