Letters to the Editor

Focusing on wrong issues

First, let me say that I couldn't care less whom a person marries. On the list of issues in this country, gay marriage is probably about No. 12,454. Yet it has been on the front page of every newspaper and the lead story on all TV news shows for the last week ("Obama backs same-sex marriage," Thursday). I can understand President Obama wanting it that way, given the $15 trillion debt, the $1.5 trillion annual deficit, the high unemployment rate, a failed strategy in the Middle East, and 50 percent of the population paying no federal income tax in an ever-expanding entitlement society.

Instead of dealing with those issues, Obama rubs elbows with all the freaks in Hollywood, at a fund-raiser hosted by George Clooney. They worry about individual freedom, but say nothing about the extreme policies of Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that will affect every aspect of our lives for years to come. They are as clueless as Obama.

The Republicans are no better on the social issues. Individual freedom is what it is all about, or should be. I never like it when someone tells me what I should do. I like it even less when the government thinks it knows what's best for me.

With leaders such as Obama, Reid, Mitt Romney, and the rest of the clowns in Washington, is it any wonder the country is a Hollywood movie, and not a very good one at that?

Fred Felter, Broomall

State must help with city schools

I'm not sure that we need Thomas Knudsen, chief recovery officer of the Philadelphia School District, to tell us that our schools are on the brink of disaster ("Hollow school coffers resound in Council," Wednesday). Nor do we need the fix he advocates: Mayor Nutter's plan to have property owners shoulder the burden for more money to the district.

We taxpayers are tired of taking the hit every time this mayor and his experts are faced with a problem. We didn't cause these financial crises, nor did we try to hide them, as the ousted superintendent did. On top of that, Gov. Corbett has made cuts to education, while refusing to tax wealthy gas drillers in the Marcellus Shale region. Such a tax could easily fund the schools across the state.

The $33 million that could be saved by closing 40 schools is about what the state is contributing to Delta Air Lines to help it buy a refinery so it can save money on fuel costs. Why not direct that money to Philadelphia schools?

If Knudsen, Nutter, and the School Reform Commission could get together and approach Corbett and the state legislature for more money, perhaps the schools would not have to be scuttled and our children could be educated.

Jim O'Keefe, Philadelphia

Dickensian news

The front-page headlines on May 4 carried me back to Charles Dickens.

Across the top of the page was: "Big pay for ex-Sunoco chief; If a sale goes through, she could reap $37.4 million."

So it was "the best of times" for ex-boss Lynn Eisenhans.

At the bottom: "School cuts mean hungrier students; Summer programs that include meals have been scaled back."

And it was "the worst of times" for these children.

Peggy Rosato Higgins, Malvern

Victims of education disaster

Not opening Philly schools would be unheard of. Our government helps victims of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other disasters.

We should be able to include city schoolchildren on that list.

Carol Greenberg, Philadelphia