Opinion

Accountability

Letters to the editor June 25, 2026

Sam Stea Williamsport For God’s sake! It wasn’t vandals that turned the Reflecting Pool slime green. It was your cronyism and misjudgment. It wasn’t the Iranians that killed 120 of their own schoolchildren. It was the Tomahawk Missile that you launched. Be a man, not a toddler. Accept responsibility, if not for yourself, then for the sake of The Nation. Leaving behind one single truth is a far better legacy than all the stone monuments to yourself that you can muster, the Nobel prize and your head on Mount Rushmore, all put together.

Response to LH meeting story

Letters to the editor June 25, 2026

James Sikorski, Jr. Wapwallopen The recent Lock Haven meeting story showed some inaccurate information at the meeting. In Pennsylvania, municipal police have many tools to enforce speed limits, so there is no need for radar. The council should be promoting 85th percentile speed limits, which are required. Proper speed limits equal maximum safety and compliance. Also, noise complaints have absolutely nothing to do with enforcing speed limits. A car or motorcycle can be sitting still, yet emit an incredible amount of noise.

“40 acres and a mule” — Black reparation

Letters to the editor June 25, 2026

Arthur Keller Beavertown Have you ever heard the story of the phrase “40 acres and a mule?” Although I enjoy history, I couldn’t recall this story. This was the first attempt to provide a form of reparations to newly freed slaves after the Civil War. Astonishingly radical, it called for the federal government to confiscate 400,000 acres of private property from Confederate landowners and methodically redistribute it to former black slaves. How did this all come about? General William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 leaders of the black community, ...

And now a word from the other side

Columns June 25, 2026

President Trump and Vice President Vance spent most of last week trying to convince Americans the “Memo of Understanding” (MOU) with Iran is a good deal for the United States and world peace. That’s not what Iran believes. Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has hailed the MOU as a major “victory” for Tehran. The “greater jihad” would now begin, he promised, according to a speech aired by Iranian state media last week. You read that correctly. The greater Jihad. To some this might sound like the same ...

Woman’s dementia worsens after a bad case of delirium

Columns June 25, 2026

DEAR DR. ROACH: My 83-year-old sister underwent the simple procedure of replacing her pacemaker battery. She’s also been diagnosed with early signs of dementia. They gave her propofol, and when she woke up, she had extreme vertigo. Since it was an outpatient facility, they dumped her in the emergency room. She spent four days in the ER because there weren’t any beds in the hospital. On the second day, she developed a bad case of delirium. After four days, she had to be transferred to a nursing home, where she spent 17 days trying to recover. She still isn’t 100% as this delirium ...

The clock keeps ticking

Letters to the editor June 25, 2026

Carl Evensen Port Matilda In Manhattan, on a wall not far from Times Square, the debt clock ticks higher and higher. After climbing for so many years with no obvious economic fallout, it’s easy to ignore. Indeed, the clock was moved from its location on a busy street corner to a quiet passageway. The reality is that we really don’t have a “debt ceiling.” It’s a political creation with no fundamental economic meaning. No other country has one. But we do need a political solution, and many politicians have been concerned about our growing debt for a long time. They thought ...