Smucker Evasive On ‘Voters’ Choice’ Cause And Effect Costly Ambulance Trip All-Intrusive Technology Sick Of Seeing Dr. Oz Klondike Challenging…

Smucker Evasive On 'Voters' Choice' Cause And Effect Costly Ambulance Trip All-Intrusive Technology Sick Of Seeing Dr. Oz Klondike Challenging Overpriced Talent Teacher Longevity A Voice Of Reason

We are disappointed in our state senator, Lloyd Smucker.

Senate Bill 195, the Voters' Choice Act, introduced by Sen. Mike Folmer, is intended to give all political parties and independents equal access to the ballot as is required by the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Currently, anyone other than a Republican or Democrat must obtain as many as 33 times the number of nominating petition signatures to appear on a statewide ballot.

In a Sept. 26, 2013, editorial, the Intelligencer Journal urged passage of the bill, which has 11 Senate sponsors.

The Green, Libertarian and Constitution parties all support this legislation, which remains bottled up in the State Government Committee that Sen. Smucker chairs.

Various parties and constituents scheduled meetings with Sen. Smucker in February and March 2013. In both meetings, Sen. Smucker said he was unfamiliar with the bill, but would study it. There was no response to a follow-up letter a month later.

We scheduled a July meeting with Sen. Smucker and were told after we arrived that he was unable to attend. We spoke instead with his chief of staff, Matt Parido, who was nice, but of no substantive help.

We scheduled a meeting with Sen. Smucker in October. That meeting was canceled with one day's notice. We were told that the bill would not be considered in the current session and to check back in January.

We scheduled a meeting with Sen. Smucker for Jan. 9. Late afternoon of Jan. 8, we received an email from the senator's office saying he would not attend. They will not even reschedule the meeting.

A frustrating year has gone by and we still have not been able to discuss the VCA with our representative. What kind of representation is that?

Dana Edsall

Washington Boro

(Editors' note: Other signers included Daniel Gallagher, of Ephrata; Rosalyn Cole and Scott Cole, of Lancaster; and Troy Bowman of Manheim Township.)

Jeff Good's letter, Jan. 23, concerning legislative action requiring headlights on at all times on all vehicles sounds good, yet its enactment would be another step into citizen bondage - more laws, more restrictions, hence escalating government strangulation as the socialistic locomotive rolls on.

OK, lights on. Accidents continue. Now what? Try legislating the placement of waving flags on all vehicles. That'll stop it. Accidents continue, so what's next? I know, put beepers and alarms on everything that moves. Accidents resume.

My point is this: I'm on the road every day. I see the discourtesy, I witness the high speeds, the texting, the rudeness and the growing contempt of the law. Driver insanity will worsen until the character of America is brought under restraint. That will only be corralled when our nation returns Almighty God into this generation, into our public schools, government institutions and every area of our lives - public and private.

I'm sure Mr. Good's intentions are sincere, but like the general populace he addresses the effect and not the cause. America is coming apart at the seams, thus caving in to government asphyxiation and all-out control of its citizens.

Homer Snavely

Cleona (Lebanon County)

I found the letter in the Sunday News concerning a costly ambulance trip interesting, since we had a very similar experience with my mother.

She was living with my sister in the Green Tree area, east of Quarryville. My niece was visiting my mother, age 93, to fix her hair and give her a back rub. During the visit, my mother was having a hard time breathing, so my niece called for an ambulance.

Christiana Ambulance was sent to take mother to the hospital. We later got a bill for over $900, which blew my mind.

Then, to top it off, the insurance wouldn't cover the trip cost, saying it wasn't medically necessary. Mother was having a hard time getting her breath - what is not medical about that?

John Evans

Pequea Township

Today's youth travel on a far more complex path to adulthood than young people in the past. They are so immersed in a fantasy world of online gratification that, even when they are threatened, they often do not know how to verbally communicate their fears with their teachers or their parents on a face-to-face basis.

As a child, I attended an inner-city school that was not for the faint-hearted. Bullies in school were dealt with by the child on the receiving end of the bully's wrath. The confrontations usually ended with bruised egos and, on occasion, a cut lip. No psychological scars, no festering grudges and definitely no online character assassination. My generation dealt with problems in the present tense, no lingering drama or trauma.

To some people this scenario might be perceived as barbaric, but my youthful memories are not tarnished by the alarming number of teen suicides that are so prevalent in this Facebook generation.

The all-intrusive technology available to young people today enables haters to hide in the shadows of a blue screen and does more harm to vulnerable young people than a face-to-face confrontation did to my generation.

Parents and teachers in every community must engage in an open dialogue with today's youth in order to stress the importance of verbally expressing their hidden fears and anxieties. No young person should ever be intimidated in school or by hateful words and distorted images on a Facebook page.

Kathy Hondares

East Lampeter Township

I was disgusted when I saw Dr. Oz had replaced Dr. Komaroff. Dr. Oz is everywhere - on dozens of magazine covers, on TV and in books. I have read or heard over and over the article you put in today's paper. I am so tired of him.

Dr. Komaroff explained problems and recommended helpful suggestions but did not dictate. One could choose from the suggestions he made.

I cut out several of Dr. Komaroff's articles. I won't need to do that with Dr. Oz, because I have heard or read his material over and over.

Patricia Natale

Lititz

Praise to staff writer P.J. Reilly and photographer Randy Hess for braving the bitterly cold weather, Jan. 25, in order to publish the uplifting story about the Boy Scout Winter Klondike at J. Edward Mack Scout Reservation. It was gratifying to see tomorrow's leaders presented in such a positive light.

Thank you, too, to Tom Rudzinski, Tim Efinger and the other scout executives who made the event possible through their hard work.

As the parent of a scout who attended the Klondike, I can report that my son was challenged, had fun and learned many valuable skills, including how to prepare for and endure bitter weather conditions.

Finally, thank you to all troop leaders for the time and work you dedicate to scouting. You are the unsung heroes among us. You are teaching these young men to be responsible citizens through your active example of giving back to the community. They are tomorrow's leaders; leaders you can have pride in because you helped to develop those skills.

Louis Jackubowski

Manheim Township

OK, let me see if I understand this correctly. The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to pay a starting pitcher $30.7 million a year for the next seven years. To put this in perspective, the Atlanta Braves entire 12-man pitching staff will receive a combined salary in 2014 of $27 million.

Now don't get me wrong, this young man (Clayton Kershaw) is entitled to get every penny of salary he can, but the moronic decision of the Dodgers' brass needs to be addressed.

According to the MLB website, the average starting pitcher starts 32-35 games (rarely do they ever finish one) and they throw between 100 and 125 pitches before the manager yanks them "to save their arm."

Now, let's just assume that this $30 million man does start 35 games and throws 125 pitches in each start. At that rate, he is being paid $7,017 per pitch. Take it one step further, the U.S. Social Security website said that the average person earned $44,332 in 2012. This pitcher makes that much after seven pitches, of which they can all be foul balls. Oh, I'm sure there are some die-hard baseball fans who don't see anything wrong with this, but then, don't complain the next time you are at the ballpark and don't get mustard with your $6.50 hot dog or your $13 beer is warm.

Jim Albright

Lancaster

Bryan Sanguinito (Jan. 19Sunday News) states that the proposed educational reforms which would end the practice of making layoff decisions based on seniority are a bad idea, and yet he provides no evidence to support that assertion.

He complains that the personnel decisions would be made based on difficult-to-measure criteria, and suggests it is better that the decision be made based solely on longevity, without any attempt to assess the needs of the school or the quality of the faculty. That's better?

He touts the experience in Reading - where senior faculty were retained but newer faculty ("talented and inspiring" and "dedicated") were dismissed - as success?

We're apparently supposed to take comfort from the fact that there are evaluative instruments that allow only "good" teachers to attain seniority. How often are incompetent teachers - especially tenured ones - dismissed? If these good, evaluative instruments exist, shouldn't they, rather than longevity, be used to determine who is retained and who is laid off?

The current system is essentially a "pass/fail" system and, as long as a faculty member "passed" when their tenure decision was made, and as long as they don't engage in truly egregious behavior that would get them terminated, they will continue in service indefinitely.

The system draws no distinction between barely competent and the extraordinarily gifted. Instead, the only distinction is time in service.

As someone who works in higher education, I am aware of that fact that tenure and time in service are pretty much unrelated to performance in the classroom. Sometimes additional years of service improve a teacher's performance. In other cases, classroom performance and motivation degrade over time. Is a marginal teacher "better" simply because he or she has been marginal for a long time?

By making performance irrelevant to the staffing decision, tenure and seniority protect the less competent at the expense of the more competent.

The letter from Mr. Sanguinito did expose the mindset of many union boosters: It's all about the employees and their welfare. After all, that's why unions exist. Any benefits to the students or taxpayers are accidental.

Thomas Amlie

West Hempfield Township

I am sorry to see Carol Petersen's columns end.

While we may disagree on many issues, Petersen is a voice of reason and seeks to bring people together.

She also wrote the best argument for sensible gun legislation I have ever come across.

Best wishes to her.

Carol Shane

Manor Township