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Letters to the editor

Misusing the pardons process

Kimball Shinkoskey Woods Cross President Trump is normalizing public corruption by pardoning convicted felons before they start to serve their sentences and indicted fugitives even before they go to trial. The intent of the Constitution’s presidential pardon provision is not to use the pardon process to perpetrate injustice. It is to correct injustice whenever it appears Lady Justice was not blind enough (fair enough) when delivering justice. Speaking of pardons, encouraging/mandating ICE agents to wear masks so they can’t be identified is essentially giving them pardons in ...

Stand up for your community

Mary Bruce Serene State College Residents of Central and Northern Pennsylvania are at risk of losing access to the first-class news and entertainment WPSU has provided them for more than 70 years. WPSU now faces a turning point. With Penn State withdrawing funding for the station, alternative sources of funding are necessary to keep this essential public service alive. Fortunately, a solution is available. WHYY has offered a bold and compassionate plan to acquire WPSU—and, crucially, to maintain it as the independent, community-driven public media service that our region ...

Draft dodger doesn’t want integrity!

Jim Hironimus White Hall Donald Trump dodged the draft during the Vietnam war — now he is Commander-in-Chief of the very military he was too cowardly to enter in a time of war. He wants to try and make the American Public think that six former decorated military members who also are — or were — in Congress that they did something illegal for posting a info-type post to inform military members that they should not follow illegal orders! This is written under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is a law for military members — and is the very code that the ...

Trump’s first year

Dennis Keller Altoona President Donald Trump is neither a “king,” a “dictator,” nor is he a threat to democracy. His actions show the opposite. He is a bold leader who is not afraid to challenge the status quo. He is doing what voters elected him to do, focusing on issues that matter most to everyday Americans. He has built American strength through deregulation, energy independence and supporting U.S. manufacturing. Over $10 trillion in new investments have been promised by domestic and foreign companies. President Trump tariffs brought in $350 billion in revenue in fiscal ...

Reagan 1989

Jim Newton Itasca In his last speech before leaving the presidency in 1989, Ronald Reagan observed, “… we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important — why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant…If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let’s start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.” This, ...

Common sense

Tim Cowan Julian Thomas Paine served the Revolutionary Founders and Colonial Citizens well as they went about throwing off an autocrat. Citizens should read Common Sense and the Crisis Papers to remind themselves what Colonists had in mind as they put their lives and fortunes on the line for Liberty. Ultimately, free speech, free press, the right to assemble, due process under law and checks and balances in government were the fundamentals in their view of the future for All People. Also, among those expectations, the right to pursue happiness, unfettered by systemic ...