Letters to the Editor | Dec. 13, 2023

The latest congressional inquisition of university leaders was a diabolical episode of political maneuvering and obfuscation of the public. These representatives would have done much better to hold a hearing on the massive dysfunction and ideologically driven partisanship of their own Congress. Instead, these officials deliberately opted to pillory university leaders with carefully crafted questions designed to solicit sound bites that would stir up already tense constituencies and the news media. It worked perfectly. The first rule of elected officials: distract the public from your own incompetence and ineffectiveness and invent new enemies of the people. Predictably, vested interests inside and outside Congress immediately rose up carrying nooses and torches of righteousness. Build more gallows. The Salem witch trials are back.

Joseph Batory, Philadelphia

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It has been deeply troubling to see Liz Magill turned into a scapegoat for everybody’s anxiety, anger, and fear about the situation in Israel and Gaza. She did not call for genocide, nor did she condone it. All she did was say, in effect, that Penn policies mirror American law, which protects the rights of individuals to say horrible things that may bother others. The overreaction by many people, including our governor, suggested a tremendous bias on their part. It also provided a smokescreen for the secondary agenda of disingenuous legislators, who seized the opportunity to meddle in the leadership of major universities.

Despite all the pontificating about exactly what words Magill should have said, the problem is not on American college campuses. It is in Israel and in Gaza. Period. It is a difficult, heartbreaking problem with an ancient history. It was not created by university presidents, and it is truly shameful that Magill was hounded into resigning. A wiser nation would leave her and her colleagues to do their jobs. We can only hope that they lead the next generation to solutions their misguided critics have failed to find.

Rich Wilson, Bryn Mawr

Tuesday’s Opinion pages contained companion pieces on the threat to free speech on college campuses in the wake of Liz Magill’s resignation. I wonder how the Editorial Board maintains a straight face. Someone reading these op-eds without any prior knowledge may conclude that previously, these campuses had been bastions of free expression. This is a laughable pretense. College campuses have become increasingly hostile environments to any thought or speech that doesn’t adhere to the orthodoxy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), microaggressions, safe spaces, and far-left doctrine. Harvard’s own internal research shows that faculty identifying as conservative constitutes about 2%. It is only now, when someone from under the tent faces retaliation due to speech, that there are head shaking and furrowed brows over “censorship” on campus. How fitting that it is speech about the long-lasting blind spot of the left: sympathy for terrorists espousing genocide to “free Palestine” — a mythical land that does not exist on a map.

Kenneth Rayca, Cinnaminson, krayca@aol.com

One important thing seems to have been lost in the flood of condemnation against the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn. Namely, they were asked about their institutions, not themselves. They appear to be highly ethical and honorable people. I am certain that as individuals, they find genocide as abhorrent as most of us. The questions they were asked, however, targeted institutional policy, and they answered to the best of their ability. Policies are interpreted by people, and I suspect that policies are unevenly applied. In consequence, lawyerly equivocation was the most honest answer they could give.

Had representatives asked them for their personal opinions, they would have gotten very different and more heartfelt responses. All this is to say that rather than engendering the type of ad feminam attacks that have dominated the news, a better response would have been to examine institutional antisemitism not only in universities but across society. Antisemitism does seem to be the one form of racism that does not cause immediate condemnation. Instead, it provokes more academic discourse on what it really is. It seems that everyone can agree on what anti-trans bias is, but for the oldest racism in the world, there needs to be a committee to study it. That is the essence of institutional racism.

Kenneth Gorelick, Wayne

In one form or another, the end could be near. Special counsel Jack Smith’s request for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on whether Donald Trump has immunity to federal criminal prosecution will almost certainly determine the direction, if not the outcome, of the 2024 election. If the court chooses to either not hear the case or rule that the law does, in fact, apply to Trump just as it does everyone else, that will likely be the beginning of the end of his political life.

Both federal case indictments seem almost impossible to overcome (providing the law is followed by all judges and juries involved), and it seems just as unlikely that a convicted federal felon, almost certainly headed for incarceration, could be elected president. However, if the court — packed with three Trump appointees who already saw fit to help overturn Roe v. Wade and cancel 50 years of legal precedent on women’s reproductive rights — rules in Trump’s favor, 2024 will almost certainly be the birth of an American dictatorship.

Mike Dobson, Albrightsville, medobson328@gmail.com

In a recent article, Spotlight PA reporter Stephen Caruso listed the many ways a state Capitol roof leak was derailing services and funding to Pennsylvania residents and institutions. Yet he failed to mention the most glaring irony: The legislature’s displacement also means the release of $50 million promised in the budget for the statewide Whole-Home Repairs Program will remain on hold. The program provides repair work to preserve the homes of low-income households while also building local workforces.

The initiative was championed by State Sen. Nikil Saval alongside a diverse coalition of nearly 60 nonprofits, private companies, and institutions, and it had rare bipartisan support. There are tens of thousands of Pennsylvania households in dire need of the money allocated to kick off the second year of the program. Yet wait they must, as political wrangling held up the release of the promised funds, and now a roof leak is derailing the program further. If our state lawmakers cannot get work done due to a roof leak, imagine what these households are facing daily as they live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions because their home needs critical repairs. Please don’t make them wait any longer.

Carrie Rathmann, Philadelphia

The U.S. Supreme Court left it up to the states to decide on whether to allow abortions. In ruling, justices failed to consider when an abortion is medically necessary and is part of medical care. Only an imminent threat to the life of the mother permits an abortion in Texas; otherwise, the welfare of the mother is secondary to the welfare of the fetus, whether it will survive pregnancy or not. The result has been cases like those of Kate Cox, leading to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton being allowed to practice medicine without a license as he appeals a judge’s decision to allow Cox to have an abortion. In court, the state argued that an abortion would be permissible if her water broke. Otherwise, she would have to carry the fetus to term. Cox has since left the state.

George Magakis Jr., Norristown

Kyle Sammin in his Monday column pulls out the old Republican chestnut of “high taxes” to attack the new Democratic commissioners in Montgomery and Delaware Counties. Somehow, Democrats using social issues to get elected is fraud but Republicans doing the same is OK. Let’s be clear, taxes are the way we as a society pay for services we need — from schools to infrastructure to police to making health care accessible to all. Yes, we should pay no more than it takes to provide those services efficiently and cost-effectively. But given years of inflation and the loss of taxes during the pandemic, honesty and responsibility mean taking care of business. The problem is that our tax system remains unfair, with those most able to pay using their wealth to avoid their share and dumping the responsibility on those less able to pay. Sammin should look in the mirror before he calls anyone dishonest.

Mitchell Rothman, Merion Station

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