Letters: Santarsiero, an anomaly amongst politicians

As a former student of Steve Santarsiero, I have come to know him personally and believe that he is truly an anomaly amongst today’s politicians. Throughout my senior year at Bensalem High School, I had a hard time with my first A.P. course. For the most part, students in advanced placement classes who struggled were simply told “it wasn’t meant to be easy.” But not Steve. Mr. Santarsiero would meet me during lunch and after school to make sure I wouldn’t fall behind. When I continued to make the same mistake, Steve stuck with me. It would’ve been easier for him to have accepted my willingness to improve and ignore my repeated mistakes, but for Steve there was never an easy way, only the right way. I’ll never forget that before every test Steve would say “good effort” rather than “good luck.” Steve knows that only hard work, honesty, and dedication to the right cause can produce results. For this reason he voted against a bill to expand gambling backed by his party’s leaders because it didn’t require immediate property tax relief and was loaded with pork. It is this type of mindset that Harrisburg is desperately in need of.

Hiroki Kato, Bensalem