Letters: It takes an army to raise Philly's kids?

SO NOW, according to your June 17 editorial

"Join or Diet,"

we can add the military to the growing list of people who need to step up and raise the kids of Philadelphia.

It's not good enough that we have the liberal mantra of "it takes a village" or the increasingly popular notion that somehow city teachers are responsible for raising these criminals, um, I mean children. Now you want to add the military to this distinguished list of people that only disguises the fact that the parent(s) of these precious little snowflakes are the only ones responsible for ensuring their kids aren't fat, lazy, stupid or criminals.

How about we start holding the parents responsible for the actions of their little terrorists? Only a mother and father can instill the morals and courage necessary to survive and persevere.

And how about men start acting like men?

Here's a few lessons: If you pay child support or raise your kid, you are not a hero, you are only doing what you are supposed to do. You are not a dad if you pay child support but don't see your kid. You are not a man if you knock a girl up and run away.

And, women, why don't you all stop acting like you don't need anybody to help raise your kid (except government assistance, of course) which only hurts the kids you profess to love?

You do need a man. It not only helps the kids maintain a balance of emotion, but there are some things that only a man can show a young boy. Maybe the overwhelming crime statistics plaguing a given community would come back down if men were an active part of raising these boys.

We reward mediocrity and settle for incompetence. Welcome to Philadelphia: Thank God I left - and took my three kids with me.

Jeff Cannon Sr., Elkton, Md.

nolead begins

I'm no expert in oil engineering or environmental disasters, but I do possess an average level of intelligence and common sense.

During recent days, the media has been loosely throwing around the idea of detonating a nuclear bomb to stop the oil leak.

While nobody is actually considering the nuclear option to end the problem, the idea is, nevertheless, being discussed in the context of a last-means resort - is, if all else fails, we can just bomb our way out of the problem!

"Fixing" a man-made environmental disaster with a nuclear bomb is the equivalent of a person using a blow torch to light a cigarette while pumping gas.

Using the logic of the nuclear option, I would like to offer the following suggestions as a last resort to fixing the economy:

1. Print more money.

2. Outlaw alternative energy.

3. Deregulate the financial and oil industries even more.

4. Make Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, the head of the Federal Reserve.

5. If all else fails, just keep printing more money.

Daniel O'Donnell, Mahanoy (Pa.) State Prison

Who's to blame for the Gulf gusher? Some say BP, but BP was just doing what corporations are supposed to do in this economy: cutting corners to maximize profits. If the engineer in charge of the rig had ordered a shutdown, erring on the side of public safety, he'd have been fired for costing the corporation three days' profit. Or would President Obama be the one to blame? But offshore drilling didn't begin with Obama. Or is the government acting "too slow"?

But what about the guy I saw riding down the street in a Hummer limo the size of a tractor-trailer? Or an Escalade the size of a tank?

They would seem to be part of the problem, as in fact is just about every element of society. The worship of the "Golden Calf" of technology (techno-hubris) may be the real problem: "In vain they worship and beseech the works of their own hands, works of wood and stone."

Jim Hunter, Philadelphia