Letters to the Editor | Oct. 27, 2024

I don’t think anyone should go hungry in a nation with our abundance. But every time I read an article about food insecurity, I end up shaking my head. How in the world would giving cash instead of food allowances, as some propose, make recipients more food secure? In advocating the inclusion of hot, prepared foods, the article cited a Harvard Public Health editorial with a cherry-picked example of Costco’s $4.99 cooked chicken — a famous loss-leader not readily available to many families and requiring a membership fee. The reality is that most precooked foods are more expensive and less healthy than home-cooked. And, of course, there’s no mention of the peculiar fact that Access covers unhealthy, sugary, empty-calorie choices like soda and candy but not vitamins.

Dave Campbell, Wildwood

Remember the 14-year-old girl returning from the market with her mother at 9:30 in the evening who was struck and killed by a speeding hit-and-run driver on Haverford Avenue? Maybe not. Her name was Dawn Watson. Surely, The Inquirer is not going to let that be the total of her existence. Not after weeks of front-page coverage of the South Jersey ice hockey brothers. They lost their promising lives to an apparent drunk driver while biking together. And not after weeks of coverage of the young doctor who was hit and killed by a reported drunk driver while returning home on her bike in Center City. What a loss. Watson was also a loss, yet her death was marked by a small article on an interior page. What of her short life? Was it not worthy of a profile?

Janet Denns Garner Thompson, Mount Laurel

I agree with the letter writer who bemoans the presence of the Electoral College as a wall between the populace and the most powerful elected office in the land. Aside from the disproportionate value of a vote for president from state to state, just think of how disenfranchised some voters are. Republicans in New Jersey or Democrats in Alabama might as well not vote for president since their votes have no effect on the selection of delegates from their state and haven’t for some time.

Campaigning targets so-called battleground states and ignores population centers or geographic areas that are reliably red or blue. While the disadvantages the Electoral College imposes on us are obvious, it is depressing to contemplate that removing this blockade separating the people from their president is such a monumental task that chances of accomplishing that goal are so remote. So an 18th-century dictate persists to this day and allows presidents to take office after losing the popular vote, something that has happened twice this century. A truly sad state of affairs as we wring our hands over the importance of the vote count in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

P.M. Procacci, West Palm Branch, Fla.

An article regarding contractor research has some excellent, must-follow instructions. I’d like to add another, which is critical for legal protection: physical address research. Do not rely on the state, city, or any government entity to verify as much for you. Self-serving contractors, like the one we hired (and subsequently sued) for a kitchen renovation two years ago, will play address shell games so they cannot be physically served court summons, an absolute legal requirement. Our former contractor is still using a false business address, which is a vacant downtown commercial office building. They use the same address for their state registration. Their incorporation address, which they use for their city license, is also undeliverable. We did ultimately find an address to serve them papers for our lawsuit, but it added significant time, frustration, and legal fees. Had we discovered as much by walking or driving by those addresses prior to signing the contract, we would not have hired them.

Jeremy Stock, Philadelphia

Thanks to The Inquirer for the informative article on the School District of Philadelphia’s English Language Arts curriculum implementation. We are passionate about all children benefiting from a rigorous, standards-aligned curriculum taught by highly skilled and stable teachers. As a part of our plan to accelerate student achievement, we understand that we must teach children how to become skilled readers and writers. Our instructional resources are evidence-based and designed to support teachers in helping students.

As a part of our district curriculum blueprint, year one implementation of the curriculum is focused on all educators having a deep understanding of the resource and how to increase their ability to use it effectively. To provide additional support, we partner with national experts in these high-quality instructional resources to build the capacity of all educators.

We value the partnership with our teachers, and their feedback is vital to how we implement new resources and tools across our classrooms. As a result, we have been thoughtful in providing support for our teachers throughout the rollout of the new ELA curriculum, including by offering multiple mandatory and voluntary professional development sessions, providing English Language Arts instructional coaches who work alongside professional learning specialists assigned to support curriculum, and engaging teachers by incorporating their feedback following each professional learning session and teacher advisory council meetings with the superintendent.

We encourage our teachers to reach out with questions, concerns, and successes as they implement the new English Language Arts curriculum. Collaboration on behalf of our students is essential to the successful implementation of our new instructional resources for all of Philadelphia’s children.

Nyshawana Francis-Thompson, chief, Office of Curriculum and Instruction, School District of Philadelphia

The report on Secret Service failures in Butler County after the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump highlighted communication failures. One of the noted failures has been a major problem for many law enforcement agencies: the use of cell phones instead of a departmental radio network to convey information among participants. It was, and most likely still is, a problem in Philadelphia. Whenever a major incident or one requiring an investigation occurs, one of the first things requested is the radio transmission logs for all officers involved in the incident.

The radio network allows a one-to-many communication protocol while the cell phone, in most instances, is a one-to-one protocol. This means the radio network allows one person to communicate simultaneously with everyone involved in an incident. Also, all transmissions are recorded, enabling investigators to piece together exactly what occurred during an incident. Whatever goes over the cellular network is essentially lost to investigators. In some cases, this is used to deliberately circumvent conversations from being recorded. The failure of the Secret Service, and any department, to address this issue is startling, as it has been ongoing over the last 20 years.

Charles Brennan, retired, deputy police commissioner, Philadelphia Police Department

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