Letters | YUENGLING & THE UNION: A VERY YEASTY DEBATE

I'LL NEVER DRINK Yuengling as long as this boycott is in effect.

I love it as a good Pennsylvania beer, but not as long as the company attacks the rights of its workers to have a union. Even if they haven't touched pay or benefits, now that there is no union at the Pottsville plant, they can take all of that away at anytime.

Yuengling has lost one loyal drinker.

James Robinson, Philadelphia

I applaud Dick Yuengling Jr. for standing up for the welfare of his company. Unions are supposed to be the voice of the workers, but if they are getting the same benefits as before they booted the union, then the union wasn't needed - which is the case in most companies these days.

Your article says they still get 100 percent of their health insurance paid. Who else does that these days?

If a company has been around for 178 years, then they've probably been treating employees fair enough and didn't need a union in the first place. I now will buy only Yuengling brand beers.

J.T. Agnew, Sicklerville, N.J.

As a former United Parcel Service worker laid off twice with one day left to get in the union, I suggest that the Teamsters focus on employees who want and need their help - not those who vote them out.

As far as the AFL-CIO putting in their two bits, they haven't gotten city employees a raise in years, while our health-care costs and co-pays rise with every new contract. Now they want us "union people" to boycott Yuengling?

Liam Tolen, Philadelphia

Tut exhibit is swell

Everyone has the right to free speech, but the protest against the King Tut exhibit was just awful. Instead of protesting the exhibit, Molefi Asante should have been there to support the exhibit and teach the visitors about the history of Egypt.

The exhibit is remarkable. I walked away with a great sense of who King Tut really was and what Egypt was about. We all know Egypt is in North Africa, we also know that King Tut was black, but what shade of black is the question.

The Egyptians were a race unto themselves. Their features were African, but they were so intermarried that it is really difficult to distinguish all of their features.

All we really know is that it was impossible for King Tut to be European. Whether he was a dark- or light-skinned black man shouldn't matter. He was African.

As an African-American, I am proud of all of my history and was honored to see the exhibit. I rented the audio guide, and it states that Egypt is in Africa. Not one time did this exhibit suggest that Tut was white.

Also, Professor Asante indicated that "Kemet" means "black country." It also means "black land," which refers to the fertile land surrounding the Nile. It's sad that Professor Asante's extreme Afrocentric views have blinded him from seeing a truly wonderful exhibit.

Renee Nelson, Philadelphia

90 big ones for Ed

I would really like readers of the letters page who remember all the poems and letters I've sent to the Daily News for 60 or more years to wish me a Happy 90th Birthday today, June 1. Make it in big letters, please. Cheers, everyone!

Ed Galing, Hatboro