Letters: Living with sinkholes; Celebrate the freedom to learn

Living with sinkholes

As a branch of Clearwater Conservancy a good number of years ago there was a group of us, in helping with the road and stream cleanups, who dedicated our time to do the same for sinkholes of the Centre Region.

Well-known hydrologist Gert Aron of Boalsburg was our leader and had us wearing a T-shirt with the letters SOS on it. That stood for “Save Our Sinkholes” We’d drag out of known depressions, large or small, any plastic, rubber or metal materials that knowingly would pollute the aquifer below the ground. In a very large sinkhole we found the remains of a 1947 Pontiac Station Wagon!

The recent action of the hidden sinkholes rearing their ugly head makes us very aware that they are a part of life here in the State College area. Building over or even filling and capping them could end up in an unfortunate incident down the road. Keeping them alive and clean is most important for making sure there is enough water for our growing population. Misuse of our sinkholes certainly could lead to State College having another tourist attraction ... The Leaning Towers of “Pizzas” with the number of high-rise buildings downtown.

Stan Smith, Oak Hall

Celebrate the freedom to learn

The noble tradition of public education is being challenged, paradoxically, in the name of “liberty.” The banning of books is driven by masked racism and the persecution of difference. We are better than that.

Our public education teaches what it is to be American. Students learn both about the Constitutional rights of all Americans and the Constitutional obligations of each American to every other American, about equality, freedom, and democratic social interactions. The banning of books directly and aggressively opposes this broad understanding of what it is to be American.

Shall our students be constrained from learning freely and fully about our world, about people other than themselves? How can they learn what our Civil War was about or celebrate the flowering of “a new birth of freedom” for all that arose from its bitter ashes, without full and free openness to historical accounts? How can one form fair informed judgments about, say, abortion access and women’s rights without full and free access to the lived accounts of women who were deprived of proper care by, frankly, men? Otherwise, we leave our valued students without knowledge of what they do not know.

We should be mindful of the foundational principles of our state and nation: equality and fairness in the pursuit of happiness for each and every one of us. It takes courage to be kind, generous and fair in the face of hatefulness and hostility. Let’s celebrate the freedom to learn.

Paul Dombrowski, Bellefonte. The author is a candidate for Bellefonte Area School District school director.

Beware the Scalia syndrome

So much of the news cycle has been taken up by the 2024 presidential election that Pennsylvanians may be missing an equally important election this November. We will be voting on candidates to fill seats on the state courts.

When you do your research, pay special attention to the candidates’ judicial philosophy. Four of the candidates have expressed fealty to the late Justice Scalia’s philosophy of originalism, which anchors legal interpretations to original intent and allows no room for an evolving society. It’s like we’re all living around 1776.

The adherents of the Scalia Syndrome are Carolyn Carluccio for the state Supreme Court, Megan Martin for Commonwealth Court, and Maria Battista and Harry Smail for Superior Court. Because they think like Scalia, we don’t want them on our courts. We need modern judges, not medieval ones.

And my thanks to Spotlight PA for supplying background information on all of the candidates and the Centre Daily Times for publishing it earlier this month.

R Thomas Berner, Benner Township