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Vote YES to retain our justices

George Polycranos Port Matilda On Nov. 4, Pennsylvania voters will have the opportunity to vote YES to retain our outstanding Supreme Court Justices, our Superior Court Justice and our Commonwealth Justice. The Pennsylvania Bar Association has recommended that these justices, who have all served Pennsylvania admirably for the last decade and been widely credited for “restoring competence, honor and ethics to our courts,” be retained. So why on earth would anyone want to prevent the retention of judges with so much legal expertise, experience and integrity? Radical ...

Where are we heading?

Willow Eby-Fischer Northumberland In less than a week, we have seen a minister, hands raised in prayer and eyes closed, shot in the head with a pepper ball by an ICE agent firing from a rooftop. Another federal agent aimed his gun directly at a woman in Berwyn, Chicago, because she dared to record ICE. As a U.S. citizen, recording a federal agent while they are performing their duties in public is a constitutionally protected right. A Blackhawk helicopter landed on the roof of a Chicago apartment building, smashed open doors and used flash-bang grenades during a ...

Endangered Species: Public Media

GREG PETERSEN State College As if the elimination of federal funds for WPSU TV & FM weren’t enough, the entity that holds the broadcast license for those stations — the Penn State Board of Trustees — made a decision to shutter the stations completely. For accuracy’s sake, it was the Board’s Committee on Finance and Investment that unanimously scuttled a deal that would have kept the stations operating. That vote also prevented the entire board from considering the issue. To their credit, Penn State’s administration had worked diligently with sister station ...

Only a fool

Mark Givler Jersey Shore It has occurred to me that a few quotes I’ve come across over the years could well shed some light on the moment in which we now find ourselves. For starters here is what the great American novelist Norman Mailer had to say about democracy and fascism: “I really am a pessimist. I’ve always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It’s something essentially splendid because it’s not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to ...

Cruel and despicable

Maggie Waggoner Lewisburg In one of the most despicable and cruel acts yet carried out by the Trump Administration, ICE agents descended from blackhawk helicopters in Chicago to unleash terror on law-abiding American citizens. Innocent men, women, senior citizens and children were accosted in the middle of the night. Kicking in doors, yanking people, including children, from their beds and zip tying their hands behind their backs, taking them away from their families, holding them in the dark in vans for hours is not even remotely OK. What has happened to our country when we allow ...

Why all Pennsylvanians should support public transit in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia

Keith Karn Narberth I grew up on a dirt road, miles outside of Pittsburgh. As a kid, I roamed freely with my friends and our dogs on about 500 acres of forest and farmland. Despite this rural upbringing, I told people from outside our area that I was from Pittsburgh. Occasionally, as a teen I would get a ride to the nearest bus stop and catch the bus into Pittsburgh. When I went to Penn State, I discovered that students from east of State College adopted Philly as their city — or at least were Eagles and Phillies fans, and people west of State College said they were from “near ...