Letters to the Editor | Jan. 21, 2026

During a recent CBS News interview, Sen. Dave McCormick — who was appearing with Sen. John Fetterman — drew a sharp distinction between violent language and physical violence, and I found myself in rare agreement with him. After all, that is exactly what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, when Donald Trump and his minions spewed violent language that stoked a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol, where they physically injured law enforcement officers. And, to the extent our dear senator was referring to actions in Minneapolis, I will remind him that the last words Renee Good spoke were, “I’m not mad at you,” which is about as nonviolent a statement as one could utter — but an agent still shot her three times. So, in the case of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calm words still provoke violence.

Steve Morley, Philadelphia

I am appalled by comments made by both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, John Fetterman and Dave McCormick, during their recent interview with CBS News.

McCormick complained that protesters were “dehumanizing” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents by comparing them to Hitler. Fetterman said, “ICE has a job to do, as well,” and that everyone doesn’t have to agree on the tactics.

Our senators have got this completely wrong. The protesters are out there confronting ICE because of heavily armed, masked agents who are dehumanizing immigrants, invading their homes and workplaces without warrants, manhandling pregnant women, deporting children with cancer, arresting immigrants in courthouses when they show up for the very hearings they are required to attend to attain legal status here, and allegedly depriving them of contact with their families and attorneys.

Both Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden deported more people than Donald Trump did in his first term, without the fuss and protests now accompanying the “jobs” of ICE agents, because they did it legally and followed international and U.S. law. Almost all of those deported were recent arrivals or convicted criminals, not people who peacefully made their homes here and contributed positively to their communities.

Trump wants the public to see ICE treating immigrants brutally, and has posted many videos on U.S. Department of Homeland Security websites as a display of what he sees as his unstoppable power — just in case the public was missing the point.

Most Americans want ICE to follow the law, obtain court-issued warrants, stop detaining and beating U.S. citizens caught up in its roundups, and allow immigrants to have the due process the Constitution affords to everyone, citizens and noncitizens alike. We want ICE agents to take off the masks and display their badges. And we want the shootings to stop — and justice for the senseless execution of Renee Nicole Good.

Jodine Mayberry, Brookhaven

I must respond to something Brian Fitzpatrick said in an interview with Philadelphia Magazine, as reported recently in The Inquirer. Mr. Fitzpatrick is quoted as saying, “[W]e’ve seen the weaponization of the Justice Department now, I believe, in two administrations.” Statements like that are exactly why Fitzpatrick has to go. It is not “weaponization” when egregious behavior is confronted by law enforcement authorities and criminal and civil charges are brought to stop that behavior. Donald Trump was convicted in civil court of sexually abusing a woman. Mr. Trump was convicted of cheating the state of New York out of millions of dollars of tax revenue. We all saw dozens of boxes of United States government documents, many of them highly classified, stored in bathrooms and hallways at Mar-a-Lago, after they were illegally removed by Trump from the White House. And even Sen. Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) assumed the U.S. Department of Justice would bring charges against Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. At Trump’s second impeachment, McConnell said that, even though Trump could not be impeached, he was “still liable to be tried and punished in ordinary tribunals of justice.”

To imply that Trump or his Jan. 6 insurrectionists were unfairly targeted is a grave misrepresentation of our justice system. The fact that Fitzpatrick cannot — or will not — acknowledge that justice must be done disqualifies him from being a member of the House of Representatives.

Michael Walsh, Elkins Park

The Inquirer recently reported that a Norristown day center serving the city’s homeless population is itself in need of a new home. The day center was forced out of its current location and has been blocked from its new location over residents’ superfluous concerns about “loitering.” The fact that Norristown needs this center says something about our faltering economy, but this particular story says more about the failures of our culture — and each of us individually. The idea that we should “love thy neighbor” goes back to antiquity. Yet, Norristown residents demonstrated active disdain for their less fortunate neighbors by depriving them of much-needed support. Unfortunately, the NIMBYs of Norristown are not unique. Every day, Philadelphians turn a blind eye to our struggling, homeless neighbors living in Center City. Too many of us fail to empathize with those who are less fortunate than ourselves, and even more of us fail to offer help. Our collective lack of compassion is an evil that spreads through the body politic, infecting each of us. We must be better. The only way we can redeem ourselves is through action. We must actively love those less fortunate than ourselves, otherwise we contribute to the suffering of our neighbors.

Owen Castle, Philadelphia

I appreciated your editorial regarding the administration’s energy policies, but it’s not just that fossil fuels are “promoted.” It’s that the government is using our tax dollars to make the air we breathe dirtier and the weather we live in more dangerous.

The U.S. provides an estimated $35 billion annually in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, more than we give to the 10 biggest recipients of foreign aid combined. At the same time, support for clean energy is being slashed.

This makes no sense when solar has become the cheapest form of electricity. A local business is installing solar panels that will cut my energy bill in half. If the federal government reallocated subsidies away from people like Dallas Cowboys owner (and fossil fuel billionaire) Jerry Jones and toward regular Americans like you and me, we could empower 54 million households to do the same.

Joe Pelusi, Rydal

President Donald Trump has been threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy the military to Minneapolis to quell the unrest. But when I look at the streets of Minneapolis these last few weeks, it feels like the military is already there: thousands of heavily armed federal agents are using tear gas, flash-bangs, pepper spray, and guns to intimidate (even kill, in one case) unarmed protesters exercising their constitutional right to express themselves. The presence of masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their heavy-handed tactics is what’s causing the unrest and fear, not the city residents. Remove ICE and the temperature will lower quickly. Sending in the military will have the opposite effect and is exactly what is not needed.

Stephen Kunz, Phoenixville, spkunz@aol.com

Albert Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. This gifted scientist, musician, and doctor gave up a prosperous life to found humanitarian clinics where there were none. Finding Schweitzer in what was then known as French Equatorial Africa, Norman Cousins, editor of the then-influential magazine Saturday Review, asked him what the most important thing was that he had learned during his lifetime. Schweitzer responded after delivering a baby in a nearby village that the most important thing he had learned was that each person at birth contains a “cathedral within — a vast, precious, sacred cathedral!” Schweitzer sets a high standard for recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Donald Trump accuses the Minneapolis immigrants from Somalia (people he describes as “garbage”) of fraud. His recent acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to María Corina Machado is fraud at the highest level. He should return it to her immediately. His motive for MAWA (Make America White Again) is in sharp contrast to Schweitzer’s “cathedral within!”

Terry Furin, Philadelphia

I was so happy to read recently that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have reported double-digit increases in their profits. Does anyone know when that will trickle down to me?

Dale Cochran, Downingtown

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