Letters to the Editor | Oct. 4, 2022

Several very thoughtful columns in Sunday’s paper regarding the gun problem. However, none of them points out the most obvious solution to the problem: the need for changing state law that precludes local gun control legislation. This is difficult to impossible, which must be candidly admitted. It will not be easy, but it is the answer.

James Taylor Ranney, former chief of appeals, District Attorney’s Office, Philadelphia

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Once again, gun violence strikes the youth of Philadelphia — this time, following a Roxborough High School football scrimmage. Rather than just sigh and wring our hands, we know what steps could be taken to limit this epidemic which all too often targets our children — ban assault weapons and strictly limit and control the distribution and acquisition of handguns, as other nations have done. However, apparently too many Americans love their guns more than their children. In a constitutional democracy, we all have the power to elect officials who will pass gun control legislation and even amend our Constitution, but we choose not to. Thus the carnage continues. Unless we refocus our priorities, we will just have to live (or die) with it.

Michael Baxter, Reading

The report that Doug Mastriano believes abortion is murder under any circumstance should be sobering to most Pennsylvanians. His quote (“Is that a human being? Is that a little boy or girl? If it is, it deserves protection under the law.”) applies with equal force to women whose life is threatened by a dangerous pregnancy and to girls impregnated by rape or incest, many of the latter barely more than little girls. The lives of women and girls facing death or serious medical and/or emotional complications absent an abortion are inconsequential to Mastriano, who obviously views equal protection under the law as a triviality. What should a politician whose policy denies necessary medical care to a woman or girl be charged with, morally if not criminally? Parents denying medical treatment to their child based on religious conviction can be convicted of child endangerment. Medical professionals can be deemed negligent if they fail to provide a reasonable standard of care to a woman facing death or serious medical complications. An office seeker playing God should fare no better in the court of general election.

Stewart Speck, Ardmore

I’m an information technology professional who is disappointed in the lack of meaningful action toward climate change and hopeful that, with your help, we may yet be able to avert the climate crisis in the next short decade.

I am writing to you today to ask your paper to press the candidates running in Pennsylvania’s Senate, congressional, and governor’s races to clearly state their positions on the climate crisis and how they plan to deal with the emergency.

According to the Yale Climate Opinion Survey, 70% of folks in Pennsylvania believe in the scientific reality of the climate crisis (and 64% are actively worried). Seventy-eight percent want tax rebates for solar panels and electric vehicles.

Extreme heat is on the rise in Pennsylvania. Rising temperatures are also creating stagnant air patterns, exacerbating ozone pollution. These effects hit cities like Philadelphia especially hard, where temperatures can be up to 8 degrees warmer than surrounding rural areas.

What are these politicians prepared to do to confront the emergency before us? The public has a right to know. I beg you to get clarity from Pennsylvania’s candidates.

Chista Ashti, Belmont, Calif.

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