Letters to the Editor | Jan. 6, 2025

How irresponsible of President-elect Donald Trump to post on his Truth Social platform unverified and later proven false information that the driver of the white pickup truck who maliciously and cowardly mowed down New Year’s celebrators in New Orleans was an immigrant — all to further his narrative against the Biden-Harris administration. Horrifically, the alleged culprit was a domestic terrorist who was a U.S.-born citizen and a military veteran turned ISIS supporter. Our leaders have a responsibility to wait for the facts before projecting misinformation to advance their agenda.

Mya Morgan, Philadelphia

I just got home from seeing Kiss Me, Kate at the Quintessence Theatre. I knew this Cole Porter show had not aged well, but being old-fashioned does not excuse its ugliness. I believed the Quintessence would produce a modern version that turned the musical’s sexism on its head. Not so. This was Kiss Me, Kate in all its old misogynistic glory — laughing at domestic abuse, joking about putting women in their place. I could scarcely believe it was 2024 (or maybe worse, this is 2024).

Domestic abuse is not a joke. My father beat my mother so often and so badly that she miscarried five pregnancies. He threw her down the stairs while she was holding me as an infant in her arms. He hit her over the head with an iron skillet. This is my family history. But hey, I’m an old woman. Things are better now, right? Wrong. My students tell me about the abuse they have suffered from their fathers, their boyfriends, their husbands.

Domestic abuse is alive and well in America today. But somehow people think we can laugh about it? Laugh about a woman being spanked on stage so hard that she cannot sit down the next day? Laugh about a man wielding a whip and threatening a woman with it? To whoever thought this was a good idea for a fun family musical during the holiday season, those of us who have lived the nightmare of abuse are not laughing.

Deborah Lemieur, Havertown

I’m a senior citizen in Center City. I marched, rallied, called, and wrote to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and City Council about the critical need to say no to the 76ers’ proposed arena. I have yet to find out why the Sixers insisted on the Market East location. It is a densely populated area and home to the 150-year-old Chinatown, which will be jeopardized by the arena. The extra traffic will impede ambulances trying to transport patients to the nearby Thomas Jefferson Hospital. I was furious when Parker endorsed the arena. It seemed like a fait accompli. She said it was the best decision for all of Philadelphia, but let’s be honest: the arena will benefit the mayor and the unions she is indebted to, as well as the billionaire developers and the Sixers. As for the residents of Chinatown and the surrounding neighborhoods? They can go pound sand.

Donna Greenberg, Philadelphia

The problem with self-contained inner-city shopping malls such as the Gallery at Market East, Reading Terminal Market, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center is that they limit foot traffic around the neighborhood and therefore deprive small street shops of their livelihood. What Market Street and Chinatown need are innovative street design, traffic patterns, and open green spaces. As an architect, I can say that the last thing the area needs is another self-contained structure like the Sixers arena.

The arena proposal intends to improve the accessibility of adjacent streets, but such a large project, within an already crowded city, is unable to resolve the ease of access with a few patches. Such a forceful impact on the city demands a new city master plan. However, no city planner will place an 18,500-seat arena in the middle of a city that is already facing stress from a variety of sources.

It is unfortunate that despite the advice of almost every city planner, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, City Council, and the building trades are cheering happily for the Center City arena deal. The city and its workers can benefit no matter where it’s located — including alternative proposals at the South Philly sports complex or by the Schuylkill. A Center City arena will conflict with the historic value of the city, erase the identity of Chinatown, destroy the Market Street retail corridor, and put further stress on the movement of people and goods around the city’s core.

Abdo Tavakolian, Philadelphia

A photograph of a Palestinian man shouting to the skies in grief for his injured son hit me in the gut this morning. Why do we continue to see this devastating war in the Gaza Strip as well as the almost three years of unrelenting war in Ukraine? Why do we not have institutions and international laws that are strong enough to intervene and stop this carnage? When I search deeply enough, I am very saddened to see the United States is partly to blame. I thought we were supposed to be peacekeepers, brokers of treaties, and solvers of problems. Yet, when I look beyond the surface, all I see are our tools of war on the battlefield.

We have no skin in the game — no sons, daughters, husbands, or wives fighting on the front lines — but our bombs, planes, and missiles fuel these wars. It is also our veto on the United Nations Security Council and our refusal to join the International Criminal Court and honor its decisions that weaken the potential power of these international organizations. We should wake up to our complicity and spend our resources on life-giving products and services, not war machinery. We should respect the voices of the rest of the world that would like to bring peace to these lands by halting the invasions and holding Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu accountable. There used to be a peace movement. Where is it now?

Susan R. MacBride, Philadelphia

Recently, there was an article about using a shared-work program to reduce hours instead of laying employees off. As a software developer currently working a four-day, 32-hour workweek, this got me thinking: Could a company use the shared-work program as a way to save money while piloting a four-day workweek? The program requires that a company can’t hire any new employees for affected roles during the shared-work period, and recruiting is often one of the main reasons companies adopt four-day workweeks. However, if a company is just looking to retain employees and wants to test if it can maintain its productivity on a four-day workweek, then it seems possible to run a six-month or one-year pilot while saving money with this program.

There was also an article about teacher recruitment problems, and four-day weeks are being used as a solution for that, too. Pennsylvania even recently legalized four-day school weeks. The catch is that students still need to attend the same 180 days of school, but maybe this means we can improve teacher retention and implement year-round schooling at the same time.

Julian Plotnick, Philadelphia

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