Letters: Campaign finance reports concerning; AAUW State College grateful for book sale support

CDT readers
·4 min read

Campaign finance reports concerning

Thank you for providing the details about financial donors to candidates for the State College school board race. The information was revealing and quite upsetting. Four of our wealthiest neighbors, Bob Poole of S&A Homes, Daniel Hawbaker, of Hawbaker construction, Michael Houseknecht of Best Line Equipment and developer Galen Dreibelbis each donated the limit of $2,000 to “United for SCASD” PAC.

What were they thinking? Are they thinking? Do any of them have children, or even grandchildren, enrolled in our wonderful State College schools? Why were they actively trying to impose a group of school board candidates on our community? Will banning books be far behind if the SCASD candidates prevail in the general election? Fortunately, the five “Slate for State” candidates each received more total votes than any of the four United 4 SCASD candidates, all of whom had cross-filed in the primary.

Thank you, State College voters! We can be proud of our voting neighbors, but I, for one, am ashamed of our wealthy neighbors attempting to impose their radical views on our amazing schools and community! What are they thinking?

John McCarthy, Patton Township

AAUW State College grateful for book sale support

Wow ... just wow ... AAUW State College cannot thank the community enough for the huge turnout we had for our 61st Used Book Sale. The number of people who came out to support us and buy our books was incredible. With a much higher volume of books than usual, we grossed over $187,000 and after expenses (costs to rent our book workshop year-round are significant) we will use those monies to help support our mission here in Centre County to empower women and girls through scholarships and community grants. Not only do we have book donors and our patrons to thank but we also have hundreds of volunteers to thank. People who worked multiple days and many long hours.

We had several groups doing service projects, including a few scout troops, Altrusa International, Mu Eta and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., SCASD Delta Program, SCASD National Honor Society and State College Downtown Rotary.

We also thank companies for their generous donations: Home Depot; Kish Bank; Lamar Outdoor Advertising; Original Waffle Shop (North and West); Ten Thousand Villages, and Weis Market (North).

Interfaith Human Services kindly lent us their truck. Trish Shaw from the Penn State Snider Ag Arena staff is always incredible.

We look forward to collecting books starting on June 13 so we can get ready for our next sale and we hope to see you at our May 2024 sale. Happy Summer!

Donna Trapp, State College. The author is the AAUW State College Book Sale co-chair.

Unfair to assign guilt

Monday mornings the CDT editorial page features the musings of retired PSU theater professor Charles Dumas. In the May 8 edition Charles recounted his experience riding in a Toronto taxi and how he had a wonderful conversation with the “white” driver who was about to retire to his chicken farm outside the city. Then inexplicably, Charles proceeded to throw retirement age “Centre County family farmers” under the bus. Charles can’t imagine a similar experience happening to him here in Centre County due to the fact that unlike Canada, Centre County farmers were born a country that at one time enslaved Black people and after ending slavery, practiced institutionalized and codified racism and segregation.

That sins were committed centuries and decades in the past isn’t reason to presume guilt of those living today. I’m unaware of any Centre County family farmer having ancestors who owned slaves, but even if they had it seems a little unfair to assign guilt for what a relative may have done a century and a half ago. It is unfortunate that Charles sees America and Americans as racist and cites history as evidence. The counter to that narrative is yes, we do have a history of slavery, discrimination, segregation and racism, but we also have a history of striving to overcome those sins. Blood was shed by over a half million Americans to end slavery, laws and amendments were passed to fight discrimination and segregation, and more blood was shed as has been reported by Charles himself, and today in America a Black person can be President, Senator, Supreme Court Justice, football coach, even a college theater professor. But what is more remarkable, if a Black family moves to your street it doesn’t raise an eyebrow, or if your son or daughter brings home a date of a different race, for the vast majority, not an issue.

I would like to invite Charles next time he needs a ride from the airport, call me, I am sure we will have a good conversation. The editor has my number.

Ron Reese, Port Matilda