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Letters to the editor

Good northern neighbor

Jim Newton Itasca Thank you, Canada. We’ve never met, but reliable sources highly recommend a trip north. You’re on my bucket list of places to visit. Thanks, too, for Gordon Lightfoot, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Neil Young, the Guess Who and many others. In America, we say “Good fences make good neighbors.” I’m not sure our two countries even have a fence. Truly good neighbors don’t need one. America, you may have heard, loves walls. We’re building one down south. It’ll go well with the symbolic barriers we’ve erected where unity once lived. An editorial ...

A letter to locally supported Operation Christmas Child

Hannah Murphy Boone, N.C. The overwhelming generosity of the people of Lock Haven​ helped provide joy to children in need through Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts this season. Across the U.S., the Samaritan’s Purse project collected 10.5 million shoebox gifts in 2024. Combined with those collected from partnering countries in 2024, the ministry is now sending over 11.9 million shoebox gifts to children worldwide. Shoebox packers brought joy and hope to children around the world through fun, full, personalized gifts. For many children, this is the first gift they have ...

Business owners beware

Adriana Pena State College As businesses try to navigate the economic environment in the next four years they should make a cold blooded assessment of what policies can impact them and what the effects can be. They all talk about taxes and regulations — because this is what they know the government is involved with, but there is a bigger concern: customers. What kills a business is the lack of customers. Anything else can be handled, but if people stop shopping you must switch careers. Usually a government cannot deliver customers to businesses. But it can cut off the ...

Judicial retention will be on the ballot

George Polycranos Port Matilda Roy Cohn, the mafia lawyer who nurtured Donald Trump’s contempt for the rule of law, once infamously stated, “Don’t tell me the law, tell me who the judge is.” This corrupt perspective served Trump well as he successfully kept himself out of jail by stacking the courts with unethical and partisan judges. On Nov. 4, Pennsylvania voters will have the opportunity to vote YES or NO on the retention of three Supreme Court justices, one Superior Court justice and one Commonwealth justice. These justices have served Pennsylvania admirably for the ...

Put Pennsylvania’s healthcare first: Reform the 340B program

Jennifer Riley Malvern, Pa. In healthcare, patients should always come first. For rural Pennsylvanians, this principle is not just a slogan—it’s a lifeline. Nearly one-third of the state’s population, approximately 3.4 million people, resides in rural areas where access to care presents significant challenges. Healthcare challenges for our rural population can be as simple as transportation. Rural residents often travel long distances to see doctors—up to 3.8 times further than urban residents. Access to healthcare is further hindered by a shortage of physicians. Rural ...

When the night is dark and full of terrors, who do you believe in?

Eric Dingler-Brown Jersey Shore “When the future is bleak and uncertain, what do you believe in to keep going?” That’s what the hospital’s missionary asked me when I was strapped to my hospital bed last year, when I was looking down the barrel of months and months of rehab to rebuild my broken legs. My answer is still the same. People. “Just look around you. From top to bottom, every person in this hospital is here because we, as a species, wanted to be able to take care of each other. And while these folks have other concerns and objectives too, the fact remains ...