Letters to the Editor | Aug. 8, 2025

Wow! What a welcome, and what an entrance for the Phillies’ recently acquired closer, Jhoan Duran. His first appearance at Citizens Bank Park was highlighted by a fantastic light show and an impressive electronic graphic of a menacing spider moving through flames — in reference to Duran’s nickname, Durantula. Problem is, the spider pictured looked nothing like a tarantula, but more like a red widow. So what difference does it make? Well, the Phillies are embarking on what might just be a perfect season ending, and shouldn’t everything about their run for the title be perfect — including their stadium graphics? Durantula is very likely to play a key role and give us many entrances to celebrate. Duran is too nice a guy, I suspect, to be the one to point out this error so it can be corrected. I’m not.

Bernard J. McBride, Philadelphia

The problem with rewriting history is that you have to wait until all those who were around to witness it have died. Unfortunately, many of us who watched Richie Allen play for the Phillies are still alive. I am one of them. As a kid and rabid baseball fan, I joined my father at countless Phillies games at Connie Mack Stadium and the Vet. Despite our enthusiasm for the Phillies, it didn’t take long for Allen’s antics to turn us, like most fans, against him. He was ill-tempered, smoked in the dugout, was late for practice, and missed games without explanation. This work ethic will not win you many fans in Philadelphia, despite your era or ethnicity.

The reason Allen didn’t get inducted to the Hall of Fame while he was alive is the same reason Pete Rose didn’t get in: Pete Rose. In Allen’s case: Richie Allen. All of us cheered when Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and other distinguished African American players came to town. Philadelphia has a long, embarrassing history of overt racism toward minority players. I have no doubt Allen suffered some of that. But to blame all his bad behavior on it is to rewrite history. Like Rose, Allen also never owned up to his part. Unfortunately, when people use race to explain away bad behavior, it only perpetuates racism (see: O.J. Simpson and Jussie Smollett). The revised story may sell newspapers, but those of us who were there to watch it know it didn’t happen that way.

William O’Toole, Chalfont

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, announced the agency will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu. Just as his boss’ Big Beautiful Bill knocks millions of Americans off their health insurance, let’s put our faith in the hands of the guy who went swimming in a bacteria-infested creek with his grandchildren earlier this year.

Vin Morabito, Scranton

Based on recent reports of pay-to-play, pay-to-say, and pay-to-get-your-child-out-of-jail, perhaps someone should call the White House and ask how much Philadelphia would have to pay to get off the sanctuary city list.

Louis Greenstein, Pleasantville

In the 1952 presidential election, there was a substantial moral backlash among self-righteous moral voters regarding the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson. He was vilified because, of all things, he had been divorced in 1949. And Stevenson lost the election in a landslide. Likewise, the antiabortion stance by the Republican Party to proclaim its moral high ground was used very successfully to manipulate the moral consciences of hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of voters in its favor. But the reality is that moral and ethical concerns in the U.S. have been far from consistent.

Largely ignored has been the criminal conviction of President Donald Trump, or his seditious attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. It has not mattered that he has five children by three wives, and allegations from 26 women describe his kissing, groping, and touching them without their consent. And then there are those cabinet officials who have faced accusations of sexual misbehavior getting rubber-stamped confirmations from a subservient Senate without moral conviction. In America, morality and ethics have become little more than a political tool to be used or ignored as convenient.

Joseph Batory, Philadelphia

How did the Nazis rationalize murdering six million Jews? By considering them to be less than human, of course. This is exactly how the perception of the Palestinians by the Israelis has evolved over the past 20 years, even before Oct. 7, 2023. Not that the Jews of Israel don’t have reason for hating the Palestinians. Having lived through one intifada myself, I understand how people living under the threat of terrorism every day and mourning the deaths of loved ones might despise the enemy, but that does not excuse Israel’s treatment of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as if they are less than human.

I understand that a strong nationalistic sentiment was necessary for Israel to both survive and thrive during its history; however, I never subscribed to the tenet that my life was worth more than others’ who were not Jewish. Now, after killing 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza (many of them children), Israel has caused a humanitarian crisis by not allowing food and medical supplies into Gaza as needed. Small children dying of malnutrition? I’m mortified. Yes, Oct. 7 was an atrocity that will never be forgiven nor forgotten; however, the collective punishment of the Palestinians of Gaza is not warranted. They are human beings after all, and the vast majority had no hand in what happened that fateful day.

Lawrence Goldman, York, Pa.

Regarding the article on Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (“Was rogue vote by Fitzpatrick ‘gutsy’ or strategic?”), I wish the media would more accurately refer to him as a “self-described moderate.” In every vote that matters, Fitzpatrick votes with Donald Trump. For instance, he voted twice against impeachment inquiries into Trump and twice against impeachment, despite overwhelming evidence that Trump committed impeachable offenses. Yet, he voted for the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, even as the flimsy “evidence” against him was provided by a witness who was discredited by the FBI. In defending his vote for the House version of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, Fitzpatrick posted a statement on his website that claimed (original formatting preserved), “Medicaid spending will increase every year over the 10-year life of the budget.”

The most charitable description of that statement is that it was deliberately deceptive. His suggested corrective legislation to “fix” the flaws of the BBB is mere show. Fitzpatrick knows these bills have zero chance of being passed. To date, Fitzpatrick has had an uncanny ability to calibrate his votes to appease the MAGA base while still preserving the allegiance of his more moderate constituency. In answer to the question posed by the headline of the article, Fitzpatrick is no “rogue.” Every important vote he takes is strategic and calculated to ensure his reelection.

Ernie Peacock, Langhorne

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 200 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.