Letters to the Editor | Sept. 28, 2022

Philadelphia residents have struggled through multiple days-long heat emergencies this summer, and many families have now endured school closures at the beginning of the school year due to excessive heat in district buildings lacking air conditioning.

We can’t escape the reality that it gets hotter every year. Where will this lead? If we start the school year later and end it earlier due to increasingly hot and humid weather, how will we adequately educate our children?

Perhaps we need to get smart and address the root cause of this extreme heat: climate change. Greenhouse gas pollution is warming the planet at an unsustainable rate and our children are suffering in myriad ways. We need to do better by them.

The next governor of Pennsylvania must continue to prioritize climate action — our families and communities are depending on their leadership.

Brooke Petry, Clean Air Moms Action, Philadelphia

The proposed comfort woman statue is not about women’s rights and human dignity, but rather a politically motivated statement intended to intensify tensions between Japan and South Korea that will threaten peaceful relations between Japanese and Korean communities in Philadelphia. To argue the statue serves as a reminder of what American soldiers fought against and died for in World War II is a cynical manipulation of the intentions behind the statue. To accuse statue opponents of being violent bigots, as a letter writer did, is neither just nor respectful in addressing those who do not agree with his position. The writer is correct when he writes that a commemoration of the wrongful internment of Japanese Americans is worthy of a monument. But that has nothing to do with the proposed statue and serves only to obfuscate the issues under review. The statue should not be erected in Philadelphia.

BJ Hoffman, Oreland

If your only source of information about candidates running for office were the ads on TV, would you vote for any candidate, no matter which party? If you did, it probably would be to have them arrested for lying, taking undeserved public money, or trying to destroy the U.S. economy. Each candidate tries to paint their opponent as being unworthy to hold public office or a threat to our democracy and way of life. When are we going to change the campaigning laws so that we are told, truthfully, why we should elect a candidate, not why their opponent should not be elected?

The present ads are filled with statements taken out of context, gross exaggerations, or downright lies. And who is responsible for many of them? Yes, we are told that groups like “Citizens for a Better America” are responsible for the ad. But who are they really?

Reform campaign laws. I’m sure people will claim censorship or freedom of speech if we fact-check ads or protest setting campaign spending limits. But why should a knowledgeable businessman or teacher/ college professor who wants to serve the public be prevented from running for office because of finances? Let’s make it an even playing field for anyone wanting to run for office. Let’s take money and special interest groups out of the equation. Our goal should be to elect the best candidates, not the best connected with the deepest pockets.

Jim McGogney, Marlton, hiprofessor@gmail.com

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