Letters to the Editor | Sept. 18, 2023

Being the Eagles fan that I am, I was disheartened to learn that all Thursday night games are now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. I was told this was a decision made by the NFL, but the team owners would have had to approve that. I feel bad for the older folks who maybe can’t afford streaming — or even know what it is. This is just another way the already rich owners get even more money from the franchises at the expense of their fans. Shame on them.

C. Fogarty, Schwenksville

The Inquirer did a public service chronicling the inequitable funding structure that disadvantages so many Pennsylvania students (”See how much money your school district has for students,” Sept. 6). Especially in Philadelphia, where nearly a third of students live in poverty, there’s another reason schools are so underfunded: property tax breaks given to corporations. Because of the city’s generous residential abatement program, Philadelphia schools lost more than $135 million in the 2022 fiscal year. Between 2017 and 2022, the School District lost a staggering $624 million. These figures, taken from the School District’s end-of-year spending reports, don’t include even larger revenue losses to the city. Worse, the money has largely flowed to some of the city’s wealthiest developers for residential projects, which produce very few permanent jobs. True economic development means improving those things that draw people to communities, and great schools top that list. I attended Philadelphia public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade and experienced firsthand what disinvestment looks like: lack of air-conditioning cut scorching days short, my high school’s stairwell caved in, textbooks that were more than 20 years old. The money going to developers could have an outsized impact were it back where it should be: with students.

Anya Gizis, Philadelphia

The writer works at Good Jobs First, a nonprofit that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development.

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the United Auto Workers for standing up for workers’ rights against its bosses’ greed. The union’s primary demand is to get the same pay hike as the CEOs of its companies. Without the workers, the CEOs would have no sales, no profits, and no basis for a pay hike, so this is only fair. Other demands relate to the return of benefits the autoworkers voluntarily gave back to support their companies during the pandemic. Those givebacks did not set a new floor for workers — they were a one-time concession to help their companies, concessions that CEOs did not make. There is no wealth in America without workers. They deserve no worse than the same treatment as bosses. When the UAW wins, we all win. And every worker in America should make the same demands.

Kenneth Gorelick, Wayne

In the African nation of Libya, more than 11,000 people have died in severe flooding and another 20,000 are missing. Yet it has barely received a mention on U.S. social or broadcast media. This represents one of the worst natural disasters in history, yet it has been severely undercovered by most news outlets in this country. If this had occurred in a European nation with a majority Caucasian population, it would have been the top story of every media organization. The silence is deafening and dismaying. Perhaps this simply reflects our racial bias, that the lives of people of color are somehow worth less and demand less attention than white people. In any case, this news — or more pointedly the lack of news — is quite disturbing.

Ken Derow, Swarthmore

While my support of the United States’ assistance to Ukraine in its current struggle with Russia is unwavering, I feel compelled to respond to the recent controversy regarding the monument in Elkins Park. The claim that the Ukrainians’ enlistment and service in a unit of the infamous SS during World War II was merely an effort to rid themselves of the murderous Stalinist regime is disingenuous at best. Certainly, Ukraine’s struggles with Russia were and remain more than justifiable. What was not by any means justifiable was Ukraine’s collaboration with the genocidal Nazi regime. Any monument, anywhere in the United States, to memorialize a unit of the SS is an affront to all Americans and their allies who fought against Nazi Germany in the war, and to the millions slaughtered in the Holocaust. As to the denial that the SS unit memorialized in Elkins Park participated in Nazi atrocities, I can only reply with but two words: Babi Yar.

Gary Kaplan, Warwick

We have Vladimir Putin meeting with Kim Jong Un, thousands dying from floods and earthquakes, children and innocent citizens being killed through mass shootings, our planet being decimated through climate change — and what is our government focused on? A former president is under indictment, and now the sitting president is being put under an impeachment investigation. When is our government going to start doing what they were elected to do: make the people who put them in office their first priority? If you or I incited a riot in order to attack the U.S. Capitol building, we would be charged with treason. If we lied on a résumé in order to obtain a job, we would be blacklisted. We quote the Constitution when we choose to allow anyone to own a firearm. Did our forefathers envision allowing “alleged” criminals to run our country? Something somewhere is wrong. Who has the guts to change it?

Christine Mayes, Glenside

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