Look at all candidates
Letters to the Editor I would just like to remind everybody that if you don’t like the two major party candidates for U.S. Senate, Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey, there are other candidates on the ballot.
Sestak’s campaign must have been afraid of the unknown liberal Green Party candidate Mel Packer, because Packer withdrew after Sestak’s campaign challenged his ballot status, but there are other candidates. That kind of thing can be quite costly to a candidate without a lot of financial resources.
Libertarian candidate Douglas Jamison and Socialist Workers Party candidate Osborne Hart are both running write-in campaigns for the U.S. Senate seat.
In the race for governor, if you don’t like Democratic Party candidate Dan Onorato or Republican Party candidate Tom Corbett, three others are running write-in campaigns. They are Socialist Workers Party candidate Brian Nevins, Libertarian candidate Marakay Rogers, and citizens militia activist George Donald DeHaven.
The candidates nominated by the two major parties have received enough corporate backing to make successful runs for those nominations.
If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have had the finances to pay for all those television advertisements.
Do you think their loyalty is going to lie with the common people or with their corporate backers? The source of many of those donations can be reviewed on the opensecrets.org website.
If you vote for the lesser of two evils, the powers that be look at it as if you are happy with that candidate and candidate’s platform (or at least try to spin it that way).
If you stay home instead of voting, they look at it as if you’re too lazy to vote, or that you are satisfied with whoever gets into office.
If you show up at the polling station to vote for an alternative candidate, it’s making a statement to the establishment and to the public that you do care enough to vote, but that you reject the candidates those parties have chosen.
Stanley Hetz
Uniontown
Stop bullies
A number of years ago, I wrote a letter to the editor about bullying and how its effects can plague a person for life.
My resolve was that parents of these bullies need be more observant of their children and get professional help for them if their behaviors appear destructive.
Well, some recent news events have caused me to rethink my letter of years ago. The news report about the secret sex video linked to the New Jersey student’s suicide made me realize that adults are to blame for how children respond to the world around them. When babies are born they don’t know jealousy, hate or have a sense of personal power. The way we feel about ourselves and others is learned behavior. We learn the words we hear. We observe behaviors, and we imitate others to gain power and acceptance.
Unfortunately, some of us are so full of self-loathing and hate that we abuse our freedoms to destroy innocent people. What type of college student would invade a person’s privacy for sport.
When I read the article, I was forced to think about workers who are harassed unnecessarily and forced to leave jobs. Rumors and lies can ruin people professionally.
I think we all know someone who is a victim or who has victimized someone else in the workplace, school or home.
If we want to stop bullies, we need to check ourselves when we resort to lying, engage in gossip, play hurtful pranks, or tell our child “if he/she hits you, hit them back.”
Dr. Barbara Wright
Uniontown