Letters to the Editor | June 11, 2023

Rep. Cori Bush (D., Mo.) has urged Congress to pass a reparations bill to compensate descendants of enslaved African Americans and suggested $14 trillion as an appropriate amount. While I acknowledge the impact of systemic racism in America (Oh dear, I said it, Gov. Ron DeSantis!) has had on Black Americans since 1619 (there I go again), I think that rather than individual payments, that money could serve a better purpose. Fourteen trillion dollars could go a long way to improve conditions in neighborhoods: affordable housing, improved (asbestos-free) schools, well staffed recreational facilities, improved libraries, and job training programs. That would have a lasting impact, and not for just one generation.

R. Barry Levis, Wayne

I both play and watch golf, and have always admired the PGA Tour for its high standards of ethical sportsmanship. The gentlemanly demeanor of the players, the strict attention to the rules and its attendant self-reporting of infractions, and their enormous philanthropic contributions placed it, for me, at the zenith of professional sports. I greatly admired its trenchant reaction to the inception of the LIV Golf tournament, a league created by buying off big-name professional golfers, controlled and sponsored by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who has presided over widespread human rights abuses in his country and who U.S. intelligence officials said ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The LIV tournament was little more than a blatant attempt by bin Salman to soften the perception of his kingdom in the West. Now, with the news that the PGA and LIV will merge, all the lofty contempt heaped on the Saudi league by the time-honored PGA is shown to merely be so much hypocrisy. All the moral arguments derisive of LIV were simply hyperbole. We now know it’s only — and always — all about the money. What a disappointment.

Steven Barrer, Huntingdon Valley

I do not agree with most of his ideology, but former vice president and current candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination Mike Pence has demonstrated and continues to show that he is an honest man: one who accepts the result of elections that his party loses. Pence has decried the attack on law enforcement officers and the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has said that he would not pardon those who were convicted of crimes for their actions on that day. He has vigorously asserted that his former running mate, Donald Trump, was wrong when he asserted that Pence could have refused to certify the vote to elect Joe Biden president. He fully supports Ukraine’s fight against war criminal Vladimir Putin and wants Ukraine to win it. Pence has adopted positions that are anathema to the Republican base, which despite all that it has seen, continues to gravitate to Donald Trump. Perhaps Pence’s chances of winning a presidential nomination would be better if he were running for the Democratic nod.

Oren Spiegler, Peters Township

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.