Letters to the Editor | Nov. 2, 2022

On the road this week to my son’s cardiac MRI at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, I encountered a billboard advertising the Pennhurst Asylum — “Pa.’s Scariest Haunted House.” Really? In this postpandemic world, have we become so desensitized as to promote such a thing? Where’s the collective outrage?

More fully learning of the unspeakable horrors of Pennhurst after watching a recent PBS rebroadcast of the 2016 documentary I Go Home, I was stunned into silence.

I just don’t understand it. Where has our humanity gone, our higher angels flown? Seeing such a torture chamber turned into a means of Halloween entertainment would be the equivalent of turning European death camps like Dachau and Ravensbruck into amusement parks. Unthinkable. Which only begs the question: Why such an assault on people with disabilities? I believe this says something about us as a society and just how far we’ve designed to fall.

Alicia B. Grimaldi, Lawrenceville

Same amount of trash and waste as always and taxpayers are paying for two trash trucks and two crews of three men to pick up what used to be picked up by one trash truck and one crew of three men. Double the cost and then probably six times the cost to “pretend” to recycle vs. landfill and incineration.

This well-intentioned but not effective way to recycle does not work and has wasted millions and millions in our taxes. Even Greenpeace has recently reported that most plastic can’t be recycled. Please write to end this folly by our city government.

Gardner A. Cadwalader, Philadelphia

Bad kudos to Mayor Michael Nutter for, when he was mayor, often giving the mayor’s free Phillies playoff box seats to nonprofits. I am mostly sure they were deserving entities. Here’s the rub: We need to stop using nonprofit as a synonym for “helpful to the community.” Nonprofits can have extremely high-paid executives. Nonprofits can help themselves to money as long as it’s not called profit.

Many politicians have nonprofits set up to mishmash money for political and personal gains. There have been numerous politicians in Philadelphia accused and found guilty of corruption and, by the way, they also own a nonprofit. They can give sham consulting contracts to family members of politicians, etc. I dislike saying these words, but there ought to be a law against politicians’ involvement with nonprofits. Let’s also stop the free sporting events ticket parade to government officials. How can government officials represent their citizens in decisions about the sporting venues, owners, parking, tax breaks, land use, etc., if they are the recipients of free tickets for themselves and family members? It smacks of corruption.

If it doesn’t already, Executive Order 10-16: Acceptance of gifts should ban this free tickets practice. And anything “free” for that matter. It influences peddling.

Barry Beck, Turnersville

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