Letters to the Editor | Feb. 2, 2023

A thank you is in order to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeff Lurie for his incredible ability to select great coaches who lacked head coaching experience in the NFL before he employed them. He’s made Sunday afternoons in the fall and many winters very enjoyable, not only for me but for all Eagles fans. Most people really need a diversion from our current difficult times, and the Eagles have supplied that tonic. I can visualize a parade in the near future. We already heard Jason Kelce sing about Christmas. Now we want to hear him talk again about, oh well, you know what. Go Eagles, and make that a reality.

Don Landry, Franconia

I’m glad she wasn’t seriously injured, but since Eagles fan Ashley Marcial is so proud of herself for taking part in the roof collapse of a SEPTA bus shelter, how about the city send her the repair bill? Taxpayer funds contribute to the maintenance and repairs of city and SEPTA facilities. Since Marcial has eagerly implicated herself in this property crime, don’t shift the repair cost to innocent, hardworking taxpayers who chose to not destroy public property. Senseless behavior like hers and others just further sullies the reputations of all the nondestructive Eagles fans.

Mike Dobson, Indian Rocks Beach, Fla.

Since the 1970s, millions of public and private funds have been invested in developing and maintaining the Fashion District (formerly The Gallery) as a shopping destination for this community. Coupled with Jefferson Station, tens of thousands of people frequent this area on a daily basis. But now, it’s being considered as a potential location for a new arena for the 76ers. A facility that will likely be visited only during events, otherwise standing as a huge, vacant monolith manifested by a few overly wealthy individuals. If the Fashion District is so devalued to be considered a worthy site for an arena, how about tearing down the entire facility and building a park and cultural center better benefiting the community?

Roger Vanderklok, Conshohocken

As columnist Solomon Jones noted, when white cops beat Black people, they are placed on administrative duty or paid leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation and the police union rushes to their defense, in many cases getting them reinstated. In Memphis, Tenn., Black cops recorded on video beating Tyre Nichols were fired immediately and no union came to their defense. Just a coincidence? Or yet another example of racial — and racist — double standards?

Debra Weiner, Quakertown

Public interest laws were enacted due to the harm to society caused by unregulated excesses by the industrial, corporate, and financial sectors. Child labor laws, environmental protection, and others all follow the same trajectory: massive profits generated by an enterprise that operates without regard to any harm it does to the country, until the people decide they can no longer tolerate the damage. This is where we are now with gun violence. The gun industry generates large profits from a business whose primary function is killing human beings. The cost to society is well-documented, but rather than hold the industry accountable, we, the actual and potential victims, are made to pay the costs. As public policy, this is institutionalized cruelty. Clearly, the gun industry will not regulate itself. We must demand that our elected representatives hold the industry accountable for the damage it causes.

Patrick J. Ream, Wenonah

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