Letters: Penn State’s cuts to WPSU deal ‘significant blow’; A stark choice
Penn State’s cuts to WPSU deal ‘significant blow’
The recent round of budget cuts by Penn State have dealt a significant blow to one of the most utilized services that Penn State offers.
While WPSU-TV understands and appreciates the fiscal difficulties of the university, the 20% cut in the University’s support — the second highest cut across the institution — will place a significant burden on the service that WPSU provides. More potential cuts would be very difficult.
The three-part mission of the land-grant university originally was described as “teaching, research, and service.” It was later renamed “learning, discovery, and engagement” by the Kellogg Commission. Be it “service” or “engagement,” WPSU-TV is a primary example for Penn State as it continuously serves a diverse populace with engaging content.
WPSU-TV offers programming that expands the minds of children, documentaries that open up new worlds, non-commercialized news programs that keep citizens informed on world and local events and cultures, and programs that expose viewers to science and to music, theater, dance and art.
The university indicated that WPSX-TV is one of the few departments that can generate its own revenue to offset the cuts. It’s unrealistic that the station can essentially double its fundraising efforts to make up the already announced deficit in just phase one.
If you share this concern, please let your voice be heard to the Board of Trustees and to Penn State’s administration.
Public broadcasting is an essential part of our community. To see that diminished is disheartening.
Greg Petersen, State College. The author is the chair of the WPSU Board of Representatives.
A stark choice
In 1651 the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan, in which he argued that a government grounded in absolute authoritarianism, with an associated loss of individual freedoms, was essential to guarantee a stable and safe society.
The opposite belief was elegantly stated by Benjamin Franklin in 1755: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” (The uppercase letters appear in the original Franklin writing.) Franklin’s quote is sometimes modified to be “Those who cede liberty in exchange for safety will soon have neither.”
In the 20th century, particularly in Nazi Germany, much of the population was convinced to forfeit individual freedom to the government under the belief that they’d receive financial and physical protection in return. A similar model arose in Mussolini’s Italy and Franco’s Spain. America trusted Franklin, and resisted the temptation.
At least until now.
The upcoming presidential election presents us with a stark choice: the philosophy of Hobbes, as now restated by the MAGA Republicans, or the philosophy of Franklin. Polling reveals that a substantial number of voters are ready to sacrifice at least some of their traditional American freedoms to an authoritarian government led by Donald Trump in the hope of obtaining an ambiguous increase in safety and comfort. “Give us unrestrained authority, and we will make America great again.”
If Trump wins, God forbid, most MAGA Republicans will quickly realize that life isn’t what they fantasized American authoritarianism would be!
Ed Satalia, State College
