Letters to the Editor | Jan. 3, 2025

Donald Trump and many of his fellow Republican candidates won in November, presumably more because of the economy than any other reason. Polls consistently showed that a clear majority of Americans felt Joe Biden had failed in this most important issue. In Sunday’s Inquirer, Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, claimed, “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the U.S. economy’s performance this past year is the best in my 35 years as a professional economist.” So, what are we supposed to conclude from the discrepancy between the perception of the majority to the actual viewpoint of an experienced professional economist for one of the industry’s leading financial institutions?

Joseph Goldberg, Philadelphia

It is far too early to talk about the legacy of Joe Biden. I’m sure he will gradually be forgotten and only remembered as the president between Donald Trump’s administrations. Yet, if one were to consider Biden’s legacy, it would be one of petty corruption while America’s power waned and weakened. He will be likened to Nero fiddling while Rome burned, except Nero wasn’t counting his gold while he fiddled. Biden will be partially absolved of the worst that took place during his years in office due to his failing health and diminished capacity. In fact, his personal downward slide will be remembered as his only saving grace. Had Biden remained just competent enough to be a useful stooge just a little while longer, we may have lost our republic to the tyranny of a leftist utopia.

Rob Decker, King of Prussia

While I applaud Jenice Armstrong for coining the very clever term Blaxit to describe Black Americans emigrating to Africa after Donald Trump’s election, it’s not quite right to equate this exodus with Brexit, Britain’s move to leave the European Union. That decision (which I strongly disagree with) had a true, populist, working-class base. Shortly after the vote, I asked English workers what they thought, and it ultimately came down to them not wanting to see their social services, including the National Health Service, jeopardized by people coming over from other EU countries. That is to say, the English fear in 2020 was economic. Likewise, the fear of working-class folks and disadvantaged households in this county because of the election of Trump.

The policies his administration is likely to enact will have a disastrous effect on the lives of low-income folks, be they Black, brown, or white, while those of us solidly middle-class folks — and that includes queer me and my queer husband, as well as any African American privileged enough to be able to pick up their belongings to relocate to Ghana — will all very likely experience minimal limitations to our domestic freedom and well-being.

Cutting to the chase, I encourage all of us, especially those of us who will be marginalized in the eyes of the upcoming Trump administration, to remain in this country and deal with, in a peaceful way, the challenges we will face in the next four years. Let’s work to make the near future less formidable than what Armstrong implies by glorifying an expat exit to Ghana for African Americans. We need to go forward in the spirit of the lyric of the Allen Toussaint tune made popular by the Pointer Sisters, “Yes We Can Can,” with its recurring lyric that says, “I know we can make it if we try.”

Kurt Findeisen, Philadelphia

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s safety bureau is alleging that Philadelphia Gas Works’ negligence led to the South Philly six-home explosion in 2021, and once again, PGW wants to make us pay. While the complaint stipulates that the $300,000 penalty must not be paid by ratepayers, PGW’s statement implies that it will, representing its most recent effort to pass its own failures and the impacts of the climate crisis onto us.

This is the same company that uses ratepayer dollars to fund anti-electrification lobbyists while charging for gas upgrades that won’t be completed until after our city’s 2050 fossil fuel-free goal. The same company that has a “weather-normalization charge,” so we pay more when climate change caused by fossil fuels like natural gas leads to milder winters. The same company that pushed our gas commission to adopt a regulation that bars community groups from legal intervention in budgets. It is also our company, our municipally owned utility in a city where too many people are already burdened with bills they can’t afford. It is time for our elected officials to tighten oversight and force real planning for a just transition to a fossil fuel-free future that prevents PGW from exploiting customers again.

Linnea Bond, director, health and environmental education, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania

It is a positive step that President Joe Biden saved 37 out of 40 federal death row inmates from execution, but it is very grim that he left three to face death. That cannot help but add to their punishment — not to mention the roughly 2,250 people in state prisons who still face execution. The death penalty reeks of profound problems. It is used ostensibly, supposedly, appropriately, to show our condemnation of killing and to deter others from killing. Murderers are executed as a sort of tit-for-tat punishment, but the system does not steal from thieves, beat up injurious aggressors, or rape rapists. The death penalty tells us that killing is justified in some situations. That is an extremely deadly idea, especially in a country now flooded with guns. Any number of those who accept the death penalty, not to mention the indiscriminate bombing of Palestinians, are Christians who apparently have put exceptions to the “thou shalt not kill” commandment.

John Jonik, Philadelphia

It appears our incoming president is unhappy with the fact his soon-to-be-predecessor has commuted 37 federal death sentences, as he is constitutionally permitted to do. Let’s break this into four parts: morals, practicality, money, and revenge. It has been apparent for years that Donald Trump is amoral and does not recognize that the state has no more right to kill than does an individual. From a practical point of view, it has been proven and documented that the death penalty does not deter crime. And it certainly costs the taxpayer millions of dollars over and above life in prison. Sounds backward but it isn’t, so that leaves us with revenge.

Perhaps when public hangings and the electric chair were in fashion, the public looked upon them as revenge, but how much satisfaction can a victim’s relatives get watching a person peacefully lying down while a needle is painlessly inserted into their arm? Better the criminal spend the rest of their life behind bars. Every country in Europe except Russia and Belarus has taken the death penalty off their books, as have more than 22 U.S. states. Others, including Pennsylvania, have a moratorium. If one wonders about America’s seemingly violent nature, perhaps the top would be the place to start to effect change. Considering Trump’s history, do not hold your breath.

Ralph D. Bloch, Jenkintown, ralphdbloch@yahoo.com

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