Letters to the Editor | May 28, 2026

Where’s the patriotic symbolism in having Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott, and Will Smith perform on the Fourth of July? Any other date of the year would be fine, but not July Fourth! That’s not going to draw families from Utah, Kentucky, or Wisconsin looking for history on our country’s big birthday. They’re coming looking for patriotism, not a hip-hop concert. They’ll just go to Boston or New York instead. Why not have the musical 1776 on the Parkway, and then the Philly Pops perform patriotic music leading right into the fireworks?

Fran Steffler, Philadelphia

While everyone knows President Donald Trump is a master at creating a crisis and then solving it, he is also showing himself to be a gifted magician. All good sleight of hand tricks rely on distraction. Look at this puff of smoke while I slide a coin into my pocket. While everyone is focused on the absurdity of his $1.8 billion weaponization fund, he will pocket IRS immunity for himself and his family. Mark my words, the weaponization fund will disappear, and Trump will walk away with the biggest abuse of power since Watergate.

Stefan Keller, Huntingdon Valley

While I appreciate attention to the history of Mother’s Day, I wish the historian featured in The Inquirer article had dug a little deeper. While Anna Jarvis railed against the commercialization of the day over a century ago, Julia Ward Howe offered an even stronger proclamation on Mother’s Day in 1870. She said: “Arise, then, women of this day! … We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says ‘Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.’” What if we celebrated Mother’s Day as a time to really listen and commit to the vision mothers have for our world?

Pamela Haines, Philadelphia, pamelahaines1@gmail.com

What is the magic number of deaths in recent Middle East conflicts for us to call it quits? Those killed to date are: in Iran, 3,400, in Lebanon, 3,100, and more than 70,000 in Gaza. What is the magic number of people wounded for us to call it quits? Those wounded to date are: in Iran, 26,500, in Lebanon, 9,600, and more than 170,000 in Gaza. In 1948, then-U.S. Rep. Abraham Lincoln opposed the Mexican-American War, saying, “Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object.” Tell your members of Congress and your senators to be as wise a legislator as Lincoln. End the war in Iran and stop all the killing in Lebanon and in Gaza by opposing sending Israel any more of our weapons.

Andrew Mills, Lower Gwynedd

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.

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