Letters to the Editor | March 1, 2026

After reading “Jesse and Matt Ito’s big Japan adventure,” I will never refer to writer Craig LaBan as just a restaurant critic. This essay — concise and cogent, but also expansive and even emotional — is one of the best I’ve ever read in The Inquirer, or anywhere else. I’m a sushi fan who relies on the menu translations when I order, and although LaBan’s piece is full of details about sushi styles, dishes, ingredients, and sources, he fed me a lot of information in digestible form. The same is true of his account of touring remote Japan with the Itos (though I did appreciate the map). Best of all, he wove three generations of Ito family history into the narrative, including some of the tough stuff families endure, evoking the real importance of their trip to their lives together. A must-read for anyone who must work, likes to eat, or has a family.

Joe Jones, Mount Holly

Many concerned and worried Americans are calling out and condemning the transparent total politicization and weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice, and deservedly so. But let’s not forget that it was a totally apolitical attorney general, Merrick Garland, whose extreme lack of political sensibility — combined with extreme and debilitating timidity — can rightfully be called out as a primary factor that allowed Donald Trump to run for and subsequently win the presidency. Garland’s interminable two years of foot-dragging before he appointed special counsel Jack Smith to investigate the president were unconscionable.

Smith, in recent testimony before Congress, stated with categorical certainty that the evidence he compiled could have proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Trump was guilty of crimes, and that he quite likely would have obtained a conviction if he’d had an opportunity to present his evidence. Maybe a modest touch of political awareness would have spared us from enduring and suffering through a second Trump presidency, with consequences whose outline can be seen but have yet to fully unfold.

Ken Derow, Swarthmore

The Feb. 19 Associated Press story “Israeli settlers kill 19-year-old Palestinian American” included multiple other issues, including Israeli “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in the West Bank, Israeli torture of Palestinians journalists, and the basic needs for Palestinians in Gaza. While each subhead in the report deserved a full article, the headline story certainly should receive more attention in a Philadelphia newspaper. The young man killed by Israeli settlers, Nasrallah Abu Siyam, was born here. According to news reports, he was shot while trying to stop settlers from stealing dozens of sheep. The AP story included some context but not all, such as the Israeli government’s de facto approval of the annexation of Palestinian land. Philadelphians should demand that the U.S. Department of State not only “condemn the violence,” but also cease military funding of Israel.

Donna Sharer, Philadelphia

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