WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2016
CHESTER COUNTY PRESS
7A
Chester County Press
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Opinion
Editorial
Letter to the Editor
In the face of despair, we are still standing
Needs of older Americans must be considered
This past week, our nation took a ferocious punch to the very core of its moral center, a blow so pulverizing to our sense of civility that it may have permanently affected the way many Americans look at police protection and race. The open and horrific killings of two black men – one in Baton Rouge, La., and the other in Falcon Heights, Minn. -- captured on camera videos and shared on social media, became the talking points of our continued narrative on a subject that has left us punch drunk from repeated shots to the head. Now, we find ourselves dragged into the ring again, adding Alton Sterling and Philando Castile to a roster of other black men whose names have become the hashtags of our collective rage. Subsequent protests over the last week have poisoned an already toxic strain between police and the communities they serve, culminating in the murder of five white police officers and the wounding of seven others, at the hands of a disturbed and violent criminal, who wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. The atrocities perpetrated by our law enforcement system – ones that that may or may not be happening in the subtext of racism – are now being met with equal and brutal force, and there is nowhere left to hide. Welcome to the documentary of our demise; it is now a fully shared one, in living color, and one that no longer spares the red blood of the murdered. We have every right now to remain on the canvas, and not hear the bell for the next round, one that we know will ring again when the next black man or person of color in America is gunned down by a white officer. We have every right to accept that our wounds will never heal, to believe in an inevitability that declares that America is permanently crippled, to rationalize that the gulf that separates our police from the communities they serve will grow even wider. Tell that to Pennsylvania State Trooper Samantha Minnucci, who has helped facilitate the department’s Camp Cadet program in Penn Township Park, which brings together young people of all races to exercise side-by-side with police officers. Tell that to Kennett Township Police Chief Lydell Nolt, whose staff have become regular visitors to schools throughout the township. Tell that to New Garden Police Chief Gerald Simpson, whose department has incorporated community engagement into the fabric of its operations, and is a regular presence in the Hispanic neighborhoods and community centers in southern Chester County. Tell that to Kennett Borough Police Chief Edward Zunino, whose department has become synonymous with the success of the After-the-Bell school programs, done in conjunction with the Kennett Consolidated School District. In the wake of what happened in Louisiana, Minnesota and Dallas this past week, there is a scene in the film “Raging Bull,” that articulates, in a pugilistic sense, the best of who we are as Americans, and one that invites us to summon up the spirit of who we are. Jake LaMotta, played by Robert DeNiro, is up against the ropes in a fight against “Sugar Ray” Robinson, and he is on the violent end of what has been regarded as one of the most brutal beatings in boxing history. Robinson comes at LaMotta again and again and again, punishing him, and yet, to his astonishing amazement, nothing happens. LaMotta is still there, right in front of him. He is still standing. “You didn’t get me down, Ray,” LaMotta says to his opponent through a bloody mouth guard. “You didn’t get me down.” In the aftermath of these violent killings, no one knows for sure where our best voices will come from to address even the most far-flung of solutions. It is too soon to know if our increasingly vanishing trust in our law enforcement will ever turn upward. It is unknown whether our nation’s people of color will ever be able to begin their day identified as a parent, or a worker, or a friend, and not a potential target. It remains to be seen whether we will see more police shaking hands than carrying billy clubs. Right now, we are in our worst possible place, paused for the next punches, but there are local boxers – police officers who patrol our towns and neighborhoods and homes – who refuse to give in. They refuse to go down. They are the best of who we are.
Chester County Press Publisher - Randall S. Lieberman
Steve Hoffman . . . . . Managing Editor John Chambless . . . . Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw. . . . . Staff Writer Carla Lucas . . . . . . . . Correspondent Nancy Johnson . . . . . Correspondent Brenda Butt . . . . . . . . Office Manager Tricia Hoadley. . . . . . Art Director Alan E. Turns . . . . . . Advertising Director Christy Larry. . . . . . . Assistant Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Director Teri Turns . . . . . . . . . Advertising Executive Helen E. Warren . . . . Advertising Executive
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Letter to the Editor: The Democratic and Republican conventions are only weeks away and regardless of political party the next president must listen to the needs of older Americans. Seniors today are in true peril because of the severe dilution of our so-called “federally guaranteed” ERISA law protections. The 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) was signed into law
under President Gerald Ford to protect vulnerable older Americans and establish minimum standards and protections for pensioners. Now 42 years later, too many of our former employers, aided by the insurance industry and Wall Street, are subverting ERISA by dumping their retirees’ earned pensions, into unprotected group annuity contracts. Unlike pensions, annuities are not protected against lawsuits and credi-
tor and bankruptcy claims nor by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and are barely sheltered by 50 different insurance industry run state guaranty associations. The next President and Congress have a moral obligation to uphold the intent of ERISA and protect the earned rights of older Americans against corporate tricks that devastate the foundation of our retirement security. The non-profit ProtectSeniors.Org of
which I am a part, is leading the fight for retirees’ but can only be successful with a chorus of many loud voices behind them. I urge my fellow retirees to join me and ProtectSeniors.Org ( w w w. P r o t e c t S e n i o r s . Org) in making our issues heard. We must use our votes this election year to support only those who support the financial security of retirees. R.L. Palmer
What they’re fighting over By Lee H. Hamilton Barring a surprise at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland later this month, the race for the presidency is set. So this seems a good time to step back and consider just what it is that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are fighting about. I don’t mean where they stand on the issues, or whose vision is more compelling. I mean the office itself. The modern presidency is unique, and pretty far removed from what our founders envisioned. It’s worth understanding what’s at stake as you watch these two people campaign for it. As Americans, we have an odd attitude toward the presidency. On the one hand, we’re leery of executive power, and often of the government the President symbolizes. Yet we’re also fascinated by the person who holds the office. When I was in Congress, if I had contact with the President, swarms of reporters would want to know every word he’d said. And people back home had an insatiable curiosity – about the President, his family, what they wore, where they traveled, how they treated people. Americans invest a lot of energy and attention in the President, whether they like or abhor him. And it’s not just Americans. The President is not just the central player in our own government, but also in world affairs. Anywhere you
travel, you’ll find people who are curious about the most visible American on the planet. All of this is with good reason. Presidents control the political agenda in this country. They formulate the budget, set defense and foreign policy, develop the initiatives that drive domestic affairs, and create the contours of public debate. Congress, by contrast, reacts. In recent decades, it’s been rare to find Congress seizing the initiative on much of anything. So the President stands at the center of the government, not just in moments of crisis -- when you’d expect it to be the case -- but when it comes to the everyday running of the country. Presidents have been opportunistic about this, doing what they must to succeed in the system they’ve been given. If they’ve been unable to get congressional approval, they’ve tried to work around it with executive orders; Democrat or Republican, they’ve worked hard to expand their power. The job has always carried with it great responsibility, but the weight of the modern presidency is overwhelming. There is no job training for the position, and no President emerges unscathed from the office. Harry Truman’s comment about where the buck stops was absolutely correct. In a representative democracy, the ultimate power may lie with the voters, but every tough problem this nation faces percolates up
to the President; if it were easily solvable, someone else would have taken care of it. I’ve found almost all the presidents I’ve met to be serious, intelligent, anxious to do the right thing, likeable -- and always over-burdened. The story used to be told about Franklin Roosevelt that when he gave a fireside chat, you could walk down a street and never miss a word, because every house would have the radio on. The presidency today is less of a bully pulpit, yet in policy, the President’s remains the strongest single voice in this country and the world. This is worth pondering. No President ever lives up to the expectations people have for him -- presidents make mistakes both large and small, and their power is not limitless. But the balance of it in this country is unquestionably tilted in the direction of the White House, and that is not
going to change. So the question about the presidency that concerns me is how to hold the President accountable. He or she needs to be scrutinized, challenged, and held answerable to Congress and the public for his or her policies. There are today only rare opportunities for the vigorous give and take and close examination of a President that our system once provided. But how long can that continue before we cease to be a true representative democracy? Lee Hamilton is a Senior Advisor for the Indiana University Center on Representative Government; a Distinguished Scholar, IU School of Global and International Studies; and a Professor of Practice, IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.
Chester County chapter of A.B.A.T.E. delivers big for Neighborhood Services Center The Chester County chapter of A.B.A.T.E. dropped off between five and six tons of food to the Neighborhood Services Center in Oxford during the 27th annual Dwight Wallace Memorial Motorcycle Run on July 2. Each June, members of A.B.A.T.E. Collect food and it is then delivered to the Neighborhood Services Center on the
first Saturday in July. The food run is held in memory of the organization’s members who have passed away. In partnership with the Chester County Food Bank, Neighborhood Services Center provided more than 121,641 pounds of food in 2015. Without the support of organizations like A.B.A.T.E. and other food collection Services Center would efforts in the commu- not be able to achieve its nity, the Neighborhood mission.