Letters to the Editor | Oct. 16, 2023

In the battle for federal dollars, senior citizens are losing, as evidenced by Social Security’s meager 3.2% cost-of-living adjustment increase for 2024. This represents a significant decrease from the 2023 increment of 8.7%. The news of this slim increase came on the same day as a report showing that the consumer price index rose 3.7% in the 12 months through September. As a taxpayer, I see the government taking big bites out of my paycheck. But in real dollars, lesser amounts of money are flowing back to senior citizens, including many of my friends and neighbors. I am deeply upset at this minuscule cost-of-living adjustment. As various interest groups try to take slices out of the pie of federal dollars, it appears the people who paid into the system are the ones being left out. No wonder American seniors are struggling to make ends meet.

Tawsif Anam, Madison, Wis., tanam@uwalumni.com

The religious tolerance that most Americans and most Israelis cherish is a product of the European Enlightenment. Unfortunately, the Europeans were not so enlightened when they colonized much of the Muslim world. Thus, for many Islamic thinkers, religious tolerance became associated with European colonialism and was treated as a suspect import. From the Saudi terrorists behind 9/11 to the Taliban to ISIS to Hamas, there is a common characteristic: They are all violently intolerant of those whom they consider infidels within the abode of Islam.

Hamas isn’t killing Israelis because they’re Jewish. Hamas is killing Israelis because a sovereign Jewish state in what was once the abode of Islam is an affront to Hamas’ Islamist ideology. If the cause of the war is Israel’s existence, then there is no room for compromise or negotiation. The most merciful conclusion to the war will be the swiftest. Israel’s blockade of Gaza is designed to achieve just that end.

The United States forced Japan to surrender in World War II by dropping two atomic bombs in lieu of exposing American troops to the perils of a ground invasion. By comparison, a blockade of Gaza is relatively merciful. Hamas could surrender and bring its people’s misery to a halt. But it won’t surrender because it is not primarily interested in the welfare of its people. It is dedicated to the demise of Israel, and indiscriminate murder is justified by these Islamists to further its warped, medieval vision of Allah’s will. International pressure must be brought to bear on Hamas to surrender. The fate of the Gazans is in their hands.

Rabbi Shai Cherry, Congregation Adath Jeshurun, Elkins Park

I was astounded reading about U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross’ take on the escalating violence in Palestine and Israel. I am a Jewish U.S. citizen who has long opposed Israel’s occupation and apartheid in Palestine, including the decades-long campaign of military terror against Palestinians. How can the New Jersey Democrat say Israel’s military response in Gaza is a justified response to Hamas targeting Israeli civilians, when the two million people in Gaza — half of whom are children — are also all civilians? No one should attempt to justify trapping people in a place and enacting mass starvation, cutting off their water, fuel, and electricity, and bombing them constantly. How can Norcross say it is not the right time to have a peace conversation because “the wound is not only open but bleeding,” when the wound of Palestinians has been bleeding for 75 years since they were first expelled from their homes and massacred? There is no better time to have a conversation about attaining safety and freedom for all Palestinians and Israelis than now, when the lives of millions are at stake.

Amanda Farman, Philadelphia

The letter writer who was “doored” by a parked car while bicycling in the city was lucky not to have been badly hurt. There’s an easy way to prevent such accidents, it’s called the “Dutch reach.” Drivers who have pulled over to park are trained (or retrained) to open the car door with their right hand instead of their left, causing them to turn enough to see bicycles coming up from behind them. While the program originated in the Netherlands, it’s been promoted across the U.S. and internationally. With some activism, training could be instituted in driver’s ed classes in Philly or even mandated across the state.

Davida Charney, Philadelphia, dcharney@austin.utexas.edu

A stakeholder task force set up by Gov. Josh Shapiro has endorsed the concept of making Pennsylvania electric utilities pay for the greenhouse gas pollution they produce, with the proceeds invested in clean energy and aid to vulnerable consumers and communities. However, certain interests on the task force prevented reaching consensus on how to do so. Those interests suggested that any system for making utility polluters pay would need to happen through PJM, which runs the multistate electric grid and wholesale electricity market in the Mid-Atlantic region. Letting a private business set its own terms for reducing pollution is unrealistic, unaccountable to the citizens of Pennsylvania, and unnecessary. There is already a pollution-control system set up to do what the task force endorsed; it’s called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Gov. Shapiro should do everything in his power to make sure it is implemented in Pennsylvania.

Matt Zencey, West Chester

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld is wrong about why “elections don’t work” and his suggestion that a civil war might work better. If anything, gerrymandering has favored Republicans running for the House. Most Americans favor reproductive rights for women, gun control legislation, environmental regulations, and voting rights. Yet, when legislation was passed in the House to address these issues, it died in the Senate due to the filibuster by red-state senators. Such states have a disproportionate amount of power because every state gets two senators, regardless of population. The Electoral College does not reflect the will of the voters, either. George W. Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 and Donald Trump did the same in 2016, but both won the presidency. The far-right U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against reproductive rights, voting and minority rights, and environmental regulations and ruled to expand gun rights — the opposite of what most Americans want. These advantages should make Gutfeld happy, but it sounds like he won’t be until Democrats are defeated in the kind of war he is calling for.

George Magakis Jr., Norristown

I am an addiction psychiatrist and want to comment on the recent op-ed by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and John Fetterman. One barrier to patients receiving lifesaving medication is the insurance companies. The practice of requiring “prior authorization” is still occurring and often impedes the prescriber from immediately allowing the patient to obtain the medication. There are also often “quantity limits” that limit the dosage. Federal law needs to allow prescribers to immediately and effectively get patients on this medication without insurance company delays. Delaying treatment costs lives.

It is also necessary for federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare to significantly increase per diem reimbursements to treatment programs. Many patients with these federal/state insurances are not accepted into detox and/or rehabilitation because they pay so poorly. Physicians and other prescribers are often reluctant to treat this patient population due to lack of training, and an additional step should include mandatory annual education for all licensed providers in every state. The federal government can assist with grants to incentivize states to require this.

It should also be a requirement that emergency rooms, which often initially see these patients when they overdose, initiate buprenorphine treatment even if they need to “keep” the patient for a couple of days. Some states are initiating treatment for opiate-addicted incarcerated individuals. Every state should do this. We have the tools to significantly address the problem of addiction if only we have the willpower to follow through. The financial cost is negligible compared with the annual cost of incarceration and the costs associated with treating the medical complications of untreated addiction.

Michael W. Shore, Cherry Hill, michaelwshoremd@comcast.net

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