Letters to the Editor

Re: "Herd on the street," editorial, yesterday:

You rightfully heap blame on many corners for the failure of the rescue package in the House of Representatives. It was strange, given that far fewer than half of the Republicans voted yea, you did not mention the House Republican leadership. It seems to me it was partly their responsibility to bring more GOP congressmen on board, although apparently blame also extends to past House leader Newt Gingrich. News reports say he privately urged members of his party to vote against the measure while publicly supporting it.

Nancy Ashton

Haddonfield

We have been banking in the same building in Suburban Square since 1970. When we awoke Tuesday and learned that Wachovia had been devoured by Citibank, that meant we will soon be dealing with the sixth financial institution to put its name over the door.

It's almost biblical. Philadelphia National Bank (PNB) begat First Pennsylvania Bank begat First Union begat CoreStates begat Wachovia begat Citibank. Each transfer involved heaps of money that went to misbehaving CEOs and did nothing for the depositors.

Alison B. Graham

Wynnewood

Given the real-time meltdown of our health-care system, I was dismayed to read two articles in Monday's Inquirer related to the projected growth of the hospital industry and high-tech competition in health care. Neither of these trends is affordable. Responsible cost control is a central issue in the health-care reform debate. Building new hospitals and promoting high-tech, high-cost interventions is a failed strategy for our teetering health-care system.

Richard Lippin, M.D.

Southampton

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Re: "In Camden, clinic plan draws protest," Sunday:

Waterfront South is a 150-year-old community that has survived almost insurmountable odds. We believe that life is about people helping people, and that each community should address the problem of its own drug addicts, as we do. No additional addicts should be sent. Well-run clinics should be near medical facilities.

Barbara Pfeiffer

Camden

Listening to pompous pundits blame the economic crisis on average Americans for "living beyond their means" showed me that these so-called journalists are basically embedded corporate hacks completely out of touch with reality.

The root cause of the crisis is that at the same time the nation, led by the government, was going deeper into debt, that same government gave huge tax credits to American corporations that made it easier to send high-paying jobs to foreign shores. As high-paying jobs vanished and people had to take low-paying jobs, taxes and health-care costs remained high, and bills went unpaid.

Jeff Litzke

Downingtown

Many think "getting tough" is the way to fix the problem of recidivism, as the reaction to the slaying of Officer Patrick McDonald has shown. It is easy to point fingers, saying people did not pay attention to the tell-tale signs of a violent offender and in effect allowed the tragedy to happen. But punishing judges and parole officials will not fix the problem.

People are not born killers; they are made. Unless the criminal justice system fixes its own problems, including the proven ineffectiveness of prisons to rehabilitate inmates, criminal behavior will persist.

Joseph Blanch

Philadelphia

An incident in Iraq that has received too little attention is the threatened prosecution by the Iraqi parliament of one of its members, Mithal al-Alusi. His offense? He visited Israel. This is the "freely elected" parliament for which the United States has sacrificed thousands of its sons and daughters and billions of dollars, and which, we were told, will ultimately trigger the spread of democracy throughout the region and thus improve Israel's security. Instead, the "success in Iraq" President Bush and Sen. John McCain insist we are achieving has replaced one implacable enemy of Israel with another.

Jacob Belkin

Philadelphia