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Christmas season a community effort in Chambersburg
To the editor:
One of my favorite Christmas thrills is coming around the bend on Philadelphia Avenue and seeing the length of Main Street blanketed with snow and ablaze with lights. To me, downtown Chambersburg offers the perfect small town holiday experience. And it is no small effort to create that experience.
From the outside looking in, the mythical “they” make it all happen: the lights on the street trees, the delivery and decorating of the Christmas tree, the parade, Santa, Candle Night. “They” do it all. In reality, it is dozens of volunteers working hundreds of hours, and on behalf of the Downtown Business Council, I am honored to acknowledge them here.
Thank you to the volunteers who beautify the town by sorting, repairing, hauling, and hanging the thousands of white lights in the trees lining Main Street: downtown business owners and their staffs, friends and family, Bartlett Tree Co., CenturyLink and the Borough of Chambersburg Electric Department.
The Downtown Business Council, in an effort to “go green,” has begun the transition from standard lights to LEDs. Thank you to F&M Trust and all the individual donors who have dropped coins and bills in collection jars this season. (Contributions will be accepted throughout 2013 at any DBC member business.)
Thank you to Brian and Ginger Sipes for donating the tree, to Cumberland Valley Tree Service for pruning, removing and delivering it, and to the borough’s electric department for setting up, lighting and decorating our Memorial Square Christmas Tree.
Thank you to all who helped make the Downtown Business Council’s 43rd annual Christmas Parade a huge success.
Candle Night, typically the first Friday in December, is the newest addition to the downtown events but creates a mood reminiscent of a bygone era. Rain forced postponement of the event, so special thanks to all these groups who were able to accommodate both dates for Candle Night.
A special thank you to Butch Dentler for adding a magical touch to the holiday season.
Finally, thanks to the individuals and organizations whose support throughout the year keeps this downtown alive: Franklin County Commissioners, Borough of Chambersburg and Borough Council, Downtown Chambersburg Inc., Greater Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce, and especially the Board of Directors of the Downtown Business Council.
If you’d like to help with any of these events, please call the DBC office at 717-261-0072 or email dbc@innernet.net.
Theresa Bachman
Coordinator
Downtown Business Council of Chambersburg
No credible evidence to letter-writer’s claims
To the editor:
Congratulations to Joe Eichelberger and others who have written to challenge Daniel Moeller’s article of Nov. 26. Mr. Moeller suggests that those who voted for President Obama were better educated than those who voted for Gov. Romney. He bases this assumption on the number of residents who had earned at least a bachelor’s degree in the states carried by the president.
Besides the offensiveness of the assertion, it is also inaccurate on multiple fronts. Milton Friedman said in his classic discussion of economics, freedom and the relationship between the two titled Free to Choose that as with common practice, we have used “education” and “schooling” as synonymous. In a more careful use of the terms, not all “schooling” is “education” and not all “education” is “schooling.” Many highly schooled people are uneducated and many highly “educated” people are unschooled.”
I would suggest that the author come to my community and allow me to introduce him to the retired steelworker who through his creativeness and ingenuity configured cranes and rigging in such a way as to allow high-rise buildings to be built in ways and locations never considered previously.
Perhaps Mr. Moeller would like to meet the young entrepreneur starting his own automotive service business or the local network of businessmen who provide a full-service farm equipment operation including mechanical, welding and tire services.
I could even introduce him to the dedicated administrator who effectively managed our community’s town office for 35 years. All these very well-educated people’s accomplishments were achieved not as a result of schooling but rather the realization that education is a lifelong process.
In addition, exit polling done by the New York Times and Washington Post show that voters possessing a bachelor degree voted 51 percent to 48 percent for Romney. Even if we lump together all post-graduate degrees, which would include a disproportionate number of liberal college professors, the difference is a few percentage points advantage to President Obama which is statistically insignificant for a population of over 55 million voters. I will leave to Mr. Moeller any conclusions about those with high school or less schooling who overwhelming voted for President Obama other than to say I am sure they probably made up a significant portion of those voters who said they voted for the president because he cares for people like me.
There simply is no credible evidence validating Mr. Moeller’s claim that there was a very substantial difference in education attainment for those people voting for President Obama.
Russ Weaver
Sharpsburg