Letters to the Editor | March 20, 2023

Last week, I had the opportunity to connect with two of my state legislators, State Sen. Fred Madden and Assemblywoman Gabriela Mosquera, to share my experience as a cancer advocate and the role that access to quality health care plays in many people’s survivorship. During our conversation, we discussed the current practices inhibiting New Jerseyans’ access to care, like step therapy, which produces delays in care. Step therapy requires a patient to try — then fail — alternative drug treatments selected by their insurance company before coverage is granted for the medication originally prescribed by the patient’s physician. At the end of 2022, Pennsylvania reformed its policies around step therapy, expanding timely access to lifesaving medication. New Jersey has an opportunity to do the same.

I, along with my fellow American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network volunteers, urge state leaders to support future legislation ensuring that step therapy requirements for prescription drugs are clear, efficient, and patient-friendly — allowing for exceptions, when appropriate. It should be your physician who determines what treatment is right for you.

Cancer waits for no one. New Jerseyans deserve better than delays.

Nicole Bodnar, volunteer, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Sewell

Please say it isn’t so: The Inquirer is asking Philadelphians to “redesign” the first, official city flag in America — your Philly flag. The Philadelphia civic flag is a historic object, and we are being asked to, essentially, trash it. Why? The Inquirer tells us it is too detailed, it has a seal, it has too many colors, and it has words on it. I happen to think all of these design qualities produce a flag that is classic, timeless, powerful, and perfect.

I believe the lack of education about this unifying symbol is the reason Philadelphia’s citizenry does not know about it, not because of a “terrible, bad flag design,” as put forth by The Inquirer (March 7). It was the highly regarded Presbyterian pastor, entomologist, and heraldic scholar, the Rev. Dr. Henry C. McCook, who conceived the idea of a city flag to promote civic pride in 1894.

Let’s look at the city seal on the flag (designed by Col. Frank Eating in 1874 and used in McCook’s flag design): Two women are depicted as strong and nurturing figures, called “Supporters.” The Supporters stand proudly, displaying the flag’s powerful message for all to see. There’s the left Supporter’s “Garland of Peace” and the “Anchor of Hope.” There’s the arm holding the “Balanced Scale of Justice.” There’s the right Supporter’s “Cornucopia of Plenty or Prosperity.” And then there’s our city motto, “Philadelphia Maneto”; translation, “Let brotherly love continue.”

Now, you can decode the message, by putting these parts together:

“Philadelphia Maneto (let brotherly love continue) through peace, hope, justice, and prosperity for all!” The action word let is most important. We must choose to let love continue for all.

That’s a message we truly need to hear right now — and one that we should do our best to live up to.

Brenda Embrey Exon, Wallingford, bexon2@comcast.net

This suburbanite commends The Inquirer’s editorial on March 16 supporting the Roosevelt Boulevard subway extension. As a Delaware County resident, I might well benefit from the King of Prussia extension of the Norristown High Speed Line, but how on Earth can one justify that $3 billion cost benefiting 10,000 riders per day compared with the same $3 billion estimated for the Boulevard extension to benefit 100,000 riders per day? Ten times the benefit for the same cost!

Northeast Philly’s lack of rapid transit also impacts residents outside of Northeast Philly. Anyone driving on I-95 or Roosevelt Boulevard has experienced those roadways’ time-wasting and dangerous levels of traffic. The Boulevard carries between 39,000 and 90,000 vehicles per day; the Delaware Expressway up to 160,000 vehicles per day. Shifting 100,000 commuters to rapid transit is bound to significantly diminish traffic on those two highways, as well as the related wear and tear on both drivers and road surfaces, not to mention decreasing fossil fuel consumption and air pollution.

SEPTA’s board must transcend its gerrymandered structure that overbalances suburban interests (two representatives per county, so Philadelphia’s 38% of the five-county population gets 20% of the board’s five-county representation). We suburbanites commute and travel into Philadelphia, and need the city’s transit needs to be met. I call on my county’s SEPTA board members, Mark Dambly and Dan Muroff, as well as other SEPTA board members, to support and work diligently for the Roosevelt Boulevard subway extension and other important transit upgrades in the city, especially on the Market-Frankford El and the Broad Street Line. Let’s focus on the most critical needs of our region and its populace, and be visionary.

Larry Passmore, Havertown

The way I see it, a path to the society that is ideally described must be paved with equitable stepping stones that include the following:

Something to think about: Nobody is born bad, unethical, disrespectful, or criminal. People who are consumed with frustration and despair are a product of our society. Who is responsible for the divisions and the inequity that is killing us figuratively and — in too many cases — literally?

Alexis G. Finger, Bala Cynwyd

. . .

In a recent letter, “A path toward equity” (March 16), the writer tries to make the case that “societal inequity” and “the lingering negative effects of historic racism and prejudice,” while part of American reality, need not constrain or impair anyone’s capacity to successfully pursue a path to the “good life.” By mentioning inequity and “historic” racism, the writer purports to distinguish himself from history deniers like the governor of Florida. However, the writer’s prescription for equity is a litany of work hard, follow the rules, take personal responsibility principles familiar to us as conservative guidelines for success. In other words, societal inequity, racism, and prejudice, though real, somehow play no role in determining any individual’s opportunities and capacity to succeed at life in America. This prescription thus puts the lie to the writer’s pro forma acknowledgment of the very factors that make it so much harder for some of us to play by the rules and succeed.

The implicit message is that there is no need for systemic accommodations to provide scaffolding for communities materially impacted by the racism and prejudice deeply woven into today’s society. That implicit message echoes Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crusade against any and all accommodation to achieve progress on social/racial justice — i.e., against all things “woke,” like the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that he is trying to ban in Florida. By contrast, in Pennsylvania, we are finally reckoning with the court-certified fact of systemic educational inequity. Equal opportunity is not a reality. It is rather a goal that we as a society need to work toward and fight for — and, ultimately, to make a reality.

Howard Dansky, Elkins Park

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.