Letters to the editor: Build a new Williamsport Library
Response to Williamsport Library question: New space long overdue
To the editor:
This letter is in response to that of Vickie Layton published Feb. 26 decrying the moving of the Williamsport Library.
May I ask Ms. Layton how she would feel about keeping the old library if she were 85 and severely disabled, and someone who would be an avid local library user were she able to park safely close to it and walk safely across a busy road, and to then have to negotiate a handicapped entrance often still locked, into a library that lacks so much in materials? Yes, this can be fixed, but at what cost to our wonderful park?
More:Something old or something new? County officials review options for Williamsport library
Smithsburg Library is a perfect example of a library that has safe parking, is handicapped friendly, modern, with meeting rooms, easily accessed handicapped restrooms, and just superior to Williamsport in countless other ways. When I was still able, I traveled there to Writer’s Club meetings as well as to get my books, but now that 30-minute drive is too much for me to handle.
Williamsport needs a new library and has for years now to serve all the people who want to use it.
Barbara PengellyWilliamsport
Sharpsburg mayor calls out "elitists's" disdain for ordinary people
To the editor:
In elite circles, ordinary working people are looked down upon with disdain. I just read the letters to the editor by Mr. (Bruce) Larson and Mr. (Daniel) Moeller on Feb. 12.
Using ridicule, a potent weapon, Messrs. Larson and Moeller label ordinary people like me woefully ignorant crazies. Mr. Larson sarcastically suggests that anyone who had secondary English should recognize (columnist Pete Waters') use of a straw man ("Crime always creates chaos, and chaos always tears at the social fabric," Jan. 16.).
Perhaps Mr. Larson missed the session on metaphors. I would suggest that no prisons/no police were metaphors for no consequences for certain bad behaviors.
Many people are worried that a mob of rioters was allowed to take over six city blocks with no consequences in Seattle that lasted until two teenagers were shot and killed.
From USA TODAY:CHAZ, a 'no Cop Co-op': Here's what Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone looks like
We crazy people do not like what we just saw in Austin, Texas, where liberal policies led to "street racers” closing intersections, setting fires and injuring citizens because the city did not have the staff to respond.
Motors and mayhem: Underground car meetups surge in Austin amid pandemic
Despite the machinations of Mr. Larson and the elitist left to discredit anyone who disagrees with them, there is an organized well-funded effort to diminish policing and completely do away with incarceration. President Lincoln said, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher” (often misquoted).
The George Soros-funded effort to elect progressive district attorneys committed to ending incarceration may be just such an action. District attorneys are extremely powerful gatekeepers to the criminal justice system who decide whether or not to charge a person with a crime. Misguided billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg have additionally established and financed a large network of “bail funds” organizations that network to provide bail for those arrested during activities they endorse.
There are few people, including myself, who believe we do not need criminal justice reform, but as Thomas Payne said, “The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.” We should not let those super egos gaslight us into believing we are crazy because we are concerned over the current direction of the criminal justice system.
Russ WeaverSharpsburg
Proposed Maryland abortion bills do not protect women
To the editor:
Do we truly care about women?
Laws allowing an independent, financially secure woman to get an early abortion may seem OK to you. You may even believe that same woman has a right to end the life of her healthy full-term baby. Are you still OK when a woman is being trafficked and she is driven to the abortion clinic by her pimp? What about an unsure woman looking for information who is being pressured by a clinic (who has a financial interest in making an abortion “sale”)? Should girls under the age of consent brought in by her abuser be immediately given an abortion without notifying her parents or the authorities?
Nearly three in four women said they did not choose but felt pressured to have an abortion. If House Bill 705 or Senate Bill 798 becomes the law in Maryland, protections that can help women and girls in less-than-ideal or even criminal situations would become illegal. Measures such as waiting periods, requirements to give information about the possible physical and psychological effects of an abortion, and parental consent laws can help women make an informed decision and can help determine if a woman truly wants an abortion or if she is being coerced into the abortion or even the sex itself.
In Maryland, we already have the Maryland Freedom of Choice Act of 1991 that allows abortion up until birth for any reason. The law does not prohibit a woman from obtaining medical intervention in the case of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. Our law is so liberal that Maryland has become a place people come to just to get unregulated and even late term abortion. Do we need an additional amendment that will shut down discussion and limit protection for our vulnerable populations?
Jennifer CrispellCharles County, Md.Maryland Right to Life
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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Library, criticism of liberal 'elites' and abortion among letters
