Letters to the Editor | Oct. 13, 2022

The Lower Merion School District seems to be joining the ranks of those school districts stripping their environments of anything that may be perceived as being the least bit offensive or not inclusive of 100% of the student body. The district also cites security issues in its decision to cancel the Halloween parade two weeks ahead of time, rather than not having it on the calendar in the first place. Security concerns are not new. It’s not the Halloween parade that I’m concerned about; I fear this may be a prelude to what may lie ahead. Our kids should be celebrated for their varied beliefs, culture, and abilities, but what’s next — further sanitizing history and government lessons, banning books, teaching languages based on the current geopolitical climate?

Anne Lewis, Philadelphia

I am writing in response to the recent Editorial Board piece related to the redesign of FDR Park. The city can repair the infrastructure of the Meadows and support wetlands development without replacing heritage trees and wildlife habitats with artificial turf fields and parking for hundreds of cars. Our taxpayer dollars would be much better spent on maintaining the dozens of fields in disrepair in the communities in which they are currently being used.

The Meadows represent the only untamed green space in South Philly and have emerged throughout the pandemic as a vital public health resource, where any of us can go to relieve stress, decompress, and feel like human beings again. The city should hit the pause button on the destruction ASAP to identify the untapped potential of the Meadows post-COVID-19, while also exploring how to more effectively maintain our existing sports fields.

Brian Jeans, Philadelphia

Kyle Sammin’s column points out the inconsistency in our governing structures. As he notes, some positions are elected in some jurisdictions and not others. We elect our state treasurer, but at the national level, the secretary of the treasury is an appointed member of the executive branch — a cabinet position to effectuate the policy of the executive, within the spending limits set by the legislative branch and constitutional limits interpreted by the judiciary. A perfect example of the checks and balances fundamental to our representative democracy. Sammin’s call to subject the school board to the passions and vagaries of the political process is misguided at best, and political opportunism at its worst. As a budgetary authority, it is properly within the executive. The School Reform Commission was an overseeing constraint imposed within the purview of the legislative branch. This is how the system is supposed to work. Education should not be subjected to the passions of the culture wars as it recently has. Education should be apart from and above politics. The other counties of Pennsylvania should follow suit and eliminate elected local school boards, in favor of countywide boards. On the topic, we should eliminate the election of judges as well. Politics should no more infect the judiciary than it should education. His call for political opportunism at the expense of the education of our children is offensive.

Michael Cahill, Phoenixville

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