DAILY DIARY

This election is about the soul of our nation. Will we set out to do bad things, or will we keep to the path of righteousness set down before us by our founding fathers.

Who can trust a man who behaves like a vaudeville player. Into what jeopardy can he take us.

How far have we allowed our politics to serve interests that are not for our good? And why have we stared so long, as if we were blind, while bigotry and racism have walked boldly and unashamed among us?

Our nation, America, has a soul, though evil gods try it on every side.

Will we awake and advance toward the light, or deny our danger? Will we cast aside the demons that tempt us? Or follow them on the path toward chaos?

This election is about the soul of our nation. Will we set out to do bad things, or will we keep to the path of righteousness set before us by our founding fathers.

AUGUST 26

This week, at a rally in Mississippi, Donald Trump stood in front of an almost all-white crowd and called Hillary a bigot.

The absurdity of this should go without saying.

Trump’s making a deliberate choice to fill the air with so much garbage and slander that we run screaming in the other direction. He's trying to make this election so nasty that the only people who bother to follow through with voting on Election Day are the die-hard supporters who will follow Trump anywhere.

But, together, we’re showing him. Bit-by-bit, we’re blotting out all the disgusting, hateful things he’s saying with a lot of hard work and a lot of love and kindness.

While he’s slinging mud, we’re staying up late to register more voters and recruit more volunteers.

When he dreams up a new way to slander Hillary, we're going to rally around her.

TRUMP'S FINGER ON THE ATOMIC BOMB?

Donald Trump is unfit to lead. Much of Trump's campaign has been a series of meltdowns and him lashing out at the slightest provocation. This country cannot afford to have a hypersensitive megalomaniac in control of our nuclear weapons program.

Our nuclear command system is built for first-strike and quick-launch at the president’s sole discretion, with no checks and balances by other bodies or agencies. The president has total authority to launch thousands of nuclear weapons at any moment. Nothing could stop President Trump from setting the world on fire if he got his hands on the nuclear Red Button.

Leaders from both parties, including 50 Republican national security officers warn of the dangers of a Trump-controlled nuclear arsenal. And yet GOP party leaders continue to support Donald Trump's candidacy.

GOP leaders should show their commitment to national security by doing everything they can to prevent Trump from gaining control of America's nuclear weapons.

Donald Trump’s rhetoric about nuclear weapons is terrifying. He casually tosses about the idea of using nuclear weapons as a first resort in international conflict. Just last month, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough reported that Trump asked three times in a one-hour policy briefing, “If we’ve got [nukes], why can’t we use them?”

The first step to keeping us all safe from global nuclear disaster is stopping Trump in his tracks before it’s too late.

It is gross negligence of their duties as public servants for Republican leadership to advocate for a reckless demagogue to become the next President of the United States. They must disavow Trump, without equivocating, and do it now.

September 17

At a rally Friday night, Donald Trump hinted again at Hillary Clinton’s assassination.

“I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons,” he said. “They should disarm immediately. Take their guns away, let's see what happens to her.”

Remember that he has previously said: “If Hillary Clinton becomes president, there’s nothing you can do folks. There’s nothing you can do. Maybe the Second Amendment [the right to bear arms] people can do something.”

David Gergen, a Republican, is a respected political analyst and presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He compares Trump’s demagogic statements to "The kind of dehumanization we see" before fanatics attack abortion clinics, adding, "We know there are crazies out there with guns, and if you just give them the excuse or the incitement, terrible things can happen."

Trump’s encouragement of assassination is nothing less than the high crime of sedition. He is, in fact, another Joseph McCarthy or George Wallace. He is a flawed character, a Shakespearean Iago, directing another man to do murder. He is a demonstrated liar and a cheat (see the Tampa Bay Times’ Truth-O-Meter). He has distinguished himself only as a candidate who dives fastest to the bottom: if it’s a lie too vile to utter aloud, Trump says it. If he will lie so boldly in public, what must he think or say among his cronies and sycophants. Trump Junior’s words about “warming up the gas chamber,” are valid clues to what he has taught his family. History has shown us that failing to hold a demagogue to account is dangerous. The only way to beat a bully is to stand up to him. We must!

JUNIOR HONOR SOCIETY REGISTERS VOTERS

The National Junior Honor Society of the Danville Middle School sponsored a non-partisan voter registration day September 17 for anyone participating in the Danville Area Diaper Bank at Christ Memorial Episcopal Church.

Members of the honor society sat at tables outside the church with official voter registration forms provided by the county voter registration office and helped people register for the November 8 general election. Only registered voters will be able to vote in the election.

“Voting is very important in our country because it gives people an opportunity to voice their opinion and vote for what they believe in,” says Ellie Jacks, the Junior Honor Society’s president. “In our democracy, voting holds elected officials accountable for their behavior while in office, and it prevents a minority from dictating policies to a majority.”

To register to vote, people who will have lived in Pennsylvania for at least 30 days before the November 8 election must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years old by the time of the election. The last day to register to vote is October 11.

People who are homeless and don’t have a street address or a permanent address can fill out voter applications and use printed maps that the county voter registration office has provided, to show where they live or spend most of their time. The map is part of their voter application and goes with it to the county’s voter registration office.

“We had plenty of people to help and answer questions, and our Junior Honor Society dished out free ice cream to everyone, whether or not they registered to vote,” Jacks pointed out.

The Danville Area Diaper Bank has been operating on Saturday mornings since 2013, and has given more than $30,000 worth of free diapers to families needing them.

“Babies need clean diapers, about 240 a month,” explained Kristin O’Rourke, a registered nurse who is one of the founders of the Diaper Bank. “Some babies who don’t have clean diapers get health problems, urinary tract and other infections. Mothers who don’t have money for diapers feel very guilty about stretching them, and re-using them. We know that a year's supply of diapers costs $936. That means a single mother working full time at the minimum wage can expect to spend six percent of her annual pay on Pampers alone.”

PEOPLE AND PLACES IN CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA

FEDERAL TAX REFORM