1 day Ago
Eliminating the penny will bring problemsLet’s look at the issues surrounding the proposal to eliminate the penny. The current value of a 2025 proof penny is hovering between $40 and $60. An uncirculated penny would most likely be quite cheaper if the coin were eliminated.
If the penny is eliminated, new rules would determine whether people selling items would be forced to either lower prices or increase them to the nearest nickel. This could affect all businesses that process cash by lowering their profit.All that software that operates on computers that perform these functions would have to be rewritten to accommodate the fact that the amount of pennies in circulation would diminish over time.
The cost of these changes and testing them would more than likely cost more than the savings of not minting pennies any more.This would most likely have a greater impact on those who only use cash as opposed to all those who have gone to a digital world. The shortsighted Trump administration continues to not understand the full impact of its actions.
Paul ZalewskiBethlehem TownshipSen. McCormick is working for the people of PennsylvaniaI have seen complaints that Sen. Dave McCormick is absent and not meeting with his constituents — that could not be further from the truth.
Within 10 days of being sworn in, he opened seven offices across the state, and we have hired a full staff that is working every day to serve Pennsylvanians.He has been in Pennsylvania nearly every weekend, meeting with constituents and doing the work that Pennsylvanians elected him to do. He hosts a weekly constituent coffee in Washington where hundreds of constituents engage with him.
He hosts regular telephone town halls, where he can speak with thousands of constituents at once, taking hard questions from people across the state and explaining the work he is doing on their behalf. And he has sent more than 160,000 letters to constituents in response to their calls and emails.He is delivering on the promises he made during his campaign.
From securing the border to stopping the scourge of fentanyl to unleashing Pennsylvania’s energy potential, Sen. McCormick is pushing policies that benefit every Pennsylvanian.Sen.
McCormick is everywhere serving the people of Pennsylvania.Ryan AumentThe writer is Sen. Dave McCormick’s state director.
Be wary of politicians who claim to speak for the nation“Be afraid, be very afraid” is a phrase from the movie “The Fly,” where an eccentric scientist tinkers with the natural order to satisfy his own ego.Nowadays, chills should shiver down our spines whenever we hear a politician utter the words “for the American people.” It’s a rhetorical ruse to justify actions that benefit the politician, their ego and their donor base, seeking power and masking unpopular approaches through a synthetic mirage of a shared mindset.
For there is no singular collective “American people.” There are hundreds of millions of citizens and residents of all ages, ethnicity, sexes, genders, orientations, affiliations and beliefs, all seeking their rightful, shared place across this burgeoning landscape of ideals.Look around at all the red, white and blue being waved.
Note the absence of common decency, integrity, respect and tolerance under those star-spangled banners being hugged gratuitously. Note the lack of any semblance of incorporating different shades and colors into a richer palette, there is only a pursuit of the monochrome, the exclusion of such brilliant hues. This malevolent yarn being spun is not the “United States,” it is not the U.
S., this is not us.Kent SimendingerNorth Whitehall TownshipFight fear with love and truthFear is a human emotion that has been used and abused from the beginning of time.
Fear is often manipulated by people of power to drive empires as well as individuals into submission.President Trump applies fear to the fullest to bully his opponents. He ought to stop such behavior, stop spouting negative directives that are dangerous and un-American.
How to combat fear?A. Be yourself and find your inner strength by repeating “I am.”B.
Band together for good causes.C. Listen to our loving New Testament God.
Love and truth always win.D. Prove to anyone listening that love and justice is powerful only when it is exercised, applied.
Love will move mountains, divert rivers and better the welfare of all who are willing to partake in the slaying of fear.Success or failure rests in our hands, for without you the human chain is broken.Anthony CostantinoWhitehall TownshipCountry needs course correctionIt seems that about every 80 years or so, our country experiences a rebirth.
In his Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a new birth of freedom 87 years after the Declaration of Independence advanced the proposition that all men are created equal. Although the progress toward equality has been long, Lincoln pointed the country in the right direction.Eighty-two years after the address, the United States, previously a somewhat isolationist nation, was reborn as a world leader after World War II.
Again, the country moved in a positive direction, helping to rebuild countries, including our enemies, devastated by the war’s carnage, as well as establishing the United Nations as a means of keeping peace. We haven’t always succeeded and have often stumbled, but in general have contributed to peace and defended democracy in the world.Now, 80 years after V-E and V-J days, we are again on the threshold of another rebirth.
But this time may be different. Instead of being a force for good, we are moving in the other direction: Cruelty rather than charity; bullying rather than comforting; disdain rather than compassion. Hopefully, it isn’t too late for our national GPS to recalibrate our direction.
Terry E. RichwineLower Macungie TownshipThe Morning Call publishes letters from readers online and in print several times a week. Submit a letter to the editor at letters@mcall.
com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication..
