Letters to the editor: Oct. 24, 2012 edition

Councilman: School gym issue will be fixed
This is in response to Bill Rubin’s letter in last week’s edition: One of my highest priorities has always been the youth organizations in my district. Upon learning about the School District’s plan to charge volunteer youth organizations for the use of school gyms, I immediately began fielding calls and meeting with athletic directors, coaches and parents.
I am working with my Council colleagues to come up with a solution, as we have done in the past. I will never tolerate any youth organization paying to use city facilities.
I do appreciate Mr. Rubin reminding my constituents that I have never voted for a property tax increase, including the last three consecutive years.
I am optimistic that this school gym funding issue will again be resolved, hopefully for the last time.
Brian O’Neill
Councilman, 10th District
Editor's note: Mayor Nutter and the school district on Tuesday announced an agreement to maintain programs at school gymnasiums while altering schedules or locations to save costs.

Friendly advice for a Democratic sore loser
Evidently, based upon his letter in last week’s Northeast Times, Democrat Bill Rubin, who lost to Republican Councilman Brian O’Neill last year, is a sore loser.
Bill, you don’t need to have people “flood their councilperson’s office” with phone calls. All you have to do when you meet with your Democratic friends is to tell them of your complaints about how they are running the city.
And what you quoted Brian as saying is correct. Brian again didn’t vote to raise our taxes or institute the AVI like some of your party members did and wanted to.
Mayer Krain
Modena Park

City’s blocking the truth in probe of fire tragedy
I applaud Philadelphia City Councilman Jim Kenney for convening a series of public hearings on the circumstances that led to the tragic deaths of Lt. Robert Neary and Firefighter Daniel Sweeney in the Kensington warehouse inferno on April 9, 2012.
The brave men and women of the Fire Department who lay their lives on the line to protect the citizens of our great city deserve the truth. I found it disgraceful that the leadership of the PFD and officials of the Nutter administration declined Kenney’s request to appear at such an important public safety meeting. The hearing was about getting to the truth of what happened on April 9 so that a tragedy of that magnitude never happens again.
Clearly, the Nutter administration doesn’t want the truth to come out or they would have had the decency to stand up and be held accountable in a public forum. And their excuse that they are barred from commenting pending the findings of investigations by the D.A.’s office and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, is a complete cop-out.
If the Nutter administration truly cares about the safety of Philadelphians and its firefighters, then they should come clean on what happened in the fateful early-morning hours at the Kensington warehouse blaze. And while they’re at it, they should drop their legal challenge to the firefighters’ arbitration award. It’s fair, it’s affordable and it’s the right thing to do. So do it.
Ed Neilson
State Representative
169th Legislative District

Racism is still alive and well
Kudos to Jim Laverty on his letter to the editor last week (The double standard is in black and white).
He is right in saying that we would be slammed as racists if we were to have the white student council, the white clergy, the white Miss America, white college fund and so on and so on, but the black race can get away with doing this.
This is a double standard and just shows that racism is still alive and well with black Americans, and I don’t understand why. We have done nothing but give them a chance to strive and they have been given more opportunities than whites with city and state jobs all because they are black.
Whites are now the minority and as long as black titles are still permitted by us, it will always continue. We are partially to blame for our ancestors, but enough is enough. We are all the same when it comes right down to it and should not be discriminated against regardless of whether we are black or white.
We don’t hear of Jews crying racism or ‘poor me,’ and look what they went through in Europe during the Holocaust. Think about it.
Donna Slawter
Parkwood

St. Hubert High School says thank you
St. Hubert’s faculty fund-raising committee would like to offer a heartfelt thank you to the extended St. Hubert community, Freedom Credit Union, local parishes and Northeast neighbors for their overwhelming support of our electronic recycling program held on Saturday, Oct. 13.
More than 40,000 pounds of electronics were collected for proper disposal and recycling. Your generosity is a gift not only to our school but the environment as well!
Terese Lewis and Mary Reil
St Hubert Faculty

Readers weigh in on Obama and Romney

Obama was right
The  closing Dow Jones average on Oct. 17, 2012 was 13,557.00. The day that President Obama was inaugurated, Jan. 20, 2009, the  Dow finished at 7,920.66.
That is a 71.1 percent rise under President Obama in less than four years. By this measure, he seemed to be accurate  when he said: “The private sector is doing fine.”
Mel Flitter
Fox Chase

Romney is frightening
Regarding Diane McDowell’s letter to the editor, Don’t fall for the scare tactics from the Obama campaign (Oct. 10 edition):
If you have been made scared by the Obama campaign in this current election season, get down on your knees in gratitude for the reasons you have been made scared, of which there have been many.
I am frightened also, because I think Mr. Romney is perhaps the most frightening presidential candidate our nation has had in many moons.
At an unsteady time when we need a steady hand at the ship of state, Mr. Romney has done so many flip-flops he’s beginning to look like a pancake on a hot griddle, so we are all confused about who he is and what he really believes about the major issues.
The most current example: In the past, he has said he is pro-life. Then he changed to “I am pro-choice.” A few days ago, he announced, “Oops, wrong audience, I am pro-life. Sorry.”
Also recently he said without checking his facts: “President Obama has never once passed a trade agreement with any nation friendly to America.”
Wrong. Fact checkers did check and discovered Mr. Obama has been responsible for three trade agreements with nations friendly to us. Mr. Romney not only didn’t apologize for his incorrect charge, he didn’t even blush about it.
I did agree with one thing Diana said: “Mr. Romney may not be the entire package.”
Hey, I think you’re right. He’s only the wrapping, and there’s nothing inside.
Edward Huber
Burholme

Romney and Ryan are scary
I have to take issue with the letter from Diane McDowell.
I am scared of Romney and Ryan. People who lie and lie for political gain and keep changing their mind on the issues cannot be trusted.
How are they going to handle dealing with the leaders of other countries, and who will influence them?
Anyone who believes that the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson are donating to Romney’s campaign because they care about the average guy (the 47 percent) should wake up. They don’t want tax increases and they want to keep their offshore accounts.
I don’t resent Romney’s wealth. Jack Kennedy was rich, so was FDR, but they cared about everybody and wanted to help those that were not as fortunate.
I’ve been following politics for 60 years and have never, ever seen anything as bad as the Republicans of this era, and I remember Richard Nixon and his dirty tricks.
Women should have a say about their bodies; we don’t need ignorant men like Todd Akin, Mr. Romney’s pal, to classify what is rape. And did enough of them stand up against that statement? No.
Further, the country was in a big mess (I could use another adjective, but I’m a lady) when Obama took over. The stock market has resurged to twice what it was in 2008.
Yes, the employment rate is going up and people are showing more confidence in the economy. We have a deficit because of two wars brought about by Bush-Cheney and the cost of the Medicare drug program. Eight years of the mess that was made was left for Obama to clean up.
Will Mitt Romney wave his magic wand and suddenly 12 million jobs will appear? Will he cut taxes across the board? Will he keep us out of a war?
My gut tells me there will be cuts in the deduction for the average Joe and there will be no big, big increase in employment, and he will sway with the wind and listen to the hawks and we will, God forbid, have a war again, which would be catastrophic. I am scared of another Republican taking over this country’s leadership.
Marcia Levin
Bensalem

Romney/Ryan for women? Ha!
In response to Diane, I have to say I am a bit surprised that you feel that Romney/Ryan are for women. If you would be the first to say you’d fight for women’s rights, then you have the wrong candidates in mind.
Paul Ryan has voted to cut Planned Parenthood and disallow abortion, and he wanted to limit insurance coverage of women getting abortions even with their own money (all facts, by the way).
You may disagree with abortion, and I am with you if that is your stance. However, it is not my place to tell you or anyone else what to do with their body. That is what Romney/Ryan would do to you as a woman.
As for teachers and education, Ryan voted to cut funding for Head Start. He also wanted to eliminate caps for student loan interest rates (facts). He also wanted to limit Pell grants — which in all reality is saying they do not want to make education available with government aid. Let’s cut federal funding for schools. Let’s privatize education. Let’s cut this government wasteland we call education. However, let’s increase military spending. Let’s give tax cuts to the upper class that already pay less percentages.
As for Romney being a self-made man, I may be mistaken, but wasn’t his father extremely wealthy. So while he may not have kept the inheritance his father left, his father most definitely helped him out in his life (which is fantastic). That is not a reason to dislike the man. I do say this, though: Check out Romney’s stances on things and see the flip-flop. “I back up my statement about the 47 percent” turns to “I am for the 100 percent. I really didn’t mean that previous statement.”
Republicans argue that we need less government. We need less regulation. We need to give those big corporations more tax cuts to create jobs that are never created. They want less and less of everything except in controlling you as a person. They say gays cannot marry, women have no rights over their own body, and anyone that receives any type of government money doesn’t pay taxes.
Those “people” include those that receive student loan money and unemployment thanks to downsizing. Republicans say, “We need to censor what you see and what you watch and use God as our crutch.”
In a country where the CEO-to-worker salary ratio is over 450:1, do we really need to help out those big companies? The United States has the biggest disparity of wealth, from CEO to worker, in the world. That’s a fact. Yeah, those big corporations need corporate welfare.
Jerry Glanzmann
Castor Gardens

Are you on Romney’s list?
When you get up in the morning, look in the mirror and ask yourself if you’ve ever gotten a tax refund by using legal deductions. Do you now or will you in the future receive Social Security? Did you serve in a war zone? Have you ever received unemployment benefits? Are you a student with an educational loan or grant? Do you work but do not earn enough to have to pay income taxes?
If the answer to any of the preceding is yes, you are one of the 47 percent that Romney does not care about and describes as takers and unwilling to take responsibility for their lives. Is this the man you want to be your president?
Jaime Reyes
Rhawnhurst

Speak your mind  . . .
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