Letters to the Editor | June 9, 2024

The recent editorial on college athletes does not go far enough. The concept of big-time university sports is a hypocrisy — and the name, image, and likeness money and one-and-done recruiting have revealed it as such. The universities are not “beloved” by the student-athletes, who transfer around looking for the best deal. Most big-time athletes are coddled: segregated in fancy housing with multimillion-dollar training facilities and separate dining. They are not part of the community of students. Universities could excise this tumor by licensing their big-time sports and leasing their athletic facilities to private entities that will employ, pay, and compete for athletes. Athletes would wear the uniform of the university and play in its stadium but would have little other connection. Of course, they could matriculate at the university under the same terms and with the same expectations as any other student.

Barry L. Klein, Philadelphia

A person’s brain is not fully developed until age 25. Social media moguls, awash in insatiable greed, take advantage of youngsters’ addictive personalities. Kids are attempting to navigate their impressionable preteen and teen years while being bombarded by the cruelty of pernicious peer postings. All the while, they’re manipulated by algorithms maximizing profits for the filthy rich, noxious nerds who pretend they do no harm.

Harmful algorithms are not protected by the First Amendment. Elected politicians nationwide should follow Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s lead, pushing to enact legislation regulating algorithms, ensuring profits do not supersede the mental health of the young. Our political leaders must do the right thing, rejecting persuasive deep-pocketed lobbyists representing immoral media titans, greasing the electronic skids with algorithms prioritizing the cruelest of postings and videos torturing teenage targets, permanently battering their self-esteem, worsening the collective mental health of our nation.

Lawrence Uniglicht, Galloway, lrunig@gmail.com

Former President Donald Trump and the GOP are assailing the justice system after his conviction. They are attacking the legitimacy of our rule of law. Now, as I remember he was impeached twice by the House while in office, he was not convicted by the Senate. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, did not want to impeach him while in office, even after holding him personally responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. McConnell wanted the judicial system to prosecute him for civil and criminal crimes as a civilian. “He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell said. Well, Trump is currently an adjudicated rapist and a convicted felon with three more criminal cases pending. Who has not heard the call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where Trump asked him to find him votes? He is sure to be found guilty. Trump is indefensible and is not fit for office.

Jose Uribe, Ambler, jjcriuribe@verizon.net

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