Letters to the Editor | Nov. 14, 2023

I appreciated Tom Avril’s Nov. 7 article on hospital quality ratings. I think Anthony Esposito, CEO of Crozer-Keystone Health System, was disingenuous when he said that the ratings did not reflect quality initiatives at Crozer. Do they reflect all the staff he has laid off? Crozer is a case study of what could go wrong when a for-profit company buys hospitals. The investors often treat the acquired hospitals as cash cows and run them into the ground until they close — just like Delaware County Memorial Hospital did last year — leaving a huge vacuum in the community. I used to go to Crozer facilities for health care, but now I go elsewhere. Hopefully, other patients will be guided by the hospital report cards in making health-care provider decisions. As hospitals lose business, they will be motivated to improve the quality of care they provide to their patients.

Michael D. Rosko, Springfield

After reading Jonathan Zimmerman’s column, “Fight antisemitism by protecting free speech” (Nov. 12), I feel compelled to remind him that there is a limit on “free speech,” or as I prefer to call it, “protected speech.” Speech that is not protected falls into a few categories — obscenity, child pornography, defamation, incitement to violence, and true threats of violence. I might also suggest to Mr. Zimmerman that totally false statements (libel and slander) are also unacceptable. Hitler did indeed instigate hate in the Nazi movement with his false and inflammatory “anti-Jewish rants” to the public. Please remember that “speech” has historically often had hideous results. The famous saying, “Them’s fighting words,” sums up the potentially harmful effects of “free speech.”

Vicki Abt, retired professor, Penn State, Abington

The “Texas A&M fires Fisher, which will cost $75M” headline is obscene to me. I went to North Texas State College from 1953-1957, and I cannot even fathom where that $75 million is going to come from, how many students will now go without aid, how many teachers and staff will be shortchanged, and how the curriculum will be diminished.

And I realize this is the tip of the disparity in who gets paid what, and how the cost of that gets passed on to the students and faculty and those who take care of the grounds and so on. Whatever happened to higher education, responsibility, and accountability?

Gail Harris, Cherry Hill

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plan to have a 15-week abortion ban failed because pro-choice advocates could see right through the cynicism behind it. If Youngkin swayed voters on this promise and gained control of the Virginia state legislature, there would have been nothing to prevent him from getting any kind of ban he wanted. More insidious is the national 15-week ban proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham. Such a ban would not protect women’s reproductive rights, but be a foot in the door for antiabortion advocates. Once such a ban is enacted, it can always be amended to limit abortions to six weeks in the future by a more radical Congress. If there is going to be a 15-week ban with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, why does there need to be any ban at all? Contrary to the lies perpetrated by antiabortion advocates and Chris Christie, late-term abortions occur only when the life of the mother is threatened or the fetus is not viable, not on demand up until birth.

George Magakis Jr., Norristown

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