January 8-14, 2015
GAZETTE The CenTre CounTy
403 S. Allen St., State College, PA 16801 Phone: (814) 238-5051 Fax: (814) 238-3415 www.CentreCountyGazette.com
PUBLISHER Rob Schmidt
SALES MANAGER Don Bedell ADVERTISING CONSULTANTS Amy Ansari, Vicki Gillette BUSINESS MANAGER Aimee Aiello AD COORDINATOR Katie Myers COPY EDITOR Andrea Ebeling GRAPHIC DESIGN Beth Wood ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Kristin Blades CONTACT US: To submit news: editor@centrecountygazette.com Advertising: sales@centrecountygazette.com The Gazette is a weekly newspaper serving Centre County and is published by Indiana Printing and Publishing Company. Reproduction of any portion of any issue is not permitted without written permission. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement for any reason.
Lower gas prices give us more cash By Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — If oil and gasoline prices remain at their current unusually low levels, Americans will have a lot more to spend on other things. That’s the conclusion of the AAA Motor Club, which on Dec. 31 projected huge savings for 2015. In its December gas price report, AAA concluded that Americans saved about $14 billion on gasoline last year compared to 2013. The trend will only accelerate if things stay as they are, with the price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil in the ballpark of $53 on Friday, and in the international reference Brent crude oil at $56 a barrel. “It would not be surprising for U.S. consumers to save $50-75 billion on gasoline in 2015 if prices remain low,” said Michael Green, a AAA spokesman. U.S. average gasoline prices declined $1.44 per gallon, or about 39 percent, AAA said, since reaching their high of $3.70 a gallon last April 28. Over the entire year, gasoline averaged about $3.34 a gallon nationwide, about 15 cents below the 2013 average. Absent a shock to oil supplies, the annual average is likely to be considerably lower in 2015, perhaps below $3.00 a gallon, AAA said. Historically, gasoline prices begin rising in late February, by as much as 30 cents to 50 cents a gallon, as refiners begin maintenance in preparations for fuels used in warmer spring and summer weather. On the first work day of 2015, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline stood at $2.231 on Friday. That’s down from $2.76 a month ago and $3.325 a year ago.
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Time to think about our time My resolution for 2015 is to change The gyms and health clubs will my focus on how I spend my time. be filled with people pledging to find Humans are great about talking health and fitness for 2015. and thinking about “when.” We are Marie Osmond is once again reportedly among the few creatures hawking made-to-order food along on this earth who understand that with the other commercials for every there is a next or an after. When I rekind of diet or diet pill available on tire. When I pay off my bills. the market. When I win the lottery. After People on social media I lose 10 or 20 or 30 pounds. and around the water coolers When I find a mate. My next and dinner tables are pledgpromotion. When. When. ing to give more, swear less, When. forgive, forget, find peace, be We are so good about kind, eat healthy and make thinking and focusing on changes. the when, we forget to conI’m just trying to hold on. sider the now. I don’t know if it is a funcIn 2015, I am going to tion of age or aging but it make better use of my now. seems like we just started When my husband asks fall semester. Here it is Janu“Do you want to go walk ary, and I’m packing up the around at Lowe’s for absoChristmas stuff and my kids lutely no reason?” instead are talking about summer of thinking about laundry vacation plans. What hapand cleaning the kitchen pened to October? Did I lose Patty Kleban is and that I don’t have makeNovember? Did I cook the an instructor up on and how cold it is outturkey? Who wrapped the at Penn State, side, I’m going to say yes. presents? Did we win the mother of three and a community On that beautiful Saturbowl game? day afternoon that screams Sometimes it feels like life volunteer. She is a is moving faster than I can Penn State alumna for yard work and weeding who lives with her the garden, I’m going to keep up. family in Patton pack up the dogs and head Time has a way of playing Township. Her tricks on us. On some days it views and opinions to Colyer Lake with a few tennis balls and a towel for feels like time is slipping by do not necessarily me. On others, I could wake reflect those of Penn the ride home. Starting now, I’m going up in the night to muffled State. to unplug, turn off and tune cries from the next room and in. little hands reaching out for Mom in In the presence of my children, the dark. I’m going to put down my phone and On the inside, time feels pretty sit and make eye contact and listen much the same. like I used to when they were little. I My resolution for 2015 is to make am not going to allow their increasing better use of my time. independence steal anymore time It isn’t about time management. from me than it has to. I am a pretty good multi-tasker. I I’m going to try to make better use can let the dogs out, start the coffee, of my now. switch the laundry loads and get a I’m going to take the time to call run in while the other members of my that friend who is having a low point household are still in REM sleep.
By JOHN CRISP
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Here’s an idea that periodically develops traction across the political spectrum, even though it’s not particularly likely to be implemented: A one-year, non-mandatory national service program for Americans ages 18-28. One focus for this notion is the Franklin Project, which grew out of discussions at the Aspen Institute in the summer of 2013. The project believes that America is “suffering from a deficit of citizenship and a general lack of connectedness.” Its solution is a program that provides opportunities for young people to perform one year of fulltime service that addresses community needs — “education, poverty alleviation, food security” — in exchange for a modest stipend, scholarships, or help with student debt. Such service won’t be mandatory, but will become a social expectation, a “civic rite of passage” that connects young citizens to something bigger than they are. The Franklin Project’s Leadership Council is an impressive collection of CEOs, academics, foundation directors, politicians and public figures from the left and the right, from Mad-
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or who has hit some bumps and ask her to go for a walk. I’m not going to waste another minute on the “friend” who has shown me again and again that she doesn’t value our friendship. I am going to spend more time with people I care about and less time thinking “I should spend more time with people I care about.” Aging and time is a funny thing. As I stand solidly at middle age, I see people around me giving in and others giving it a fight. There are those who say “I’m too old to do that or wear that or think about that” while others fight with a fervor that includes plastic surgeons and the search for the proverbial fountain of youth. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Either way, time is going to catch up with all of us eventually but it is our attitude about time that makes the difference. One of my colleagues uses the concept of time with incoming university freshmen. At an average estimated life span of almost 79 years in today’s United States, we have almost 41,522,400 minutes to spend in our lifetime. His question to the new kids on campus is “How will you spend your minutes while you are here? Will you use them on alcohol and parties and wasted opportunities or will you spend them to gain experiences and to fill your life’s bucket list?” My resolution for this year is to use my remaining minutes to the best of my ability. In the words of Dr. Seuss “How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” It’s what we do with our time that can make the difference. Best wishes to all for a happy and healthy 2015.
National service? OK, you go first eleine Albright to Condoleezza Rice, from Barbara Bush to Tom Brokaw. In the summer of 2013 columnists E.J. Dionne and Michael Gerson, again spanning the political spectrum, wrote in support of national service, as did David Ignatius and Dana Milbank. In short, a national service program sounds like a grand idea that many people of all political stripes support. Why can’t I work up more enthusiasm for it? It might be because I’m skeptical about the idea of solving a problem by the imposition of an obligation by one group on another. It’s worth noting that, as far as I can tell, no one on the Franklin Project’s Leadership Council appears to be 18-28 years of age. And while the lives of many of the members of the council have been devoted to service in one form or another, if the idea of national service becomes a political issue — in the next presidential campaign, for example — no doubt it will be used to appeal to and will find support among many older citizens who did not themselves practice enough citizenship to bother to vote in the recent mid-terms. If our country suffers from a lack of civic engagement and shared experience, I wonder if there are other ways
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Unless labeled as a Gazette editorial, all views on the Opinion page are those of the authors.
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of addressing the problem besides asking the young, who didn’t create the problem to begin with, to devote a low-paid year of their lives to it. Consider the American public school, for example. No institution embodied the divisiveness and “lack of connectedness” of American life more than the segregated public schools that prevailed between the Civil War and the mid-60s. And apart from the military, no institution has done more to connect and provide a common experience for all Americans, regardless of race or economic status, than integrated, post-civil rights era public schools. At least in theory. Even though we’ve always known how to create and maintain very good public schools, we have failed to provide common, equivalent experiences for all students. Students know this. If we want to connect students with our culture, to make them feel like they’re part of a larger enterprise, why not provide them with an engaging, wellresourced public education that embodies a common experience, identical in every respect regardless of race or economic status? This would be a way of showing them that they are, in fact, living in a society that’s worth belonging to. R
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