Letters to the Editor | July 26, 2023

Even though the number of children getting the lifesaving HPV vaccine has decreased in recent years, it is crossing a line to begin mandating vaccines for noncommunicable diseases, as Eddy Bresnitz recommends. The historic purpose of government-sanctioned mandated vaccines has been to protect someone from contracting a disease from others who are infected. I see his recommendation as an unprecedented action that is cause for concern.

Michael J. Ciavola, Newtown Square, mjciavola@verizon.net

Thank you for publishing the piece on credit unions. Credit unions maintain a reciprocal network where members can directly access their accounts at other credit unions. In addition, credit unions provide ATM access at major commercial banks and ATMs at local businesses such as CVS, Wawa, Target, and convenience stores. Credit unions also refund any surcharges. As a long-standing credit union member, I take issue with the notion that credit unions lack the same technology as large commercial banks. I find that my credit union provides me with the same advanced technology as my large commercial bank. Actually, for everyday banking, my credit union offers far better service.

Paul Seader, Cherry Hill

Much of the discussion about weed legalization in Pennsylvania focuses on tax dollars and gross sales. There is rarely any mention made of the “ramifications” of “weed” usage.

I criticized the legalization of weed in New Jersey, and I would appreciate it if some reporter would do a really thorough investigative job talking to police officers, courts, hospitals, doctors, and others to identify any new problems that have come along with it. Money “coming in” is only one side of this story.

David F. Lipton, Toms River

In Israel, the far-right lawmakers in control of the parliament just voted to diminish the authority of the Supreme Court and allow politicians to enact whatever laws they want. Israel’s democracy is in peril. In the United States, religionists of many denominations and far-right white nationalists support Donald Trump, a man under many indictments who would seek to control our democracy should he ever regain the presidency. Similarly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also under indictment in Israel, and both men could stay out of jail if they controlled the law. The parallels between both countries are astounding, and the motives of both men are apparent.

Many societies have been controlled by religious extremists and their interpretation of “God’s will.” They adhere to religious beliefs first and are not concerned with civil law except to bend it to their benefit. The U.S. Constitution is the shining light Israel didn’t have. We must follow our Constitution and enforce our laws. If Trump is found guilty, he must go to jail, and any who perpetrate violence should go with him. If not, we will follow Israel down the slippery slope of extremism.

Dave “Fizzy” Weinraub, Cherry Hill, dweinraub@comcast.net

Sadie Batchis, the Central High School student who wrote about the School District’s required African American history course, makes many good points. She does criticize proposed state legislation that bars any curriculum that suggests that an individual “bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by members of the individual’s race or sex.” I generally don’t favor legislation that intrudes on what is taught in the classroom. That being said, does anyone believe that children should be taught that they somehow bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by anyone? For anything? I don’t.

Matt Wolfe, Philadelphia, matthew@wolfe.org

. . .

Florida’s Black history curriculum requiring middle schoolers to be taught that enslaved people learned skills that could personally benefit them is a ploy worthy of George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. By the 19th century, slavery and slave work was a factory-like enterprise in which the enslaved labored in the gang system. While some enslaved people performed trade jobs on plantations, the beneficiaries of such work were the plantation owners, not the enslaved. Whether the enslaved performed field work, as did most, or served as a cooper, nanny, or cook, they realized minimal benefits. Enslaved people with artisanal ability were still enslaved, subject to slave codes. Such codes forbade the enslaved from marrying (making it easier to break up families by selling members to other captors), assembling without a white person present, owning personal property, being taught to read or write, or testifying against a white person. Raping an enslaved person was considered mere trespass, as such women were viewed as property.

Beneficiaries in the latest example of Florida’s wokeism are not schoolchildren, but the politicians and bureaucrats who pander to benighted citizens who believe they’ve been denied their place in the sun because they were born white and heterosexual.

Stewart Speck, Ardmore, speckstewart@gmail.com

. . .

It seems that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his Department of Education have begun a process of changing America’s story, removing anything negative from the narrative. For what purpose is this being done? DeSantis does not want students to be upset by any negativity, so lessons about slavery will be “whitewashed.” This is absurd. In 1619, the first ships arrived in America with a cargo of human beings to be sold as chattel. It happened. It is a fact. Enslaved Africans were held in bondage until President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. That is also a fact. Florida does not get to have a different set of facts. Telling students that slavery was beneficial is a dastardly distortion of truth. What will Florida say next — that the Holocaust offered Jews the opportunity to travel? America must speak up. We cannot let this monstrous activity go unchallenged.

Sheryl Kalick, Philadelphia

I’m appalled at the young women on America’s World Cup soccer team who didn’t have the decency to sing our national anthem before their game against Vietnam. They couldn’t even place their hands over their hearts to show love and respect for the greatest nation in the world — a nation that gave them opportunities women in other countries just dream about.

It’s heartbreaking to see such disrespect. Wake up, ladies — and show some patriotism for the blessing of being an American.

Dolly Constable, Gradyville

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.