Challenges of the 21st-century workplace

ISSUE | EMPLOYMENT

Grim outlook

Advances in technology are rendering many people unemployable or not employable at their former wages ("Where have all the wages gone?" Sunday). The problem is worsening rapidly, and there are no viable solutions.

If the government tries to mandate employment and salary levels, that could drive businesses out of the region, out of the state, or out of the country. Closing the borders could lead to a scenario that would please Ayn Rand.

Significant increases in education spending can buy us time, but better education alone will not solve the problem: Many people will simply lack the ability to function in the 21st-century workplace. And increased taxes for education will meet stiff opposition unless Washington gets serious about illegal immigration. The affluent cannot be expected to educate the Western Hemisphere.

|Mike Egan, Philadelphia, mchlegan@gmail.com

ISSUE | RIGHT TO KNOW

A matter of trust

Thursday's editorial is right on target in condemning the efforts of elected officials in Harrisburg who are trying to legalize secrecy ("Rolling back right to know"). Such action hurts all those the government is supposed to protect.

At a time when police officers are fighting to retain public confidence and citizens are looking for reasons to trust them, proposed legislation to keep police body-camera records secret fuels public skepticism and implies that there's something to hide.

Denying the public access to the names of officers being investigated in the shooting of civilians would deliver another blow to law enforcement's "trust us" campaign. And the pending legislation to stifle media access to and coverage of court proceedings - and of legislators - certainly doesn't instill trust.

Thanks to our legislators, Pennsylvanians would learn less about the valuable and responsible work done by the police, the courts, and the media. What we'll have instead is a lesson about Harrisburg and our elected officials' contributions to an ill-informed citizenry.

|Tom Eveslage, Philadelphia, eveslage@temple.edu

Clearing the record

An editorial Tuesday misidentified the location of strip clubs referred to in an email exchange involving Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin. It was Myrtle Beach, S.C.

ISSUE | MUSLIMS

Trump will create attackers on both sides

I am worried about ISIS, but Donald Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States will radicalize and probably already has radicalized some Americans, encouraging them to act like the terrorists he fears ("Trump calls for keeping out Muslims," Tuesday).

ISIS has murdered and condemned those who oppose its philosophy. Because of Trump's fearmongering, the attacks against Muslims and mosques in America will increase, making the American attackers no different than ISIS's followers. Aren't we supposed to be better than that?

|Joyce Brown-Stone, Philadelphia

Heading for a slippery slope

In Nazi Germany, it was the Jews who were responsible for the country's problems. In America, according to The Donald, no Muslims should enter the country. This is blatant bigotry, counter to our heritage as a great nation that welcomes all religions.

I am not Jewish; I am Episcopalian. Some will say it is extreme to compare Trump with Hitler, but where do we draw the line? Put all Muslims in guarded camps, as we did with Japanese, Italian, and German Americans during World War II?

|Ken Abraham; Dover, Del.; kenabraham3138@gmail.com

Better to keep the enemy away

Republican front-runner Donald Trump is taking a lot of heat for his call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." I can't understand why any clear-thinking, reasonable person would disagree with this.

The mass-murderous San Bernardino, Calif., couple were somehow radicalized and came in under the radar, even though they had a stockpile of weapons. We're lucky the death toll was only in the teens; it could have been in the hundreds.

How many more mass murders of unarmed Americans by radical Muslims will it take before the rest of the country catches up with Trump's real-world, non-politically-correct perspective?

|Eugene R. Dunn; Medford, N.Y.; erdunn@optonline.net

Mosques should step up

The jihadi murderers spring from Muslim communities. The solution must be found in the same communities.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, concerned about backlash, condemned the radicals behind the killings in San Bernardino, Calif. Words are cheap; actions count. If the Islamic community wants respect and trust, mosques across the country must encourage their flocks to join the military and fight the likes of ISIS. Imams must preach that the Constitution governs, not the prophet's words.

If the Islamic community looks for excuses for the inexcusable, it deserves the distrust and the backlash.

|Joseph Springer; Southampton, N.J.

Profiling is a matter of self-preservation

Your article is way off target in trying to gain sympathy for Muslims ("Muslims stung by bias," Monday). Mahir Khalil and his cousin were questioned before boarding a flight from Chicago to Philadelphia because they had been speaking Arabic. What is wrong with questioning them?

We're at war with Islamic extremists. They speak Arabic, and not one wears a sign that reads, "I'm a terrorist." Stop being politically correct and get on the side of the American people on this issue.

|Dennis Stuempfle, Calabash, N.C., dengrove@hotmail.com