Letters to the Editor | Oct. 13, 2023

As a Phillies season ticket holder, I was torn. I’d been waiting all season for these playoff games but was worried it would be uncomfortable to be surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd while my community is in mourning. My young nieces are in bomb shelters, and my brother-in-law was activated into the Israel Defense Forces from reserve duty. But as I took my seat at Wednesday night’s game, the Israeli flag spread across the jumbotron. A moment of silence. Acknowledgement of our pain.

The Phillies did what many sports teams and celebrities have not had the courage to do: stand against the innocent loss of life, stand against antisemitism and hate. I cried. And when Bryce Harper skied one into the second deck, I cried again. A moment of healing in a sea of darkness. (I would return home to find my mom in tears as she watched Israeli mothers memorializing their children on CNN.) And the Phillies were not done that night. They lit the Bank in blue, to honor the victims again. Their actions made me feel what I’ve long suspected: Baseball can be more than capitalistic entertainment. This team is different. This team cares. Go Phillies.

Jackson Greenberg, Philadelphia

If the Republicans ever manage to elect a House speaker, they can move on to pretending to worry about the deficit. They can go back to wanting to “trim the budget,” which is code for punishing the middle and lower classes. Because, after all, we just can’t afford to keep spending money this way. We can’t afford to spend money on food, housing, and health care. Never mind that we have more billionaires in America than ever before. Time to trot out the old chestnut that all Democrats want to do is give away handouts and raise another generation expecting the government to give them everything.

To disguise the fact that GOP tax cuts created an increasing deficit in the first place, the party will trot out its “wins.” Let’s see, Republicans succeeded in getting books banned in schools, in pretending that “woke” is somehow a bad thing, and in changing history lessons so they’re more palatable to white supremacists. They succeeded in removing that pesky Roe v. Wade, and, oh, I almost forgot, they weakened the military by holding up promotions. Best of all, it’s tantrum time! Let’s close the government until we get our way. Let’s show those liberals we mean business. Ultimately, let’s show them that we haven’t a clue how to govern for the benefit of all, and are clueless in how to handle money, while we make sure that we continue to get paid. We can’t even joke about “the best government money can buy,” because they have failed at that, too.

Steve Schwartz, Springfield

In reading The Inquirer article about the plans to build a subway from Broad Street up to Neshaminy Road using Roosevelt Boulevard, one idea was starkly absent: Why not consider building an elevated train instead of a subway? SEPTA is estimating the subway project will cost at least $3 billion and take 10 years to complete. In other words, the final project will probably be $12 billion and take at least 20 years to complete. An elevated train will accomplish the same result for possibly the original amount of money and probably in far less time. Why is this not being considered?

Steve Arcidiacono, Havertown

The recent editorial on the Philadelphia Land Bank focuses on the grievances of a private developer related to his stalled purchase of 75 publicly owned lots for pennies on the dollar in the Norris Square neighborhood to demonstrate systemic problems with Land Bank board member absences. Yes, the Land Bank needs reform and more robust participation by its board members, but to make the point by endorsing a project that seeks to develop 38 “affordable” units for sale while the rest will be developed for sale at sky-high prices is disingenuous. It glosses over serious issues related to equitable community development in the city and obscures the concerns of residents in rapidly gentrifying communities.

I use quotations around the word affordable as it relates to the proposed project because many of those units are geared toward families earning up to 100% of area median income. This equals an income of nearly $114,400 per year for a family of four. In Norris Square, the median household income is about $30,000, which puts these “affordable” units out of reach for families in the area.

The editorial’s assumption that but for a lack of quorum, the project would have passed muster, was misguided. This was proven when the Land Bank refused to approve it at a subsequent board meeting due to strong community opposition to the project, including the opposition of the district Council member. The Editorial Board should address the Land Bank’s shortcomings by engaging communities in substantive conversations around issues of equitable development, not by trumpeting projects that use “affordability” as a Trojan horse.

Will Gonzalez, executive director, Ceiba, Philadelphia

Columnist Jennifer Stefano tries to lay the disturbing increase of college students with mental health problems at the feet of “censorship-driven elites.” While she does make a passing reference to the pandemic as being “partly to blame,” in her view, the rest is entirely due to the oppression of conservative students. In her relentless pursuit of right-wing victimhood, Stefano ignores larger contributors to student stress: massive student debt, uncertainty about employment after graduation, and, related to both, the pressure to take courses and majors that seem to promise the highest income.

Those stressors have led to a decline in enrollment in humanities and social sciences courses that many of these students would prefer and enjoy, and that would teach them about themselves and the human condition. I spoke recently with a science major taking his first English literature class to fill an unexpected opening in his schedule. He was joyful and rueful at the same time, saying, “All my science and engineering classes required me to memorize information. This English class was the first one I’ve taken which asked me to think about what I was reading.” College should be enjoyable, not a grind toward an uncertain and likely unfulfilling job.

Debra J. Thomas, Bryn Mawr

Thank you for highlighting the years of rejection endured by Katalin Karikó in her quest for mRNA therapies. At one time, academia was a haven for pursuits that lacked immediate payback. The ivory tower offered sanctuary to those who pursued foundational research in science, as well as the avant-garde in philosophy, the humanities, and the liberal arts. Their work was shared widely within their circles, and the best of it eventually opened new fields of study and opportunity. Where would we be without Albert Einstein’s seminal contributions in relativity and quantum mechanics, which ultimately led to a revolution in our understanding of our universe and — oh yes — a few profitable technologies?

When we judge the merit of things only by their apparent profit potential, we miss out on much that has a value unmeasurable in dollars (though Pfizer and BioNTech might care to differ). This is why it is important that Penn and other universities, as well as our government agencies, target a portion of their budget for areas of inquiry that have no obvious payoff. One can never know where that creative spark of genius will lead. We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Karikó and Drew Weissman, and all who believed in and supported their work along the way.

Stephen Loughin, Bala Cynwyd

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