CSX is a lousy neighbor

Trouble on the tracksI can relate with the problems with CSX, "Idling unmanned CSX freight causes stink," (Nov. 6). I live in the Somerton section of Philadelphia with the same CSX freight line bordering my property.

More than 10 years ago, CSX was parking trash-filled trains on the side track over long periods of time. Once a trash train was parked over a three-day Christmas holiday on a side track with the stench blanketing the neighborhood. The city told us afterward, we would have to report the incident when it happens in order to cite CSX. Real action was only taken when a TV news crew reported the problem, but we still have the trash trains parked on the side track.

I once tried with great difficulty to report a faulty track connection that I had discovered in back of my property. The trains travel 50 mph in this area. When they did repair the track the crew caused a brush fire that went unattended, which nearly spread to our property before the Fire Department put it out. A greater critical issue is the mile or longer crude oil trains that are traveling over these tracks on a daily basis.

CSX is a giant corporation that has no time for its neighbors. This city needs to have a policy with policing the railroads and provide for better communications between the railroads and property owners to address problems, especially for reporting critical issues that may cause possible emergencies.

|Harvey Cantor, Philadelphia

Tinseltown express, now boarding

Donald J. Trump is now the president-elect of the United States of America.

A number of celebrities said they would leave the country if Trump wins. A flight to Canada awaits the following stars: Barbra Streisand, Bryan Cranston, Miley Cyrus, Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart, Cher, Chelsea Handler, Samuel L. Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Neve Campbell, Keegan-Michael Key, George Lopez, Ne-Yo, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Raven-Symone.

Please buy your one-way ticket immediately and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

|David M. Levin, Vineland

Psychoanalyzing the election

All the women running for office in Pennsylvania lost. What the heck? What happened to equality for women and feminism? Did it accomplish nothing? Is there such a backlash against Hillary Clinton, against women, against feminism, that suddenly no woman in power is acceptable?

I am a psychoanalyst and I believe it was not just the failure of feminism, conservative politics, or misogyny at work in Clinton's defeat. There was a particular transference to her, which spread to other female candidates.

Clinton is threatening because she is female and powerful. She reminds men, and perhaps some women too, of the mothers of their early childhood who had the power to punish. She stirs up a powerful primitive fear of being overwhelmed and emasculated by a critical, reprimanding mother.

Yes, she speaks loudly and can be shrill. In a man, a loud voice is commanding. In a woman, a loud voice is the voice of a mother saying "Stop that; go to your room" or worse. These kinds of transferences are immensely potent, and worse, they are often unconscious.

I wish I could prescribe a little psychoanalytic treatment for all the Americans who voted for Donald Trump. I wish the voters of this country could have distinguished between the real Clinton, who was experienced, sophisticated and well prepared temperamentally to be president, from the feared mother they felt she was.

The best I can do, and the best any of Clinton's many supporters can do, is to continue to stand up for the values that we believe are right, while simultaneously encouraging women in Pennsylvania and in this country to continue to speak to power and seek powerful positions.

|Corinne Masur, Chester Springs, menschwoman@gmail.com

Should have listened to Trudy

What the voters have demonstrated by electing Donald Trump to the presidency is that being an open purveyor of hate is no impediment to serving as leader of the free world. Americans have shown that going low pays dividends. Through the example that we will now be setting, it is apparent that the United States has ceased being a shining city on a hill.

Trudy Rubin devoted multiple columns to warning readers about Donald Trump's lack of fitness to serve as president - from his reckless and uninformed foreign policy and lack of character, to his demagoguery of all the worst instincts in people. It is a shame that more Pennsylvania voters and voters nationwide did not follow her advice.

|Bill Fanshel, Bryn Mawr, wfanshel@hotmail.com

How much can one country take?

Once again, the antiquated electoral system denied the apparent popular-vote winner a true victory. It is a repeat of the 2000 election that resulted in the destructive Bush administration.

But America survived the 2001 terrorist attacks, the misguided invasion of another country, the housing meltdown, growing income inequality, and a massive economic recession.

We may be able to withstand the craziness of the sociopath viper now set to slither into the White House. Then again, how many blows to the collective head can the country take before the concussions become fatal?

|Gene Muccolini, Mount Holly, genemucc@comcast.net