Letters to the Editor | March 6, 2024

After 13 years as an Eagle, Jason Kelce announced his retirement Monday and showed everyone what a class act looks like. Kelce thanked Philadelphia for our love and support. Allow me to return the favor. For every Sunday’s excitement, for showing a great work ethic, we thank you and wish you a future as spectacular as your past one. E-A-G-L-E-S!

Sheryl Kalick, Philadelphia

The recent editorial on the dangers of another Donald Trump term made great arguments against allowing him a second chance. But there are also dangers of granting President Joe Biden a second term, as well. Why can’t the Editorial Board assign a writer to create a similar piece arguing this view? Biden’s approval rating is a dismal 39%, so there are indications that many voters feel he is not doing well and perhaps may be equally unfit to return to the White House. Editorials do not have to be balanced. However, the Opinion section should contain more diverse viewpoints to maintain some semblance of objectivity. Thus, even if most of the Editorial Board feels the risks of a Trump presidency outweigh those of a Biden one, valid concerns about Biden’s fitness for office merit discussion on these pages.

James Koniski, Souderton

As a resident of the Northeast, I am thrilled that SEPTA earned a $317 million grant to invest in rail cars for the Market-Frankford Line that will eventually improve my commute. I commend our elected officials for working across the aisle and voting yes on the bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act to make this sorely needed funding a reality for SEPTA. U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle even appealed to the Federal Transit Administration’s administrator in support. On an environmental note, I am grateful that this funding will improve a mode of transport that runs off of propulsion electricity and keeps carbon emissions to a minimum. This demonstrates a commitment to cleaner air and a healthier climate for Philadelphia.

Kate Rojas, Philadelphia

I recently returned from Chicago and exited the plane at the very end of a long corridor that was about half a mile from the taxi stand. I reached the moving walkway only to find that it was not working. Going into a men’s restroom, I found a line of men waiting to use the only functional urinal. I decided to just get the cab and go home. When I reached the escalator that went down to the exit, it also was not working. As noted in a recent letter to the editor, I, too, was shocked by how disgusting my experience was. Filthadelphia is there for all visitors to experience as they arrive. Why is the airport management so oblivious?

Paul L. Schraeder, Philadelphia

I just read a newspaper article on the 20 worst airports in the U.S. How did Philadelphia International Airport escape the list? I recently returned to the U.S. from the island of Jamaica. What awaited me at Philadelphia International Airport was a scenario that has not changed in many, many years. A packed customs hall with close to 700 people, 54 customs personnel kiosks with just eight open. No evidence of use, anywhere, of electronic passport machines to expedite the processing of flight passengers from the passport control hall onto the baggage claim area. Like many people having endured upwards of 10 or more hours of travel, we are confronted with a further hour of delay and frustration. I witnessed many parents with very young children having to put up with this very unnecessary discomfort due to the antiquated system presently in place.

Ronald S. Joyce, Royersford

Congratulations to City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson for securing a $250,000 city grant to create housing for pregnant women in desperate situations. As the board chair of Mothers’ Home, a maternity shelter in Darby, I have seen firsthand the trauma experienced by pregnant women who don’t have a safe and stable place to live and have their babies. For more than 30 years, Mothers’ Home has helped hundreds of women by providing safe housing, case management, pre- and postnatal instruction, housing assistance, and a healthy start to life for their infants.

As described in The Inquirer article, many of our residents had also lived independently, but unforeseen circumstances such as job loss, illness, eviction, and then pregnancy can result in the necessity for stable housing and support throughout their pregnancy. There is an urgent need for safe, affordable housing for women and children in Delaware County and the surrounding areas. Councilmember Richardson has taken a key first step in not only providing a lifeline to pregnant women but also raising awareness about a critical need in our communities.

Barbara Bacchia, board chair, Mothers’ Home, Darby, bfbacchia@gmail.com

In “Forever Young,” The Inquirer profiled each of the 24 Philadelphia children who’d lost their lives to gunfire last year; I did this in 2006 but included a teen from Camden and one from a Philly suburb. Reporter Ellie Rushing saved her project until 2023 ended; my columns on 24 victims, entitled “Kids, Guns and a Deadly Toll,” were published throughout the year, with a long end-of-year article that summed up what I’d found.

Most of the kids I profiled were killed over disputes, minor or major. One — Jarrett Gore — was shot taking off his shirt in anticipation of a fistfight. Only one of the children killed, Cashae Rivers, was felled by a stray bullet, and robbery was almost never a motive. By contrast, Rushing’s landscape is a more dangerous, almost casually deadly one. Kids are held up by assailants wearing ski masks, shot by a mentally ill perpetrator, or by bullets meant for others.

I had victims shot dead playing with friends’ guns; three of Rushing’s victims were said to have been killed as punishment for gun sales or swaps gone wrong. Her terrain reflects an ever more frightening use of firearms in Philly — an aspect of the city that makes me worry about my own grown children riding the Philly subways or being in the city late at night.

One thing that has remained the same 17 years later is the willingness of the victims’ families to talk to a journalist about their dead children; doors are opened, not slammed in our faces. The year I did my project, when Philly had surpassed 400 homicides, news coverage of the killings invariably assigned each one a number. Nearly all the grieving family members I met knew which number their child was — which made it feel even more important to attach a human being to that number. They wanted their kids to be recognized, remembered. Then and now, the parents who were aware their children were troubled weren’t afraid to express their frustration at their inability to save them.

I left The Inquirer and Philadelphia nearly a decade ago to focus on Camden, a smaller town closer to home where I felt I could get to know more residents, maybe make more of a difference. Today, I look across the river at my old stomping ground with sadness. Rushing’s coverage, like mine, won’t stop the bullets. But it will show us who we are losing, and that is always a start.

April Saul, Camden

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