Letters to the Editor | Dec. 18, 2023

I cannot express strongly enough my outrage and sorrow over blocked funding for Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine by GOP members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Republican legislators are jumping on the political bandwagon and using the excuse of antisemitism to defund one of the best veterinary schools in the country. I am a Jew. Caring about children in Gaza is not antisemitism. Being opposed to Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies is not antisemitism. Why take it out on the animals of Pennsylvania? This is just another mean-spirited GOP policy. In fact, using antisemitism as an excuse is just going to make things worse for the Jews. My four Chinese cresteds have received fabulous medical care from the vets at this fine school. Restore the funding immediately and quit using my religion as a political talking point.

Lynn Meyer Brown, Philadelphia, bonniesimone1@gmail.com

After barely a week of a cease-fire that saw hostages released and desperately needed humanitarian aid flow into Gaza, war and violence have returned. Aid will be minimal. Hostages will remain where they are. The cease-fire negotiations, aid deliveries, and release of hostages show the power of dialogue. If Israel and the Palestinians want peace, they need to talk to one another. As a Quaker, a mother, and a doula who helped bring new life into the world, I condemn the horrific massacre by Hamas and the violent response against innocent civilians by Israel. It breaks my heart that my tax dollars are funding bombs dropped on children in Gaza. War is not the answer. It’s critical that Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman publicly call for a cease-fire to bring an end to the violence. Only once the shooting stops can we address the root causes of the conflict.

Betsy Crofts, Southampton

I often hear the claim that Israel’s “occupation” is the source of violence in the Middle East. However, violence against Israel predated 1967, when they acquired Gaza and the West Bank in a defensive war. It predated 1948, when five Arab nations rejected Israel’s creation by the United Nations and invaded to destroy it. It began during the Ottoman Empire, when Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon did not yet exist. In the late 19th century, Jews began to return to their ancient homeland because of antisemitism in Western Europe and pogroms in Russia. Local Arabs — who were simply residents of the Ottoman Empire — were not accepting of their arrival and violence broke out on a regular basis.

Why? Simply put, Jews met the same religious intolerance they experienced in Russia and Europe. Will a two-state solution solve anything? Not unless religious intolerance is addressed. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 to test the idea of a two-state solution. Their hope? Gaza would turn into a modern Singapore and focus on development and prosperity. The reality: rockets and Hamas. In this holiday season, we need to recognize we are all God’s children and respect each other’s religious beliefs without a claim to superiority. Without this, we will not achieve peace.

Pastor Charles Adams, Philadelphia

The media continue to tout polls that indicate low approval ratings for President Joe Biden. I don’t believe them. They have never asked me, nor anyone in my extended family, who for the most part would give him a thumbs-up. On Wednesday, the stock market hit a record high, but The Inquirer chose to give front-page priority to the House Republicans’ ridiculous and wasteful impeachment inquiry. The media are complicit in pushing not only the false impression of Biden’s poor performance but also the age factor.

Let’s look instead at some of Biden’s accomplishments: inflation is now under control, unemployment is at an amazingly low 3.7%, and job creation has been rising steadily. Despite what the doomsayers claim, the economy is doing fine. Just visit the malls and see how people are spending. Another point: I’m a veteran who has used the VA health system for over 20 years. I have never seen the system run as efficiently as it does today. With more help from the GOP, the Biden administration could do more to protect the environment, and possibly get the border situation under control. I’ll add the fact that Biden is an honorable man — especially compared with his likely opponent in 2024. Let’s give Joe Biden the credit he deserves.

Thomas Skudlarek, Lansdale

I find Gov. Josh Shapiro’s politics around the war in Gaza reprehensible and repugnant. What are the facts? The Israel Defense Forces have killed more than 17,000 men, women, and children. They have prevented two million residents of the Gaza Strip from having adequate supplies of food, clean water, and shelter. Yet Shapiro is uncritical of President Joe Biden’s plans to increase funding to Israel. Shapiro took time to go to Goldie to denounce a demonstration that protested the massacre of Palestinians. The owner of Goldie organized a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, and the demonstrators protested this financial support.

Apparently, the governor believes that any criticism of Israel’s indiscriminate killing of civilians is an expression of antisemitism. Then, he has the audacity to argue that “hate has no place in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” The governor took an oath to defend the Constitution. The First Amendment says that in this country people are supposed to have the right to freedom of speech. People have this right even when others may find that speech reprehensible. Yet Shapiro condemned former Penn president Liz Magill for merely stating her support of the First Amendment. Shapiro and I are both Jewish. Yes, antisemitism exists, and there are more reprehensible expressions aimed at dehumanizing Jewish people. But I believe that the best way to fight against antisemitism is to protest the killing of Palestinians organized by the Israeli government.

Steven Halpern, Philadelphia, hnbpjs@gmail.com

Recently, I learned that about one-third of colleges in the U.S. are headed by women. Yet, all three university presidents called before Congress were women. Was there no unrest on campuses headed by men?

Sister Veronica Roche, Somers Point

The Editorial Board has a great suggestion to streamline construction by reforming or getting rid of the Separation Act, but why not embrace a “right to compete” policy, too? That policy very simply states that any job or contract supported by public taxes must be competitively bid between nonunion and union suppliers of that service, or else the job or contract will not be awarded. Fair to all citizens. Clearly, the monopolies of our labor unions do not honor this fair play and inclusiveness for all workers, nor do the monopolies respect everyone who pays taxes for tax-supported jobs and contracts. We pay abusively high noncompetitive labor rates inside our city because the concept of a right to compete is, so far, anathema to the dominant political party. Let us urge our new mayor to move toward fair, equitable competition, inclusiveness, and belonging of all our excellent and competent, taxpaying, voting, nonunion residents, too.

Gardner A. Cadwalader, Philadelphia

Op-ed writer Mathy Vathanaraj Stanislaus is right: Pennsylvania residents face dire threats from climate change, and we cannot take a “business-as-usual approach” to ensuring our communities are prepared and resilient. But we must also be clear-eyed about the costs to protect residents from future climate disasters. This summer, a study from the Center for Climate Integrity estimated that our taxpayers face more than $15 billion in costs by 2040 to protect municipal infrastructure from more extreme heat, precipitation, and sea level rise.

Our communities are already paying the price for a warming planet, and it’s time we make the corporate polluters who knowingly fueled and profited from this crisis for decades pay their fair share. New Jersey, Delaware, and other states are taking major climate polluters like Exxon, Chevron, and Shell to court to hold them accountable for misleading consumers about the climate risks of their fossil fuel products. Pennsylvania should consider similar action. Let’s make polluters pay for the damage they’ve caused.

Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel, Clean Air Council

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