Letters to the Editor | Jan. 15, 2024

Every mid-January, I question myself as to whether I conquered my desires to explore more about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I contemplate privately on what it would’ve been like when King attended Crozer Theological Seminary near Chester. That’s just in the immediate outskirts of the City of Brotherly Love. I often wonder where King hung out as a student. The Delaware Valley area surely is filled with hidden artifacts of his collegiate activities. We (I) must get better at exploring those connections and paying tribute to his nearby and rightful contribution.

Wayne E. Williams, Camden, wwilliams@uarts.edu

In a recent op-ed in support of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s heavy-handed law-and-order approach to the gun and drug crises in the city, Larry Miller, an ex-police reporter, uses the occasion to criticize District Attorney Larry Krasner’s approach to his job. Although I have voted Democratic in every election since 1956 (my grandfather having been a Democratic congressman and candidate for mayor in the early 1900s), I voted for the Republican in this mayoral election. Having worked with people with addictions for more than 40 years, Parker’s efforts to use the National Guard to resolve the drug crisis in Kensington, together with her opposition to the Safehouse supervised injection site, made the choice easy for me. Ed Rendell, one of our most effective mayors, supports Safehouse.

Neither Parker nor Kensington Councilmember Quetcy Lozada has any experience or wisdom concerning addiction. More police and more arrests are hardly going to impact a humanitarian crisis like addiction and deaths from overdose. Krasner’s policies acknowledge the limited resources of law enforcement and prosecution. He is unpopular with the police and their advocates because he has been holding them to account for the false convictions of innocent people and the lying that supported them. Despite the hype, crime statistics have been declining in Philadelphia. I find that The Inquirer also has an unbalanced view of that and of Krasner. I am hoping for — but not expecting — more creative solutions from this administration and less bashing of those with different approaches.

Charles A. Glackin, Philadelphia, strategicfollies@hotmail.com

A quick survey of the past: For centuries, the land around us was the home of the Lenni Lenape. Then, Europeans invaded, and in 1681, King Charles II paid off debts to William Penn’s father by granting a charter for Pennsylvania. In 1698, the crown specifically granted Penn and his daughter lots of land at Second and Front Streets. In 1755, Penn’s grandson, John Penn, gave a plot there, now known as Welcome Park, to the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Fast-forward to today and the National Park Service announces a plan to honor the area’s American Indian roots by remodeling the park, including moving the William Penn statue. White politicians and commentators react in a frenzy, with state House Republican leader Bryan Cutler calling moving the statue an “absurd and revisionist view of our state’s history.” Thus continues a long American tradition: taking everything from Native Americans, including their history.

Terry Shepard, Bryn Mawr

Will Bunch’s recent column on the removal of Claudine Gay as president of Harvard puts forward the idea that it is all about “who controls the narrow pipelines into America’s elites, and how to preserve ancient hierarchies around race, gender, economic class, and social status.” Yet, it was her performance on Capitol Hill that triggered powerful opponents to scrutinize her presidency. When Gay was asked repeatedly about whether calls for genocide on her campus violated Harvard’s code of conduct regarding bullying and harassment, she responded by saying that she found such speech “personally abhorrent,” but the school embraced “a commitment to free expression.”

This claim is certainly untrue, as the case of many academics would attest. Many speakers scheduled to give talks on college campuses — as well as those students who have dared to voice views at variance with the official creed — can point to the fact that academia has become utterly intolerant of views that differ from the prevalent “social justice” orthodoxy. Harvard ranks last among colleges and universities for free speech, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Had universities remained altogether neutral on political issues, as they should, Gay would not have been caught in the position in which she found herself.

Richard Colucci, Pennsauken, rickyc@comcast.net

I am writing to express my deep concern and sadness regarding the recent incident at Parx Racing in Bensalem. On Jan. 2, a horse named River City Rocker tragically lost her life at the starting gate. This unfortunate and avoidable event serves as a stark reminder of the ethical concerns surrounding horse racing. The compassionate public really needs to reconsider the future of this sport. The death of this horse wasn’t even the only accident that day. Another horse, named Trader’s Luck, was also scratched after he injured himself at the starting gate. His fate remains unknown.

Horse deaths are all too common in racing and underscore the inherent risks associated with this awful sport. Despite efforts to ensure safety measures, incidents like these shed light on the profound ethical dilemma surrounding the exploitation of animals for entertainment purposes. In 2023 alone, more than 20 horses were killed at Parx Racing. How can we allow horses to suffer and die merely for the pursuit of human entertainment?

I urge readers to reflect on the broader implications of horse racing and question whether the joy derived from this sport is worth the cost in terms of animal welfare. Let us collectively consider advocating for a shift toward more humane and ethical forms of entertainment that do not compromise the lives of sentient beings.

Stephanie Curson, Norristown, Stephanie@rev-philly.org

In the recent article, “Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls increase by 5%,” the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission claims the state’s per-mile toll remains lower than national toll averages. However, the commission fails to mention two key points about Pennsylvania compared with other states. First, along with the District of Columbia, 15 states have no tolls at all, and seven states have just one toll for a specific bridge, tunnel, or summit. Second, no other state turnpike or highway system has a $14 billion debt requiring annual increases through 2051.

Fred Walker, Wyndmoor

The recent article in The Inquirer by Los Angeles Times reporter Sarah D. Wire needs to be circulated and condensed in a more concise yet fully factual way, so it will not be overlooked. It needs to be published by the media that provides our people with their news. It is a crucial piece of evidence in the case of why Donald Trump shouldn’t be allowed on our presidential ballot in 2024. Not only did he encourage the participants in the attack on the U.S. Capitol to “fight like hell.” The protesters were in Washington that day because Trump had claimed, and still does, that he, not Joe Biden, was the duly elected president. Our democracy depends on the acceptance of the results of elections, and many investigations have determined that there was no fraud in the casting or counting of the votes in this election. The very refusal to accept as valid the certified results of the 2020 presidential election is an example of insurrection. Why should we allow him the possibility of doing that again?

Mary A. McKenna, Philadelphia

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