Letters to the Editor | Nov. 4, 2022

As a voter, I am concerned about inflation, crime, health care, climate change, and abortion rights. While Republicans have been focusing on the first three issues, I have yet to hear any specific legislative actions they would take to address those issues. It reminds me of the “repeal and replace” mantra when they tried to overturn Obamacare. It was all about the “repeal,” and they had absolutely no alternative replacement plan. On the other two issues — climate change and abortion — I know exactly what Republicans will do: deny climate change exists and strip away a woman’s right to choose.

Stefan Keller, Huntingdon Valley

Does God care about who wins a ballgame? About the Phillies? One night recently when the Phillies won, the city exploded with joy. The players themselves were jumping and whooping like crazed schoolboys. Philly fans, notorious for their madness, swayed and sang “Dancing On My Own.” On the street, crowds poured out of their homes, wild with joy, some of them climbing greased poles to lead the chants below them: “Go Phillies!” The common emotion that gripped us seemed to be joy. So infectious, uncontainable, and fun. It makes me wonder about such spontaneous eruptions of joy, especially joy in a crowd. The kind that makes you drop all differences and scream your heart and lungs out as one. Is God in this? The Holy Spirit? The gifts of the Holy Spirit are charity, joy, peace, and patience. So isn’t this joy over baseball the Holy Spirit? Go Phillies!

Father Paul Morrissey, Philadelphia

Thank you for the op-ed. You’re absolutely correct that Pennsylvania and much of our nation are not prepared for leaders with many types of disabilities. Many people don’t understand a person’s disability, so they regard it as a weakness or deficiency. The dilemma with auditory impairments from hearing loss (peripheral auditory impairment) to auditory processing disorder (central auditory impairment) is that they’re invisible. As such, they’re poorly understood and, therefore, labeled incorrectly as cognitive impairment, senility, aloofness, etc., with negative connotations. Many people only understand disabilities by what the media tells them. John Fetterman’s disability is another example of how the media has done a disservice to the disabled and the public. Preparing Pennsylvania for the election of a leader with disability will require educating the media about disability, so they’re better stewards of our public discourse about the topic.

Tom Willcox, Wayne

In response to the Supreme Court justices’ question about when would affirmative action end, I would offer the response: When racial bias ends in our country. Then it will no longer be necessary.

Mary A. McKenna, Philadelphia

A few years ago I had pride in our U.S. Postal Service, as I’m sure many Americans did. A few years ago you could mail a letter across the country and in two to three days it arrived. You could send mail to Europe and in three to four days it would arrive. I know people use all the electronic methods available today, and there are competitors, but now I get mail delivery every other day. Every other day! What is going on with the postal system? Is it all of a sudden understaffed, or running out of gas for delivery trucks, or doesn’t care because of the management? There is something wrong, and it shouldn’t be that difficult to fix.

Ken Forman, King of Prussia, kenforman@comcast.net

The U.S. Postal Service has been hard at work preparing for the holiday season since January. Rest assured, we’re holiday ready and well-prepared to deliver fast and reliable service to every address in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and across America.

USPS has made significant investments to ensure your holiday greeting cards and packages reach their intended destination on time. We’ve added 249 new package sorting machines across the nation, which will allow us to process 60 million packages per day. This new equipment is part of $40 billion in new investments made under Delivering for America, our 10-year plan to achieve financial sustainability and service excellence.

Additionally, we have the space we need to manage all packages and mail when they reach us. We’ve strategically expanded our footprint by 8.5 million square feet throughout the country to augment space shortages at existing postal facilities, and we’ve deployed new technology on our workroom floors to make sure we can track and move mail and packages quickly and get them on their way.

The 650,000 men and women of the U.S. Postal Service pride ourselves on playing an important role in delivering the holidays for the nation.

Thank you for continuing to support the Postal Service.

Leroy Middleton Jr., Philadelphia postmaster

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