Letters to the Editor | Nov. 1, 2022

Once again, Pennsylvania gets it wrong regarding nursing home regulations requiring 3.2 hours per day of direct care per patient. Even the 4.1 hours per day that the health department recommended is wrong.

Survey after survey shows people want to receive services in their homes — not in a nursing home, regardless of the number of hours they receive in a nursing home.

So why the focus on nursing homes? Two reasons: money and power, especially as they are intertwined. In Pennsylvania, nursing is a very big for-profit business, with millions of dollars a year in state Medicaid expenditure going annually to an industry that is opposed to home health care. This industry contributes a lot of money to our state legislators.

Maybe, as legislators age and want to live in their own homes with care, they will understand that they were wrong when they had the power to do something about it.

Steve Gold, retired disability rights lawyer, Philadelphia

Having been a vegetarian for 15 years reminds me that it is not for everyone. This is my choice. I ask you to eat meat respectfully — another kind of choice.

Billions of food animals are raised in the U.S. in crowded, stressful factory farming systems, potentially creating unhealthy animals. Would you want your pet kept in a crowded pen, unable to move around, competing with others for fresh food and water?

Help respect who you eat. Kindly consider supporting the Farm System Reform Act. This legislation assists farmers to transition to more humane food systems. Take a few moments to hop on the internet to learn more about it. If you have the time, contact your local elected officials with this important message. If you have a pet, I know you love and respect animals. Help them to have their voices heard.

Arlene Spevak, Yardley

Reviewing the attack on Paul Pelosi, I cannot help but be reminded of George Orwell’s classic, 1984. Hate was such an important tool used by the advocates of Big Brother. It was directed at other countries, but also at certain individuals who were considered to be the archenemies of Big Brother, especially a specific one, Emmanuel Goldstein, who is vilified. How could Orwell almost 80 years ago predict that Nancy Pelosi would be the Republican Party’s Emmanuel Goldstein? She has been demonized almost nonstop in the right-wing information bubble. She is accused of everything from treason to plotting the cataclysm that is the downfall of the republic. Her image is being used to rouse the right-wingers on almost every ubiquitous political commercial that we all bemoan at this time of year.

So there is no wonder that an individual, spurred on by constant vitriol, could violate her residence in the hopes of doing harm to her or someone she loves. This is what we live with. We tolerate it, but we shouldn’t. Wake up, America, Orwell predicted it. Let’s not let this dystopian vision come to pass on our watch. 2+2 is not 5 as it was in the Orwellian totalitarian state, Oceania. Read the book again.

Pasquale Procacci, Moorestown

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.