Letters to the Editor | March 17, 2025

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Good time to remember that the starvation that caused a million Irish deaths in the mid-1800s and the migration of my ancestors among two million others from Ireland was a political choice made in the British Parliament. The choices made were: 1) the Penal Laws of the 1700s, which prohibited Irish Catholics from inheriting their father’s land; 2) tariffs which raised the price of common goods including food beyond the reach of poorer people; 3) laissez-faire response to the Great Hunger because the right-wing who controlled the British government said the market would address the humanitarian crisis and Irish Catholics were lazy and being punished for their moral weakness.

It is hard to distinguish between the causes and responses to the Great Irish Hunger and the policies of President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Republican Party. They use the same convoluted language and logic, the same dehumanization of people, and the same “the market will solve humanitarian issues.” Almost 200 years later, the same immoral policies that killed a million Irish Catholics are the foundation of the Republican Party in the U.S.

Donna Nawalkowsky, Philadelphia

Kudos to Samantha Melamed and The Inquirer for exposing the troubling pipeline funneling foster youth into the juvenile justice system. Children in the child welfare system already face immense challenges — housing instability, food insecurity, and trauma from abuse or neglect, making them more vulnerable to interactions with law enforcement. Like Denaisa Hansberry, instead of receiving the support they need, they are often funneled deeper into the justice system, sometimes held in detention simply because no one is available to care for them.

The city and state must do better. The Philadelphia Department of Human Services should reinvest cost savings into a full spectrum of services, including community-based programs and nonsecure group homes, to support youth in crisis. Foster parents and relative caregivers must be equipped with the necessary resources to care for children with complex needs. Not least, state lawmakers must act to pass long-overdue juvenile justice reform measures, including legislation that prohibits children from being detained unless their behavior poses a danger to others.

Children belong in safe and supportive homes, not locked away due to a failing system.

Stefanie Arbutina, vulnerable youth policy director, Children First

On March 10, Americans heard something many would have thought unimaginable: global humanitarian aid programs providing lifesaving food, clean water, education, and agricultural assistance “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Just 38 days into a 90-day review, 83% of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programs were terminated.

The ripple effects have been felt around the world — children die without nutritional supplements, diseases spread without medical treatment with the potential to come into our country, farmers are unable to plant this year’s crops because they do not have the resources the U.S. promised, and desperation for food in some nations leads to strife and instability.

The administration failed to comply with court orders to provide funds authorized by Congress to pay for work that had already been completed. While providing waivers for some lifesaving programs to continue, the administration has refused to provide the funds authorized to pay for these programs, forcing nonprofits to either end the programs or self-fund the work. Less than 1% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. This is not a source of waste, fraud, and abuse.

Carol Olivieri, Pennington

Gutting the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is likely to cause 166,000 additional malaria deaths, 200,000 children paralyzed by polio, and one million children to suffer severe malnutrition. Freezing funding for HIV treatment in Africa removes lifesaving medication for 5.5 million people. Legislators should do everything they can to restore USAID, which would cost 0.3% of federal spending. Or are all our leaders cruel? Or spineless?

Susan Reisbord and Saul Sternberg, Philadelphia

The Roberts’ recent large donation to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for more brick-and-mortar (with, of course, associated naming rights) is all well and good, but when will we see these big donors support the earnings of the ludicrously underpaid residents and fellows who pass through CHOP? My daughter, now one of the top attending pediatric interventional cardiologists in the country, did a five-year fellowship at CHOP/Penn, finishing when she was in her mid-30s, and was paid a relative pittance during her entire stint there, notwithstanding the incredibly long hours she worked and the huge patient responsibilities placed on the fellows. And she was better off than the vast majority of fellows because she was not saddled with either college or medical school debt, which can run into the hundreds of thousands. It’s time for the big donors to support people, not buildings.

Gordon Downing, Wynnewood, grdowning71@gmail.com

I applaud the long and principled opposition of The Inquirer Editorial Board to the death penalty. It is particularly timely now with the Trump administration again in power. The first one, in its final months, carried out a spate of federal executions unprecedented from any jurisdiction in decades. We may expect a similar performance from the present one. Meanwhile, four states have scheduled executions of their own in the coming week. Executions by gassing have been reintroduced after being long banned as particularly cruel. So have firing squads. But there is no way to humanly perform an inhumane act, or to reverse a punishment that, once inflicted, can never be reversed regardless of innocence or injustice.

More than 20 years ago, then-Gov. Ed Rendell received a state commission report on the death penalty that unanimously concluded it could never be fairly or reliably imposed and called for its abolition in Pennsylvania. Rendell rejected the recommendation, saying he was unconvinced by it. He never offered a reason. (During his last week in office, Rendell urged the General Assembly to consider eliminating the death penalty if sentences could not be carried out quickly.) Pennsylvania remains the only state in the Northeast that has not abolished the death penalty. That is our shame. Human rights were first proclaimed on our soil in 1776. Slavery was defeated here at Gettysburg. We still have a job to do.

Robert Zaller, Philadelphia, rzaller@msn.com

I couldn’t agree more that abolishing the death penalty is a vital reform. However, for me and 20% of U.S. adults who identify as Catholic, it also ought to be a moral imperative.

The death system is not only broken, but deaths in themselves violate the human dignity of all people, regardless of the victim’s criminal status. Thus, to abolish such a practice is to recognize the inherent dignity within each person. As Pope Francis once stated, “If I do not deny that dignity to the worst of criminals, I will not deny it to anyone.”

Sadly, this voice is ignored by the Republican leadership. Even President Donald Trump, who won the national Catholic vote by a wide margin, has gone further by reinstating the death penalty at the federal level, with his vice president, JD Vance, a convert to Catholicism, saying nothing.

This is not an attack against our current leadership, but a call to understanding for members of this administration to recognize our valid argument against the death penalty, and just maybe agree with it. In particular, I hope our vice president of shared spiritual vision embraces his call to abolish the horrid sin that is government-sanctioned death.

Jackson Russell, Springfield

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