Letters to the Editor | Feb. 8, 2023

I’m turning 82 on Thursday, and I’m still working out five times a week, albeit a lot less vigorously than I did at 72. I still read books and two or three papers a day; I still argue politics, and keep a close eye on Philadelphia’s sports franchises. I still go to the movies, attend plays, and subscribe to the ballet. I still have a highly satisfactory marriage, I’m still trying to plan trips, although none as adventurous as those a few years ago to Pakistan or Botswana. And yet, disconcertingly, the world is already making plans to go about its daily business without me, and without even a wave goodbye.

Take the Phillies, for instance. I’ve been a loyal fan since moving to Philadelphia in the early 1970s, attending hundreds of games, first at terrible Veterans Stadium, more recently at lovely Citizens Bank Park. So what do they do, without so much as a little advance notice? They sign two of baseball’s true superstars to contracts that, according to the best actuarial estimates, won’t expire until past my own “best by” date of 2030. Bryce Harper’s contract, which seemed like it would last forever when he signed it in 2019, will actually terminate one year after my own expected termination (if the average life expectancy of an American male my age is taken into account). And Trea Turner’s 11-year contract will still be paying him $27.2 million a year through 2033, long after the very courteous usherette in Section 318 likely will have stopped guiding fans to their rows and seats.

I never thought I’d say this, but: I’m grateful for the Eagles. I was 19 when the Birds won the NFL championship in 1960, and it took until I was pushing 77 for them to win another title. But with Sunday’s game, I get to make one more memory with my kids and grandchildren cheering them on.

Stephen Seplow, Philadelphia

The author spent nearly three decades as a reporter and editor at The Inquirer.

Kudos to Kristen A. Graham for her heartwarming series on the George Washington High School cheerleading team in their quest for a national title. Sunday’s article and photos gave us the much-anticipated results. Not quite the top winner but a very impressive 10th place in the nation! It was Graham’s original article back in September that spurred readers to contribute more than $30,000 to help the team make the trip to Dallas. We got to know the personal stories of these teens and their unlikely run for the championship. As inexperienced fledgling cheerleaders, theirs was an uphill battle, a daunting task. Then, cash was raised, plans were made, and off they went, Rocky-style, to the competition. The team’s story also impressed Philadelphia producer Matt Howley, and I look forward to his documentary about the George Washington Eagles cheerleaders. Fly, Eagles fly, indeed!

Betsy O’Hagan, Ambler, ohagan06@verizon.net

As a seventh grader at Black Rock Middle School, I believe our school district shouldn’t build playing fields on Oakwell. The district has bought the land and proposes to plant 600 trees to replace the demolished ones. The new trees are nothing compared with the old historic trees because they are unable to trap gasses that are bad for the environment as effectively. Black Rock doesn’t need the land. We have a decent-sized field and alternatives. There’s a large soccer field behind Black Rock Middle School that the owner has offered to sell for the use of sports. Haverford Township has offered Black Rock Middle School students the use of its polo fields.

Extracurricular activities are important, but destroying centuries-old trees for fields is not the solution.

Sylvia Spencer, Bryn Mawr

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that banning gun ownership by people subject to domestic violence restraining orders is unconstitutional. The ruling states that any law banning gun ownership has to fit with the historical nature of gun rights. That must mean the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller because, up to then, the Second Amendment was seen as pertaining to state militias. A Trump-appointed judge wrote that the ban for the last 30 years was an outlier that our ancestors would never accept. And, of course, that is true. Our ancestors lived in a society in which women had few rights to speak of. The concept of domestic violence would likely appear alien to them. (At the time our ancestors lived, horse thieves were also beaten and hanged.) Conservatives on the Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit want to take the country back to the 18th century and ignore precedents since then. What’s next? Overturning Brown v. Board of Education?

George Magakis Jr., Norristown

The latest jobs report showed that the steady gains that have been occurring during President Joe Biden’s administration took an even better than expected leap in January, while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest rate since 1969. Since the president’s announcement of expanded parole programs for some immigrants, the number of unlawful entries at our southern border has plummeted, too. The Inflation Reduction Act alone has created a historic breakthrough for Medicare recipients, among its many other benefits to us all. The CHIPS and Science Act allows us to better compete with China and creates IT jobs. There’s also improved health care for veterans and the passage of gun legislation despite entrenched opposition. Those are just a few of the major improvements that have occurred halfway through the current administration. While Republicans continue to speak in slogans and platitudes but do nothing for the American people, Democrats and this president have been working hard for the betterment of us all and accomplishing a great deal. When you also consider the state of the COVID-19 epidemic in January of 2021, Biden’s performance is an especially momentous achievement.

Joseph Goldberg, Philadelphia

The Inquirer’s new “Up for Review” policy will allow individuals to request that articles be “updated or removed” if they caused “unintended or lasting harm.” This will primarily be done by “deindexing, which means the story will no longer appear in results on search engines like Google.” The Inquirer says it has no intent “to rewrite Philadelphia’s history,” but that is exactly what it could do. Given the shrinking budgets for libraries, making a story vanish from search engine results is close to eliminating its existence. If a person was the subject of a story that casts that person in an unflattering light, that does not mean the story was not true. The facts contained therein may be unpleasant for the subject to recall, but that does not make the facts therein less valid. People investigating that person have a right to the entire truth. If the newspaper of record feels there was a time when its coverage was less than respectful to individuals of certain ethnicities, nothing stops the paper from adding an addendum to the web version of the article to provide context. To do that both respects the truth and shows that institutions, just like people, can grow and change.

Robert M. Lipshutz, Wynnewood

An obvious spy balloon from China flies over the U.S. scanning sensitive military sites, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s knee-jerk response is to suspend a scheduled visit to Beijing? Blinken missed a great opportunity to face Chinese officials, point a finger in their faces, and ask, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” President Joe Biden thinks he is a military genius for finally ordering it to be shot down, giving the far-right Republican Party the opportunity to accuse him of weakness. It’s the bickering politicians’ heads that are filled with air.

Philip Lustig, Downingtown

Fifty years ago, when I was a youngster, I drove across this nation, stopping in most of its major cities. Compared with and unlike my hometown of Philadelphia, the streets were wide, traffic lights were well synchronized, and at key intersections, there were left-turn lanes and traffic signals. Fifty years later and with Philly still in the Stone Age, I would hope that the upcoming federal infrastructure funding will help repair horrible street surfaces, introduce synchronized traffic lights throughout the city, add thousands of left-turn signals to diminish traffic jams, and paint bike lanes only on streets where they make sense.

Len Trower, Philadelphia

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