Letters to the Editor | March 8, 2024

Nick Elizalde, my grandson, was shot and killed at his Roxborough High School football game on Sept. 27, 2022. Seventeen months later, eight Northeast High students were shot at their SEPTA bus stop, just two days after an Imhotep student was shot and killed while boarding a bus for home. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker says enough is enough. Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel says it’s hard to sit here while juveniles shoot kids coming from school.

SEPTA Police Chief Charles Lawson says we’ll ramp up resources and learn how we can police schools at dismissal. We will? Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. is horrified that kids are being shot after school. Still? Remember the shooting near Overbrook High, at dismissal in November 2022? Bethel says he worked hard as chief safety officer of the Philadelphia School District to keep kids safe. They’re not safe. District Attorney Larry Krasner asks that we imagine getting that call. I don’t have to imagine. Nick is dead. Shot and killed at school by juveniles. Seventeen months later, here we are. Imagine.

Marge LaRue, Aston, laruehouse@verizon.net

Enough with the violence, please! I’m not blaming SEPTA — nor the police, nor our mayor — but I really think metal detectors on public transportation are called for at this point. Yes, the police need to step up, too, but so does the justice system with expedited hearings, trials, and appropriate punishments (yes, even for minor offenses). And don’t get me started on parenting. All guardians should be held accountable for any offenses committed by their charges.

Mary L. Golden, Philadelphia

I am writing to challenge statements made in the recent editorial, “Potential conflicts of interest shouldn’t mar mayor’s school board picks.” The first, and most important, is that charter schools somehow “siphon away desperately needed resources” or otherwise “soak up resources” from other public schools. There is no funding being siphoned away from schools, but rather being allocated to where Philadelphia’s public school students actually attend school. The second is that the last Board of Education “sought to strike a balance between charter advocates and opponents,” a claim that would only be true if underperforming district-operated schools were shuttered as challenged charters were.

Finally, there was never a “charter free-for-all” under the state, and there is no risk of there being one now. Philadelphia parents make choices about where to educate their children every day — and in 2024, half of parents are deciding either to send their child to a school that isn’t a traditional district-operated school or, too often, move outside the city. For the city’s future, we need a fair-minded school board that supports both district and charter schools as equal public school options for Philadelphia students and doesn’t get confused by misleading claims made by charter opponents.

Kelly Davenport, CEO and Freire Schools Network founder, Philadelphia

Donald Trump is being treated unfairly. He is treated with far more deference than other criminal defendants. Many of his legal actions appear aimed at delaying his trials, and some of our courts seem to be aiding him in that effort. Our judges should not be partisan, but they should not be blind to his delay tactics. Because of the national interest in his cases, they should expedite any and all cases concerning Trump accordingly. We, the American people, are entitled to a speedy trial and want to know the outcome of these cases before the next presidential election. Trump is already claiming “election interference” due to trials possibly happening during the months leading up to the election, but it is actually his delay tactics that have caused this scheduling conflict. Without further delay, it is time for Trump to have his day(s) in court to prove his guilt or innocence.

Kent Kingan, Malvern

For millions of children, immunizations can make the difference between a life of poverty and one of possibility. When kids are protected from infectious diseases, they can go to school, their parents can go to work, and their communities can thrive. Over the past two decades, the world has made astounding progress in immunizing children, thanks in large part to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Since 2000, Gavi has helped prevent 17.3 million deaths by helping countries ensure children receive vaccines to protect them from diseases like measles, cholera, HPV, Ebola, and malaria. The U.S. is a major supporter of Gavi, and contributions from Pennsylvanians alone have helped prevent 113,360 deaths.

Make no mistake, the fight to ensure no child dies of a preventable disease is far from over. Eighty-five million children missed a routine dose during the COVID-19 pandemic, driving surges of deadly but preventable diseases like measles. That’s why I’m asking U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan and U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman to support Gavi in the state and foreign operations appropriations bill. Investing in Gavi is a sign of American commitment to global health security, and helps leverage the support we need from other donor countries to create a safer, healthier world for everyone.

Pastor Matt Staniz, Devon

Thank you to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker for committing to clean up Philadelphia. Now it is time for all of us to do our part. I returned to Philadelphia after 35 years of living and working across the country and the globe. I love the city, but the trash and filth are shameful. What I am shocked by is how much of the filth is not due to the city’s lack of services, but to an overall culture of people carelessly contributing to the filth.

I see young and old alike throwing their trash away as they walk or drive down the street, homeowners and businesses who do not clean trash from the sidewalks and who put trash out unsecured or days before pickup, people who take personal trash and pile it up at trash cans in our parks, developers who are careless with construction site trash that ends up all over the neighborhood, and trash and recycling collectors who scatter refuse as they collect it. The actions planned by the city are necessary and appreciated, but unless this is coupled with a culture change, we will not lose the undesirable nickname of Filthadelphia.

Donna Nawalkowsky, Philadelphia

A recent letter to the editor claimed that “the God of Christianity is mentioned five times” in the Declaration of Independence. While the references mentioned are present, they are not intended to reference any specific religion. In fact, the terms were intended to do exactly the opposite. Thomas Jefferson, a deist, believed in a creator and was not a Christian. He, like Ben Franklin, James Madison, and other deists, believed in a creator who was hands-off and did not interfere in our lives. Jefferson used nonspecific references for the theistic beliefs of the time so anyone of any religion could relate to the declaration. Therefore, devout Christians could support the declaration as well as others.

His point was that no “earthly” government could supersede the will of the divine. Jefferson then appended the slightly altered ideas of John Locke that we, “endowed by our creator,” had the basic rights of “life, liberty and property.” Jefferson and those who approved the statement replaced Locke’s “property” with “the pursuit of happiness.” The Constitution has no references to the divine, as noted by the letter’s author, because it was a document to set the rules for earthly living, unlike the declaration, which asserted the will of the creator. It now was our job to decide how the world created for us was to be governed — classic deism.

Jeff Heim, West Chester

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