Letters to the Editor | April 23, 2023

The Inquirer story about the Byberry Township African American Burial Ground exposed two uncomfortable truths. The first is that many cemeteries containing the remains of Black men and women have been neglected and forgotten and lack clear chains of title. Addressing these interrelated issues will take historical and legal research, as well as significant funding. The second is that modern development — including government projects such as highways, public works, and the National Archives building mentioned in the article — threatens these important sites. To address that issue, we need stronger policies in place at the federal, state, and local levels. One potential model is a new policy on burial grounds, human remains, and funerary objects adopted by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the independent federal agency that I lead. The agency focuses on the protection of historic resources, including cultural and tribal resources. In developing our policy, we heard from Black Americans, representatives of tribal nations, and others about the need to guide federal agencies when they encounter, or think they might encounter, these resources. Our policy explains how these sites should be protected and says that governments need to do their homework and honor the connections of descendants. I encourage readers to review what we’ve done — and encourage the state of Pennsylvania, the city of Philadelphia, and other public bodies to do the same.

Sara Bronin, chair, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has said his office will not offer mercy to those who are caught shoplifting three times, even if the amount stolen is under $500. This policy is in response to complaints from business owners on Lancaster Avenue who are literally on the verge of closing their stores because of the runaway shoplifting there. Why aren’t all shoplifters charged, regardless of frequency or dollar amount of goods stolen? Why is it the prerogative of the district attorney to prosecute some violations of the law and not others? Who gave him the power to run his office like a social services agency, rather than the purpose for which the office exists — that is, to prosecute those caught breaking the law? Sadly, Krasner is emblematic of progressive prosecutors whose lax enforcement is becoming the ruination of big cities across America.

Fred Hearn, Turnersville

Seemingly with every passing day, there is a new disturbing revelation reported about Justice Clarence Thomas and his financial disclosures, or more pointedly, the lack thereof. In a time when the approval rating and trust in the U.S. Supreme Court are cratering, this is quite worrisome. The court, lacking its own enforcement resources, relies on the public’s faith in its integrity and unimpeachable honesty to support its verdicts. Thomas’ past behavior is acting like a one-man wrecking ball on the court’s reputation as it continues to fall to new depths in public opinion polls. The silence from the court and from Chief Justice John Roberts is deafening. Ironic that Roberts, a devoted institutionalist and protector of the court’s reputation, is presiding over its fall from grace. At the very least, the court needs to respond with a public code of ethics that binds its justices and imposes real penalties if its provisions are broken. Maintaining the integrity of the court calls for no less.

Ken Derow, Swarthmore

News to date on the settlement between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News seems to be missing three things. First, is there no concern expressed by the Federal Communications Commission that a licensee has acted wantonly and with a reckless disregard of facts? Second, if U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan can conduct his clownish road show “investigating” the Manhattan district attorney, shouldn’t the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband or the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs exercise a similar but more responsible oversight? Third, shouldn’t those in the news media who presumably exercise a more responsible concern for fact and truth, such as The Inquirer, be demanding a public apology from Fox for its despicable view of American citizens as ignorant dupes not worthy of truth? Doesn’t Rupert Murdoch pose a greater threat to our republic than Vladimir Putin? A press release cannot be the end of the Fox News scandal, but the beginning of its downfall.

Michael J. Cummings, Philadelphia, castlecomer@gmail.com

Christopher Goins, after only eight months as president of Girard College, resigned at the end of March. Since July 2009, only one of the four Girard presidents served more than three years. That record of turnover indicates that the Board of Directors of City Trusts, the body that makes appointments and oversees the school, has not served it well. This is not the first era in which the board has failed. In 1953, Raymond Pace Alexander introduced a City Council resolution calling for the integration of Girard College. He was optimistic that the board would ask for a reinterpretation of the donor’s will, as had earlier been done when “orphan” was legally redefined as fatherless. Instead, until a 1968 desegregation decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the board fought to keep Girard a whites-only school. The board’s actions furthered racial discord and prevented hundreds of Black children from obtaining a Girard education. These different failures, decades apart and by no means the only ones, raise the question of whether this body that was established in 1869 is the best way to administer the trusts bequeathed to the city of Philadelphia. Only extensive and public scrutiny, based on full access to the board’s records, can answer that question.

Kenneth E. Carpenter, Girard Class of 1954, Newton Center, Mass.

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