Letters to the Editor | Feb. 25, 2024

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to make public higher education more affordable and accountable for (among other things) increasing the percentage of first-generation students who complete credentials is both welcome and long overdue. Pennsylvania needs a more educated workforce if it is going to shed its reputation as a Rust Belt state with a persistently marginal economy. Today, communities are struggling to fill jobs in traditional careers like education, nursing, agriculture, and government.

Given the predicted and unpredictable changes in the American economy, with the continuing retirement of baby boomers and the ascendancy of technological innovations like artificial intelligence, Pennsylvania is unlikely to attract employers of the new economy without educating the children whose parents never made it to or through college. Pennsylvania won’t have a big enough middle class to power a growing economy until we make more room on college campuses for the children of lower-income and working-class parents — and the parents themselves. For Philadelphia, that means thousands of potential new collegians for the 50-plus higher education institutions in our region.

Debra Weiner, cofounder, Philadelphia College Prep Roundtable, Quakertown

Historian Heather Cox Richardson, on the special counsel’s report characterizing Joe Biden as “old, infirm, and losing his marbles,” quoted the president’s lawyers, who said Biden provided “detailed recollections across a wide range of questions” and even “pointed to flaws in the assumptions behind specific lines of questioning.” Others criticized the report, too. Politico reported last October that while former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy publicly mocked Biden’s mental fitness, he was “privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive.” Former President Barack Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer explained: “Biden meets with dozens of people daily — staffers, members of Congress, CEOs, labor officials, foreign leaders, and military and intelligence officials … If Biden was regularly misremembering … information or making other [substantive] mistakes, it would be in the press. Washington is not capable of keeping secrets.” Of course we would know. Age alone doesn’t determine mental acuity, and there is no reason to automatically assume that someone at 81, or 91, is mentally unfit.

Ruth K. Crispin, Philadelphia, rkcrispin@verizon.net

One year ago, a train derailed in East Palestine, near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Freight cars carrying hazardous chemicals — including vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol, ethylhexyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, and isobutylene — caught fire. President Joe Biden made a personal visit there recently. I am a home builder, and I am sure that no one can easily sell or rent a house in East Palestine today. It was reported that many families had to leave their houses because they had trouble breathing, eye problems, etc. They will not be able to pay their mortgages and taxes and live elsewhere. These people are watching their government let them suffer with no offers of a government buyout even as their tax dollars help fund the Ukraine war.

David F. Lipton, Toms River, exit80@comcast.net

House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner says House Oversight Chair James Comer should continue to pursue the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden despite the arrest of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov on charges that he lied to the FBI and created false records regarding Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s involvement in business dealings with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. If Turner is so motivated to unearth possible fraud, why doesn’t he turn his interests equally toward Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose private equity firm received a $2 billion investment from a fund led by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, months after leaving the White House? This is the same crown prince who approved a “capture or kill” mission against Jamal Khashoggi, which ended with the death of the Washington Post columnist.

K. Mayes, Philadelphia

As a longtime fan of Signe Wilkinson’s work, I appreciate the sentiment behind her recent editorial cartoon depicting William Penn atop City Hall asking Mayor Cherelle L. Parker if she can find a job for his wife. I agree with Wilkinson’s perspective; however, Penn is not exactly a good role model on such matters. When King Charles II appointed him governor of the colonial territory that now bears his name, Penn promptly named William Markham, his cousin, to be his deputy governor and appointed another cousin, William Crispin, to be his chief commissioner, surveyor, and chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court. So, while I share Wilkinson’s dismay over Parker’s unfortunate practice of handing out city jobs to the spouses of political allies who already have city jobs themselves, William Penn, it turns out, should not be our poster boy for rejecting nepotism in the political spoils system.

Joseph Steinbock, Cherry Hill

In an opinion that sounds more like a fire-and-brimstone church sermon than skilled, thoughtful legal reasoning, the chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court has ruled that embryos frozen for IVF efforts are children. So maybe all those once hopeful and now heartbroken would-be parents should take the judge at his word and claim their frozen children as dependents when they file their tax returns. This would put Alabama, other states, and the U.S. government on notice that there could be a hefty price to pay for this cruel, science-denying, theocracy-driven policy.

Albert Palubinsky, Philadelphia

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