Wisdom from a Donora champion
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Many great men and women hail from Donora. The borough greets its visitors with a billboard proclaiming “Home of Champions.”
The mills that belched smoke and soot that turned days into nights around noon have long been dormant, but the legacies of several prominent sports stars from Donora and the surrounding area live on. They are indeed worthy of their own Hall of Fame.
In baseball, there’s Donora’s Stan ” The Man” Musial, and Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. In football, there was star running back Deacon Dan Towler of the Los Angeles Rams, dubbed by a football website as ” the greatest running back you don’t know.” NFL legend Joe Montana grew up not far from Donora in New Eagle.
But the native sons of Donora, where my father was born and raised by my grandmother and grandfather, who emigrated from Italy and had his own barber shop for 50 years, include a man who is fighting not for a spot in a Super Bowl or World Series. Rather, he is battling to keep our democracy alive.
Federal Judge Reggie Walton was born just outside Donora, where his father worked two jobs in a steel mill. Currently serving as senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Walton voiced his grave concerns in a recent TV interview about the threats to judges and juries. He said that they are nothing new.
But today, in a deeply divided country that is about to have a president on trial for the first time in its history, those threats are becoming far more frequent and sinister. Emboldened by the anonymity of the internet, nefarious people radicalized by the cult of their choosing are harassing and intimidating judges and their families like never before.
Walton, however, is not one to back down from a fight. As he told Kaitlan Collins of CNN: “We do these jobs because we’re committed to the rule of law and we believe in the rule of law, and the rule of law can only function effectively when we have judges who are prepared to carry out their duties without the threat of potential physical harm.”
Spoken like a true Donora champion.
Vin Morabito
Scranton