Letters: Where did we go wrong?; Stadium welcome center should honor Paterno

Where did we go wrong?

There are behavior guidelines in American classrooms and workplaces that outline acceptable behavior toward others. In a classroom, teachers do not allow bullying of another student. For instance: calling another student “stupid” or “fat,” or a negative statement about another student’s race, or how they dress, would be noted and addressed. A student that is stalking another student (digitally or in person), harassing, through words or touching inappropriately, would also be unacceptable. Lying would also elicit consequences. A history of these behaviors would initiate a behavior referral, a parent-school relationship, and possibly instigate behavior-support services for the student. As a collective of citizens/teachers, striving to have strong-supportive communities, we uphold the teaching of positive character traits and respect for others, within our national educational system.

Where did we go wrong? We now have approximately 47% of the voting population that supports a presidential candidate who exhibits all of the behavior characteristics that we would deem unacceptable, if they were happening in our classroom. As parents, we would demand that administrators make the school and classrooms a safe, non-threatening learning space by addressing this “child’s” behavior(s). When did character, morality, and kindness fall from the resume of qualities for a leader and presidential candidate? Where did we go wrong?

Renee Kredell, Bellefonte

Stadium welcome center should honor Paterno

I write this letter as a 50-plus year resident of Centre County, 30-year employee of Penn State, mother and grandmother of Penn State graduates and a concerned citizen.

A Centre Daily Times article on Sept. 11 stated that longtime Penn State Board of Trustees member and former chairman of the board Ira Lubert, alongside his wife Pam Estadt, donated $10 million, according to a release from the university. The remodeled entrance planned for Beaver Stadium will then be named the Lubert Family Welcome Center.

The Luberts are to be commended for this generous donation in spite of the fact that Mr. Lubert is also a primary investor in the campaign to bring a casino to Centre County which, in my opinion, will only bring problems to Penn State students and their families.

My opinion is the welcome center should be named the Joseph V. Paterno Welcome Center with the “missing” statue of Coach Paterno prominently featured. Who did more to put Penn State on the world map than Joe Paterno? Who did more to teach life values to his players? I recall being on a trip in Europe in 1998 (when it was still safe to be identified as an American) wearing a Penn State shirt and non-English speaking people coming up to me, pointing to the shirt and saying “Joe Paterno.”

I feel the board should show that Penn State values honor and devotion more than money.

Jo Anne Mengle, Pennsylvania Furnace

In a Trump second term

For anyone with remaining doubts, Trump and his legislative and judicial allies have produced a clear record demonstrating what we should expect if he returns to the presidency.

In a second Trump term, I believe:

We will be subject to the law but President Trump won’t.

Our society will become less civil as lies, bullying, and verbal attacks become normalized.

The government will insert itself into our doctors’ offices, our bedrooms, and even tell us who we are permitted to be.

Restrictions on the rights of gender, racial and religious minorities will increase.

Banning books and rewriting history will become woven into our educational systems.

Our children will continue to go to school fearful of being in the next mass shooting.

Women, including underage girls, will have to give birth to the babies of their rapist.

Any attempt to address environmental degradation and climate change will be torpedoed.

Undesired public protest will be confronted by the might of the U.S. military.

Restrictive voting law changes will permit Trump’s GOP to ultimately control who wins elections.

Oh ... and one more thing. One. Very. Important. Thing. Democracy will decline, both here in America and in democracies across the world as America ghosts them.

If this future looks alarming, whatever your political preference, we do have an alternative. We could vote to save our country by voting blue up and down the ticket this fall. If we don’t, and Trump and Republicans win, this could be the last time our vote will actually matter.

Ron Williams, Pennsylvania Furnace

No presidency for old men

Every time President Biden appears on TV and speaks for any length of time, I say my thanks to the gods that he’s been replaced on the ticket by a younger person. Clearly, he’s too old to serve in a full capacity for four more years.

Likewise, every time I see Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, speak I wonder what’s wrong with the Republican Party that it’s not offering a youthful candidate. Come on, Republicans, dump Trump and replace him with JD Vance.

We voters deserve younger choices.

R Thomas Berner, Benner Township