Letters to the Editor
The Punxsutawney Spirit - April 25, 2026
Dear Editor,
Recently I had a brief conversation with two different individuals who I felt had opinions that
were more than likely not in agreement on my thoughts on the Iran war. Both persons stated in
one way or another that “… something needed to be done to keep Iran from having nuclear
weapons…”. I wonder if the opinion of these two people was an original thought or the result
of a concentrated effort of the Trump administration to create a reason for this excursion into
war. If we, as a country, do not want a terrorist country like Iran to possess nuclear weapons
then it would stand to reason that we should take the same stance against other countries that
have nuclear arsenals such as North Korea, Russia, and China who are certainly not our
friends. Why just Iran?
This war that the US started was to be over in a few days and now is running into its eighth
week. As we bluster and blunder our way through this conflict with little or no regard for the
safety of our own troops, our allies in the region, our allies across the globe, and the American
people at home we find that up to 60% of our armed forces are bottled up in the Mideast. Our
formerly flexible, mobile military is a stationary force pinned down by drones, missiles, speed
boats, and mines. Iran has effectively closed the straits of Hormuz and the US has blockaded
the closed strait. A third US carrier group is headed to the region which means more troops
and more of our armed forces bundled in one region and thus unable to respond to other
possible global crises. One strategic blunder after another have led us to a position where our
Persian Gulf bases are unusable because the Arab states where they are located don’t want
military operations continued from there for fear of Iranian retaliation on their territory.
There is an effort afoot by our government to help shore up the finances of the oil rich countries
of the Gulf. This from an Administration that denies aid to the poorest people on earth while
planning to spend our tax dollars on some of the richest people on earth. This proposed aid to
the rich is being considered after huge cuts to healthcare and social benefits in the US.
The report card on this war reads something like this. Iran still has its enriched uranium, the
regime in Iran is essentially the same and possibly more radical, China and Russia are aiding
the Iranians while getting richer and stronger, oil supplies from the Persian Gulf are choked off,
we are stalemated militarily, inflation is soaring, our national debt is growing, our negotiators
are unqualified opportunists and we have angered just about all of our allies and friends
throughout the world. Trump says we won! This doesn’t feel like victory instead it smells of
something else.
The reality today in the US is that those campaign promises of no “forever” wars, of $2.00
gasoline, an end to the war in Ukraine, end to inflation, of trillions in tariff revenues, of millions
of new manufacturing jobs, lower food prices, an end to the weaponization of the DOJ,
balanced budgets and transparency in government were nothing but lies formulated to take
control of our Democracy and put in place under an brutal dictatorship. As I passed the gas
station at the bottom of Indiana hill yesterday, the sign read $4.35/gal for 87 octane fuel. Any
trip to the grocery store is a nightmare of higher and higher prices. The country has lost 90,000
manufacturing jobs during this Administration’s reign. The Treasury is in the process of
returning the $165 billion of illegally collected tariffs. The hole in the budget will create a need
for the Treasury to borrow an additional $1.6 trillion dollars over the next 10 years according to
Fortune magazine.
One final thought, according to the Guardian “The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies
banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in
Iran….” That continues today! How does that help me or you?
Patrick Fleckenstein
This one went to the White House
To the White House - April 11, 2026
Mr. President, in light of all the awful things you have done in acting as a king instead of a president, you do not deserve an arch in Washington. I do not want one penny of my money to go to anything with your name on it.
It's very vain and conceited of you to demand your name be put on money, and your face on a coin that is supposed to honor the 250th anniversary of our country.
We fought a war because we did not want to live under a king, and here we are 250 years later, with a president who is acting like a king. No Trump face on that coin!
You do not honor the balance of power set in place by our Constitution. That is a REAL SHAME. Give up on plastering your name all over the place!
That monstrosity of a ballroom is another shame. You promised that the White House would not be affected by that, but the next thing I see is one wing of the People’s House being torn down.
You do not need an enormous ballroom. And the projected décor is disgustingly awful.
Without consulting Congress, you went into Venezuela and grabbed Maduro and his wife.
Without consulting Congress, you started a war with Iran.
Without consulting Congress, you slapped tariffs on goods from just about everywhere.
You promised cheaper everything, and what do we get? Rising prices because of tariffs, and gasoline prices through the roof because of your war.
It’s a miracle you didn’t decide to commit genocide on Tuesday, and wipe out Iran.
And the war that Russia started with Ukraine that you were going to end on day 1? Still going on.
Read the Constitution! Or if you can’t read, have someone smart read it to you and explain the balance of powers.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Jane Halin
The Punxsutawney Spirit - February 15, 2026
Dear Editor,
The announcement last week that the Trump Administration is going to do away with the air quality standards established by the Obama Administration is another attack on the quality of life in the US and on the entire world. According to the NY Times the EPA “… weakened Obama-era limits on planet warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks; removed protections from more than half the nation’s wetlands; and withdrew the legal justification for restricting mercury emissions from power plants.” In particular it is an attack on the health of the people of the United States and the health of the people of the entire world.
I grew up in the 1950’s where the local streams ran red and orange with the pollution of the mines and industry. The Mahoning Creek smelled of oil and was murky and aquatic life was barely discernible. Today that same creek supports beaver and muskrats and provides food for bald eagles and osprey and hawks and countless other forms of wildlife. As I look at the snow outside the window right now, I remember how snow turned gray then black after just a few days due to the burning of coal for heat in the winter months. It remains white today because the country turned away from coal and moved to gas, electric, and now to renewables. Cleaner air has made the people more healthy and the planet more livable. The abandoning of emission standards is a stupid, outrageous attack on the people and planet that will hasten global warming, endanger our water, our air, and our agriculture.
The reason that has been given by the Trump Administration is to save a whole lot of money. Trump talks of trillions of dollars that will be saved by abandoning these safeguards. Do you really think that this rollback will be passed on to the average American? If the average American gets any benefits from the so-called savings it will most likely be miniscule. Utilities and Industries that benefit from the rollback will pocket the money, increase their share price, pay a few dividends and make the wealthy more wealthy. As usual Trump frames this as a cost saving for all. That won’t happen! And on the other side of the balance sheet, as Americans become less healthy and as asthma and other respiratory diseases flourish, and water quality is diminished, and the atmosphere warms at a greater rate, it’s the average American that will pay the price.
Trump and his Cabinet of Billionaires are not governing for the benefit of this country. They are governing for themselves and the wealthy. The Administration creates circuses like immigration chaos, voter fraud, foreign threats (Venezuela, Greenland ?}, welfare fraud, on again off again tariffs, the Mark Kelly fiasco, enemies list and on and on and on. If these are real problems, they can be handled in a orderly, legal manner with competent resources and targeted legislation. Unfortunately, the DOJ has hollowed out the agencies they are in charge of making it more difficult to create that order. All those threats that Donald Trump claims to be saving us from don’t scare me as much as the reality that Donald Trump will remain in office one more day!
Patrick Fleckenstein
The Punxsutawney Spirit, January 14, 2026
Dear Editor,
It’s been an incredibly active new year in the United States. There’s been lots of military actions, lots of Homeland Security action, lots of thievery, lots of high sea murders, lots of political posturing, lots of finger pointing, and lots of lying all punctuated by a total lack of action for the people. There has been nothing done on the release of the rest of the Epstein files, nothing on health care for the average American, nothing on Snap benefits for the poor, nothing on equal rights for all Americans, nothing on due process, nothing on housing, nothing on rising prices, nothing on rising utility costs.
The Roman Empire, as it began its inevitable decline, used circuses and activities of all kinds to take attention away from their inability to provide for the basic needs of their citizens. This has been what the Trump Administration has been doing for the last 12 months. The invasion of Venezuela represents the “current” high point of these circus activities. It was an excellent, well executed, precise military operation that the United States military can point to and brag about for many years to come. But keep in mind that it took 150 of the most modern lethal aircraft, 8-10 of the most modern deadly warships, 15,000 service members, dozens of helicopters, our Delta Force, submarines, and satellites to accomplish this feat. And what was the accomplishment? We arrested two people! During this arrest, we managed to kill about 80 people and suffered 7 casualties ourselves. Of course, the President and Pistol Pete H., liked to comment that we had no service persons killed. One wonders how many cases of Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome we, as a nation, will have to deal with over the next 20 years.
Triumphantly, Donald Trump announced that he would now run Venezuela. This from a man who can’t run the country he was elected to run. He stated that the USA would take control of the oil and sell it, even though experts in the oil business advise that it will take hundreds of billions of dollars and up to 10 years to begin making money. Using the existing government structure now being run by the former hand-picked vice president of Maduro, Donald Trump will direct Venezuela. How interesting it will be to see the President of the United States run a South American drug Cartel. What are the bets on how long it will take DJT to bankrupt a cartel? Hmm, wonder where you file those bankruptcies.
This whole “adventure” in the Caribbean began with blowing boats in that Sea and in the eastern Pacific. No proof was offered that these boats were actually carrying drugs. Survivors were shot. Cargo was destroyed. There was no due process. No indictments offered. Just murder on the high seas. The President’s repeated claim that every boat destroyed by the Navy saved 23,000 lives in the US. Drug deaths in October 2023 to September 2024 were 89,000. Do the math. We’ve destroyed more than 10 boats since September. Trump’s statement: an absolute lie. We have now moved to out and out piracy by seizing oil tankers for fun and profit.
Domestically, the activity has moved to fraud investigations against Blue states. Using the out-of-control ICE and other HHS thugs, the American government is killing its own citizens. The fraud allegations have been ongoing since the pandemic and so far, hundreds of people have been prosecuted. There is no need to surge 2,000 additional ICE agents to intimidate law abiding American citizens. Using the Authoritarian tactics of dictatorships, the ICE storm troopers are wreaking havoc in peaceful neighborhoods and cities across the country.
Sincerely,
Pat Fleckenstein
