A life of luxury — and disaster

The obituary of Dorrance "Dodo" Hamilton, the billionaire Campbell Soup Co. heiress, detailed the many philanthropic causes she supported (" 'A woman of vision' and many causes," Wednesday).
But noticeably absent was her role in the Pier 34 collapse that killed three young, promising women, including our daughter, DeAnn White, 25. On May 18, 2000, DeAnn was celebrating her upcoming birthday at Club Heat, when the pier collapsed.

Hamilton's company, HMS Ventures, operated the nightclub. She helped fund the inadequate and cheaper repairs instead of a more expensive, safer option. In the months leading up to the collapse, Hamilton was on the pier more than 100 times, including two days before it collapsed. A widening gap on the pier was a clear sign of the impending doom.
Hamilton was not charged with any wrongdoing, but she paid for the criminal defense of the nightclub operator and the pier owner, who ultimately pleaded guilty or no contest to involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

Hamilton and others agreed to pay to settle the civil claims. She never told us she was sorry and went on to live a long life of privilege.
We will never forget the Pier 34 collapse that killed our daughter.

— Clyde and Blanche Toole, Atlantic City

Mayor Kenney's decision to keep Philadelphia as a sanctuary city will cost us money ("Phila. gets U.S. order on 'sanctuary cities,' funding," Saturday).
When I became a Philadelphia police officer (now retired), I swore to uphold the constitutions of the United States and Pennsylvania and to enforce the laws of our city. Could you see Kenney telling a cop to do something and the cop replying, "I am not going to do it; I do not think it is fair"?

The cop would be gone in a heartbeat.

Kenney will hurt police by losing millions of dollars in federal grant money. As he says, we have the best police force, so he shouldn't jeopardize that money.

Instead, he wants to take $54 million from new property-tax revenue and put it in a reserve account in case we lose the money that we should get from the U.S. Department of Justice.

— Bob McCann, Philadelphia

Why are the justices in Berks County, Pa., and the Supreme Court Of the United States denying the right of habeas corpus in seeking to remove 28 unfortunate Central American women and 33 children from this country ("Families denied rights by justices," Sunday)? Is this what America has come to? Where are all the mainstream churches that should be protesting this terrible injustice?
President Trump wants to build a wall to keep illegal immigrants out — what happened to the words on the Statue of Liberty? I wouldn't be here, nor would many Americans, if this kind of treatment were in place before and during World War II.

I am calling on Congress, especially Republicans, to stop this craziness. God bless the USA.

— Janet McGill, North Wales

With all the pipelines threatening New Jersey and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission being a rubberstamp for them, there's still a way to stop these projects. PennEast may have gotten its final environmental impact statement from FERC, but we can still stop the pipeline by pressuring the state Department of Environmental Protection and Gov. Christie to deny a 401 water-quality permit. That is how New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stopped two pipelines.

Pipelines such as PennEast and Southern Reliability Link cannot meet the permit's requirements. They would cut through high-quality streams, wetlands, and in the case of PennEast, the Delaware River. Many of these waterways carry anti-degradation criteria.

We can block the permits through grassroots organizing and getting environmental experts and data from locals on the pipelines' impacts. Other groups are undermining these efforts by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on radio ads, media consultants, and meaningless reports.

We need to hold Christie and the DEP accountable to deny the certifications. The DEP needs to stand up to FERC to do its job and stop these dangerous and dirty pipelines that threaten our water supply by denying them the permits.

— Jeff Tittel, director, New Jersey Sierra Club, Trenton

I'm appreciative of the letter writer's husband who flew fighter jets for 20 years ("Thanks to Trump for veterans' care," Sunday). But let's not go overboard with praise to Trump for extending a bill that was already in existence. Extending it was a no-brainer.

The bill allows some veterans to use private doctors under certain circumstances, not all veterans. For example, I'm a veteran of the Korean War who lives two miles from a veterans' facility. I'm not eligible to use a private medical facility in lieu of a veterans' facility.

— Thomas Skudlarek, Lansdale