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Safe summer gatherings for families

What a great day... Your first real family get together in over two years. It has been months, even years, since you had seen many family members. COVID really put a glitch in traditions, vacations and family celebrations. But now it seems infections are down and life is returning to normal. So, when you got together on that beautiful summer day, the possibility of contracting COVID didn’t seem to pose a threat. It was an outdoor event, but unlike a concert, you were not bunched shoulder-to-shoulder. There was a breeze to carry the virus far and away. Hand sanitizer ...

What the Democratic Party gets wrong about climate change

Dear Democrats: On the environment, you need to win over people like me. You’re concerned about climate change. It’s one of your defining issues. You think everyone should be equally alarmed. So, the best way to go about winning over your fellow self-governed citizens is to ... demonize them, enact policies that make their lives harder, and fail to make any visible sacrifices yourself? Seems legit. Yet, this has been the modus operandi under President Joe Biden, Gov. Tom Wolf, and many other Green New Dealers. It’s healing the Earth via tyranny, rather than democratic means. ...

Jewish perspectives on abortion diverse, often oversimplified

At only 2.5% of the American population, the Jewish view on abortion is probably irrelevant. The abortion debate in this country has been driven largely by the Evangelical Christian community. However, that does not stop people from misrepresenting the Jewish point of view. Only recently there was an interesting position put forward by a member of the Jewish faith that a fetus is nothing more than tissue in a woman’s body which can be disregarded at will. It is argued that there is no “right” to life until birth of a fully formed baby. Nothing could be further from the truth. ...

Police plan needs more public input

Residents of Old Lycoming Township, in the very near future — August or September — the township supervisors will have to make an extremely important decision about the existence of the Old Lycoming Township Police Department. Their decision will concern regionalizing Old Lycoming Township Police Department (OLTPD) with the Tiadaghton Valley Regional Police Department (TVRPD is Jersey Shore’s police force and Porter Township’s police force). Once the two departments regionalize OLTPD will no longer exist. This process has been going on over the past two years, with almost no ...

Reflecting on getting COVID-19 where I least expected it

After two years of dodging COVID, it finally got me where I least expected it: at an outdoor garden party on a sunny afternoon. A friend of mine hosted a small group in her backyard to say goodbye before moving away. We did all the usual things one does at a goodbye party: we chatted, snapped group photos, and ate snacks she had cleared out of her pantry. Just as my family and I were getting ready to leave, a final guest showed up whom I hadn’t seen in some time. I hugged her, excited to connect before we headed home. After five minutes of catching up, my family and I left the party ...

Drilling not the way to energy independence

In a recent editorial published on July 2 (“Until Other Solutions are Feasible -- Support Drilling”), the Sun-Gazette uses its platform to support Pennsylvania’s continued use of oil and gas, arguing that – in addition to providing jobs -- the ongoing exploitation of our fossil fuel resources is the only practical way to avoid energy dependence on other nations. The editorial states that domestic drilling “creates jobs that pay well enough to support families and to support communities.” Recent studies that measured prosperity in counties in the Appalachian region affected ...