Opinions and Backcover - Voices of Central Pennsylvania

27
March 2012
Letters
Please send letters to
oped@voicesweb.org
Dear Voices,
I must say I find offense in the article
by Toby Carlson, February 2012, “The
Frightening Trend of Racial Code
Words”.
I am Tea Party. I am highly educated,
Catholic, and a historian. Mr. Carlson's
assumptions are absolutely incorrect. He
points to urban vs. rural, old vs. new, and
takes class or station in life as his premise.
It is obvious that he has not studied history or been paying attention to current
events.
As a Tea Party member, I and others
only want the country to be what is
founded on: personal responsibilty with
limited government.
Our Constitution is the greastest document in the world, and our founders'
vision was not just for their time, but for
all time. This administration has shredded
that document beyond belief (i.e.
Obamacare, school lunch policy, spending without consent, class warfare, higher
taxes, avoiding the checks and balances
of the system.)
It is time to put the country back on
track by ending extended entitlements
and putting people back to work, by
securing our border, by allowing only
legal immigration, and by letting the individual decide what is right for them.
Socialism doesn't work. History has
proven that over and over again. Let our
Contitutional Republic be as intended,
and America will be the shining star as it
should be to the rest of the world.
John L. Flickinger
State College
[Ed. Because we love a good debate
between friends, we extended an invitation to Mr. Carlson to reply to Mr.
Flickinger. The response is found below.]
Dear Voices,
Voting habits of urban-liberal versus
rural-conservative are well documented.
Take Pennsylvania, for example: 16 of
the most populous counties, plus cosmopolitan Centre County, voted for Obama
in 2008. The remaining 50 or so counties,
predominantly rural, voted for Mc Cain.
This pattern was evident to me locally
during 2008 when I counted the number
of Obama versus McCain signs on people’s lawns while driving from State
College to rural Millheim.
Mr. Flickinger, like the Tea Party folks,
expresses nostalgia for a lost America,
the once and future “city on the hill.” But
when was this golden age?
Before the Civil War, when slavery
existed?
Before the 1920s, when women could
not vote?
Before Social Security was created in
the 1930s?
Before the Civil Rights bills were
passed in the 1950s?
Before Medicare was instituted in the
1960s? Before the clean water and clean air
acts were passed by President Nixon in
the 1970s?
Are we to now assume that because
President Obama wanted 40 million more
Americans to have better health care that
this country has slipped into decline?
What kind of morality is this?
The Tea Party may sense a decline in
this country but I feel that the United
States is a better country now than it was
a century or even a generation ago.
I think, moreover, that the Tea Party
people tend to use the word “socialism”
to refer to things they do not like or
approve of.
The Oxford dictionary definition hardly applies to contemporary America, let
alone Europe.
Toby Carlson
State College
ASK
Cosmo
Dear Cosmo,
Have you noticed the increase of ads
for internet dating services?
They’ve got them for regular people,
and senior citizens, and now there are
ones especially for religious people.
There’s
Christianmingle.com
for
Christians and J-Date for Jews. I don’t
know about Muslims.
Are people more lonely today, or is this
just another hi-tech industry hunting for
people with computers? Do these things
actually even work?
Signed, Possible Player
Dear Playing With Matches,
First off, religious people qualify as
regular people, don’t they?
So do Muslims (on both counts). And
by the way, there are plenty of Muslim
dating sites.
In addition to the subsets in the major
franchises
like
E-harmony.com,
Zoosk.com, and Match.com, there are
individual sites such as SingleMuslim.com
or ArabLounge.com. Wouldn’t it be awesome if their site music was “Girl from
Ipanima” played on an Oud?
Interestingly enough, ChristianMingle
and J-Date are both operated by
Spark.com, who proudly proclaims,
“Combining the power of technology
with our deep commitment to your happiness, our specialized Web sites aim to
Campus and
Culture
from the Canine
Perspective
provide a fun and convenient meeting
point for millions of singles each year.”
So no, they’re not merely hunting for
people with computers. They’re looking
for specific people with specific demographics who want to hook up with folks
of the same demographics.
Apparently, the lonely devout are not
meeting one another at church, temple or
mosque, so why not—in the name of their
happiness—sell them the ability to peek
under the wimple, veil or burka on the
intra-faith internet.
A small sample of Spark.com’s lofty
cruising zones includes the following dotcoms: AdventistSingles, AsianSingles,
BlackSingles and BlackChristianSingles,
CanadianPersonals,
CatholicMingle,
DeafSingles, GreekSingles, LatinSingles,
MilitarySingles,
InterracialSingles,
LDSSingles (for the Mormons) and even
the IndianMatrimonynetwork (perhaps to
arrange a marriage the modern way).
Unlike their many heathen counterparts,
Spark sites like Christianmingle.com do
not offer drop-down menus for men seeking men, or women seeking women.
These folks have to drop down to the a la
carte sites, of which there is no shortage.
However, persons on such sites may
not be what they appear to be.
“HotTeen16” might be a 45 year-old
man, “Little Lovely” might be a female
Sumo, and “Ready4U” might be an
NBC Dateline reporter casting an
episode of “To Catch a Predator.” And
“Sad Bachelor” might be some married
dude sniffing around the fencerows to
do a little extracurricular hoodwinking.
see
Cosmo, pg. 31
28
March 2012
Candidate calls for reform in Harrisburg
by Christopher Lee
I am running for the State House of
Representatives to restore to Harrisburg
the local values of our residents
–Democrats, Republicans and independents alike.
If you’ve ever visited the Boal
Mansion Museum in Boalsburg, you
know that I have glorious ancestors, but
the glory is theirs. These ancestors
founded Boalsburg, Penn State, the
Republican Party and America. They
established principles that today we call
American values.
In Harrisburg last year the legislature
voted twice to rig elections and more
recently to rig our laws to favor gas companies over the land-use regulation of our
local municipalities.
Like my ancestor Richard Henry Lee
who signed the Declaration of
Independence in 1776, I find it is time to
stand up for our American values that
have been abandoned in Harrisburg.
The incumbent in the 171st district
voted for the Congressional gerrymandering—or what we now call “Kerrymandering” and what political analyst
Terry Madonna called “the worst gerrymander in modern Pennsylvania history.”
Gerrymandering redraws legislative
district boundaries to create one-party
“safe districts” in which the incumbent of
the dominant party can take his voters for
granted, ignoring them and their values
to pay attention instead to what the lobbyists want from him. That’s why lobbyists like the out-of-state American
Legislative Exchange Council write our
laws such as the voter suppression bill
that the incumbent in the 171st District
voted for last year which bars from voting the elderly, the poor and students who
don’t have photo identification.
I know I am running in the minority
party in a one-party gerrymandered district, but my ancestor Frank Blair founded the Republican Party in Pittsburgh in
1856 so I know that Republicans in the
171st District from Boalsburg to
Gerrymandering redraws legislative district
boundaries to create one-party “safe districts”
in which the incumbent of the dominant party
can take his voters for granted, ignoring them
and their values to pay attention instead to
what the lobbyists want from him.
Bellefonte and from Centre Hall to
Millheim come from a long, honorable
tradition that includes Abraham Lincoln
who invested in transportation infrastructure, Teddy Roosevelt who protected natural areas and was a trust-buster and
Dwight Eisenhower who warned us of
the military-industrial complex.
If Republican voters in the 171st
District become aware that their incumbent no longer represents their values of
conservation, fair elections and responsive government that invests in the future
but instead has voted against all of these
in the last year, they can justifiably vote
for a moderate Democrat who shares
their values and will represent their values more truly in Harrisburg.
The incumbent also voted for House
Bill 1950 about Marcellus shale gas
wells which strips from our local municipalities the right to regulate gas wells
which by this new law can be placed in
residential zones without local regulation.
The 171st current representative in
Harrisburg didn’t just vote for HB 1950,
he led the fight to pass it as chair of the
House Finance Committee.
While I am certainly in favor of
American energy and cheap energy, I
would not sacrifice our local quality of
life to get it. However, gas and oil and
energy companies from Texas and
Oklahoma have donated thousands of
dollars to the incumbent in the 171st
District who has been described by
Democracy Rising Executive Director
Tim Potts as “pro-choice on corruption”
for his “let it be” approach to reforming
political corruption in the legislature.
My experience in local government
includes serving as Chairman of the
Centre Region Council of Governments,
Metropolitan Planning organization and
Regional Planning Commission as well
as chair of the Harris Township Board of
Supervisors. I also serve on the Chamber
of Business and Industry’s Government
Affairs committee and Infrastructure
Committee here in Centre County. I am a
practical moderate who will look to govern from the middle, not from the ideological extremes.
I run a small historic heritage site
which helped me learn decades ago what
see
Candidate, pg. 29
Teamsters Local 8
Proudly Supports
Local Youth Activities
The Men and Women of
Teamsters Local 8 Encourage
Supporting Local Youth Activities
29
March 2012
from
Candidate, pg. 28
they still haven’t learned today in
Harrisburg—how to accomplish your
mission while balancing expenditures
and revenues.
How things happen in Harrisburg
determines what things happen.
I will be a strong and tireless advocate,
not a lip-service advocate, of real reform,
including ending the gerrymandering
that leaves the voters out in the cold and
lets in lobbyists to get quick action on
their agendas such as gambling and gas
wells.
Friends have warned me that by standing up I risk being put down with personal attacks, but these times call for someone to stand up for our shared American
values, just as my ancestors did when
their times called for it.
If the media and the voters of the 171st
can focus their attention on what government actions they want their representative to take for them—and not personalities or personal favors done—then they
will recognize the radical positions taken
by the incumbent who has voted to rig
elections and to tilt the rules to favor producers over consumers—positions that
do not respect the values of voters of any
party in the American tradition.
If the media and the voters of the 171st
can focus their attention on what government actions they want their representative to take for them, then they will see
the value in the vision for our government offered them by my candidacy for
State House of Representatives from the
171st District.
Whitey Blue on the Tea Party
by David M. Silverman
I was talking the other day to Whitey
Blue, longtime Centre Area resident and
hard-nose.
Whitey, any thoughts about the
Republican group that named themselves “The Tea Party”?
“You bet! They finally have adopted a
true American stance and name.”
The original Tea Party was the group
that favored throwing British trading
ships’ cargo into the sea rather than pay
taxes on it. Where’s the similarity?
“The modern Tea Party wants to stop
throwing our tax money into the pockets
of the under-achieving masses.”
Sudoku
[Editor’s note: VOICES does not
endorse political candidates, but we may
run opinion pieces by those running for
office.]
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Instructions:
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three-by-three box contains the digits 1 through 9. There
is no math involved. You solve the puzzle with reason
and logic.
The solution to this month’s puzzle can be found on page
35 of this issue.
By Peter Morris
30
March 2012
Continuing the fight for equal rights
by Michele Hamilton
“The world we want is the world we
need.”
Those were the words of Angela Davis,
a feminist and civil rights leader, and they
are particularly powerful now. I reflect
on her words regularly for inspiration, as
affirmation, and as the fuel to counsel and
advocate—especially as I write this article.
February was Black History Month.
March is Women’s History Month. Both
are times to reflect on the past and plan
for the future. They are two months for
reflecting on the lives of Dorothy
Heights, Patricia Stephens, June Jordan,
Audre Lorde and Loretta Ross. Each of
these leaders fought for equality, both as
women and as people of color.
These are also months of frustration.
Recently, I was at a local National
Organization for Women (NOW) chapter
meeting, and discussion lingered over
cuts to Planned Parenthood, potential PA
voter-ID requirements, attempts to shame
people who receive public benefits (especially African-Americans) and the fact
that homicide is still the number one
killer of women in the United States. The
frustration was palpable.
Didn’t we “solve” these issues 20 years
ago?
In many ways it can feel like we are
Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the
mountain, only to watch it roll down, over
and over again.
This is when the words of Ms. Davis
are most helpful.
As an activist, I work to create, in my
little part of the world, increased opportunity, which requires safety and equality.
Every person engaged in progressive
work—and it is work—whether paid or
Lend us your voices
by William Saas
At a recent meeting, the VOICES editorial staff huddled around the following
question: What, exactly, is VOICES?
The result was two-hours-plus of
enthusiastic give-and-take. There was talk
of demographics (who reads us?), distribution (where can people find us?) and the
future (where are we going?). Each question begat productive tangents, each tangent begat deeper questions. To stay sharp,
we drank lots of coffee.
I come to State College via Las Vegas,
and, as I shared with the editorial staff, I
had no idea what VOICES was when I
first picked it up in Fall 2010. It certainly
wasn’t the kind of weekly I’d grown used
to back home (as another editor duly
pointed out, we don’t advertise “escorts”
in our backpages). Not that that’s a bad
thing.
Point is, my concept of what VOICES
is and can be is not fixed yet. I’m still in
the flirty getting-to-know-you phase.
Still, as I sit writing this late Thursday
evening in the VOICES office, deep in
the bowels of the soon-to-reopen
Webster’s cafe, I wonder if the editors’
discussion was not a bit misguided (if
also with its heart squarely in the right
place).
Perhaps a better approach would be to
ask, here and now: What is VOICES to you, the reader?
Of course, you know that we are a nonprofit monthly news and culture magazine.
You know that we are mostly volunteerrun (and that you can attend our weekly
open writer meetings). And you know, we
hope, that we offer a unique and distinctive
voice in the midst of a largely one-sided
media scene.
These are all, in a sense, the givens. So
what else is there? You tell us.
In coming months we’d like to field and
publish your thoughts on VOICES in the
opinion section. What is VOICES to you?
What would you like to see in the future?
Lend us your voices! E-mail
oped@voicesweb.org with your thoughts.
unpaid, ponders the different avenues that
can be used to build a stronger, more
affirming and equal society.
I do this through my own work, within
my faith community and through my volunteer opportunities. But what matters
most is observing and listening to what is
needed in our community.
Who’s voices are not being heard in
discourses on the direction of our county,
state and nation?
What innovative ways can we reach,
inform, and motivate greater participation
in politics—especially among women
and people of color?
How can people working on becoming
anti-racist and anti-sexist engage a wider
audience and show how these two issues
intersect with disability rights, LGBTQ
equality, economic and environmental
justice and healthcare?
As a woman of color, I stand in solidar-
ity with others who want to bring about
social justice.
I do not have to provide all the answers.
That’s not my role. I am part of a long line
of freedom fighters (organized and not,
paid or volunteer) from Sojourner Truth
to Andrea Smith, Elaine Brown and the
many unnamed and unknown women. I
am also part of a current group of innovators including Vinika Porwal, Jasmin
Rakestraw and Shani Robin.
As a feminist, my role through the local
NOW chapter, Ni-at-nee NOW, is the creation of a safer space for residents of
Central Pennsylvania to engage in social
and political issues on a local, state and
national level.
I invite you to join me in this process.
Ni-at-nee NOW
meets the first
Thursday of every month.
To contact Michele, e-mail:
Hamilton.michele@yahoo.com.
31
March 2012
from
Cosmo, pg. 27
Certainly these sites with overtly high
moral profiles are completely free of
fetishists, married people, adulterers,
thieves, tax cheats, blasphemers,
Democrats or similar sinners. I’m surprised, though, that their customer base
appears to have given up on prayer, and
has resorted to more worldly technology
to mine for soulmates.
I do enjoy the TV ads for
ChristianMingle.com, where they say
“Some people say they’ll wait for God
to find them their match, when God is
telling you to act now,” displayed with
their trademarked tagline, “Find God’s
match for you.TM”
Nice pitch, and you can barely smell
the brimstone from that mortal whopper
they just told.
It’s one thing to allege that whomever
It’s one thing to allege that whomever their
server serves up is God’s match for you, unless
GOD is the acronym for their compatibility algorithm. But it’s quite another to claim definitively
that God is telling you to act now.
their server serves up is God’s match for
you, unless GOD is the acronym for their
compatibility algorithm. But it’s quite
another to claim definitively that God is
telling you to act now. Supposedly, that’s
what Son of Sam’s dog was telling him,
too. Bad dog! God dab! Is that a palindrome, or do I just got a code id by doze.
Maybe it’s both—backwards AND
tasteless.
The Old Testament is full of stories
about the Almighty speaking specifically to His chosen people, and telling
them what to do. So that must mean that
today’s chosen tribe includes every
viewer within earshot during the timeslots these spots air throughout the day,
throughout the land.
I can only assume that the folks running these websites hold God in high
regard, since they’ve enlisted Him as
their Spokesdeity.
They wouldn’t
dream of claiming in front of the FCC
and everyone that “God is telling you to
act now,” if it weren’t the gospel truth.
After all, it says right on our currency,
“In God We Trust.” Now that’s totally
an endorsement the Spark.com folks can
get behind.
As their website boasts, “On
Valentine’s Day 2006, Spark Networks
shares began trading on the American
Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol
‘LOV.’” Lemmings Offer Volume? That
much LOV does the ticker good, doesn’t
it?
I don’t know whether these dating
sites actually work or not. They are,
after all, being propagated on a medium
that also supplies pop-ups with photos
of “local hotties looking for sex in your
area,” showing someone with a name
like “Krystal” who is located in a nearby place like “Altoona.” Although you
might want to keep “Krystal” away from
your “area” unless you’re completely
cootie-proofed.
Believe it or not, there are actually
sites specializing in bestiality dating –
not that I checked, but I checked. I
wouldn’t tell you something if it weren’t
true.
And I definitely wouldn’t tell you to
act now. That’s simply not my place.
But I do wonder what the drop-down
menus are like on those sites: “man
seeking animals” and “animal seeking
perverts?”
I do know that the point of all this
sanctimonious cyber foreplay on the
righteous sites is to eventually get “up
close and personal,” and that’s when
people get to find out whether these
sites work or not.
Someone may talk a good game
online, but they still have to pass the
sniff test in person. And to do that,
they’re right back where we dogs start
off in the first place—using our noses to
obtain a second form of ID.
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State College, Pa 16805
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