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Here’s what makes
her sick and tired
I’m sick of politicians who do nothing for the good of the country unless it’s for the good of their party.
I’m sick of the money spent arguing about whose fault it was that caused the debacle after Katrina.
Why not do what needs to be done and forget about blame? It’s all about which party to blame.
I’m sick of felons being treated like celebrities after spending time in jail, even being offered a TV show. Doesn’t that teach our children that crime pays?
I’m sick of TV. Every time I turn it on, someone’s boobs hit me in the face. Now, even newscasters are showing theirs, especially Channel 6.
Last but not least, I am sick of listening to people trying to take God out of schools and the Pledge of Allegiance. Perhaps it’s God that we need in our lives.
It would certainly make it a better world to live in.
Bonnie Long
Fox Chase
He needs his shot
in the arm
This is the second year in a row that my family doctor could not get the flu vaccine. He advised me to go to the health clinic on Cottman Avenue. The clinic advised me that they only have it on certain days and to call ahead. My problem is I am a high-risk senior citizen who cannot stand for long periods of time. People who have gone to the clinic tell me it is a one-hour wait in line.
Am I the only old person with this problem? I am willing to pay for the vaccine.
Charles Quay
Pennypack
Let’s hear it for
the pit bulls
Regarding Pat Hill’s letter to the editor (How much is that pit bull in the window? Nov. 17 edition):
What gives you the ugliness to say, "pit bulls are a signal that there is trash in the neighborhood?"
My young family has a pit bull. Nina has been with us for six years. Never hurt anyone. Never hurt my children, who are ages 3 and 4. Our dog is not a void. Nina is the first dog my husband ever had. I am not going to tell how great she is, because you don’t care.
Many people have pit bulls. Some have more than one. So, are you calling all people with pit bulls welfare trash? You just hear about the dogs that have done wrong. That’s only one side of the coin. How about the people who saved abused pit bulls? Are they welfare trash, too? All dogs bite.
If you think my family is welfare trash because of our dog, then you don’t think highly of people at all. You are a sad, sad, case in my neighborhood.
Nicole Shaw
Mayfair
• • •
Shame on you, Pat Hill, for saying that the only people that own pit bull terriers are city trash. I admit there are scumbags who abuse these wonderful, misunderstood dogs, but there are also wonderful owners who love the breed and respect the dogs by giving the animals love, proper training, and having them neutered to prevent more dogs into the world.
I myself am a pit bull owner. I adopted Molly not because of her breed or to look macho, but because she needed a good home. My house is well kept and my dog and I are good citizens, so in the name of all good owners and pit bulls everywhere, please do not disrespect what you cannot comprehend.
Gina DeNofa
Normandy
Councilman O’Neill,
what are you doing?
In response to Terry Saunders’ letter in the Nov. 17 edition regarding Councilman Brian O’Neill sending his staff to their court case with her pet pig Jackie, it is my understanding from speaking to other victims of Mr. O’Neill’s ordinance that he is sending his staff to all the animal ordinance hearings to testify against the taxpayers who pay his salary, be they in his district or not, and all at the expense of the taxpayers! (It seems it all started with some goats being kept in his district.)
I don’t want my money going to pay for it. I am not in Mr. O’Neill’s district, so I am not able to vote against him, but I hope all of the voters in his area will vote no on his re-election.
And I hope people will call him and urge him to grandfather all the pets he has doomed with his ordinance. Urge him to stop wasting our money on enforcing this in court and start spending it on putting drug dealers, child abusers and crooked politicians in jail instead.
Why do you hate animals so much, Mr. O’Neill? Why do you get to decide for the whole city what kind of pets we citizens can have? Why is it OK to love your pet dog and not your pet chicken?
Why doesn’t City Council do the right thing and overturn this ordinance? It is just wrong and I’m tired of paying for it.
In response to the other letter from the man who thinks people in Oxford Circle are going to get Avian flu from the live chicken market on Oxford Avenue, if you read up on the subject you will find that the strain of Avian flu that is suspected of making people sick does not exist on this continent. Live animals are not imported from Asia to Oxford Circle for consumption by American people.
Making such an uneducated statement in print is irresponsible and unfair to the people trying to run an honest business and earn a living. It is a disservice to readers to print it in the paper.
Hysteria over Avian flu is not helpful to anyone.
Lynda Kennedy-DeSouza
Frankford
Councilman O’Neill:
I didn’t do it
For the record, I have never sponsored legislation to prohibit pot-bellied pigs. Pigs have been illegal in Philadelphia since 1956. In 1994 and 1997, bills were introduced to legalize pot-bellied pigs, but they did not come up for a vote in City Council.
In 2004, I successfully sponsored a bill prohibiting farm animals, such as chickens and ducks. The farm animal bill had the full support of the Philadelphia Health Department.
Brian J. O’Neill
Councilman, 10th district
Bring our troops home
In regards to the letter to the editor by Miguel Vargas (Bush is doing the right thing, Nov. 17 edition), Mr. Vargas, I do agree with you that it is wrong to compare President Bush with the terrorists. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You say the president has to put his life and the presidency on the line. How does he do that? That reminds me of a General Patton in World War II, one they called "blood and guts Patton." They would say it was his guts and his men’s blood.
If we as a country continue to act as "the police officers of the world," we will never be at peace because the fanatics in this world will never let us live in total peace. We will just be putting our young on an assembly line to be sacrificed.
To say the number of casualties in Iraq is tragic is understated. More than 2,000 young people are dead trying to right a situation that we will never be able to do. Maybe 10,000 are wounded casualties.
I keep reading or hearing, "Support our troops" and I can never figure out what this means. Does this say we should send them food and arms to keep them alive longer to be sacrificed later? If we really want to support our troops, bring them home, alive, now!
U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a Marine intelligence officer in Vietnam, said of Vice President Cheney, "I like guys who’ve never been there that criticize us who’ve been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."
I like that Marine, and I’m a Navy man.
All I can say is, read the headlines: "South Korea plans to pull out one third of its troops, after President Bush praised his counterpart as a staunch ally," or, "In Baghdad, suicide bombers killed 65 worshipers near the Iranian border."
Tell me how our president is doing the right thing and how he is going to win this "war" by sacrificing our youth. Oh yes, and tell me when all of this is going to happen.
Fred Staffieri
World War II veteran
Ex-supporter
feels amBushed
Our beloved country has found itself embroiled in many costly conflicts ever since it abandoned the old adage of "minding its own business."
We are presently being led by an administration of blatant, unmitigated liars, posing as apostles of a messiah. A savior of the world who implements his ambitions at the expense of those Americans who desperately need and deserve help.
It’s not surprising, although disappointing, that the daily repeated rhetoric has convinced a cadre of converts. It is no wonder that the tactic resembles the one employed by a despot of another era.
The concept that the USA is the police officer of the world and that we are duty bound to spread democracy to the world is ludicrous. How would we react if outsiders tried to impose their culture, form of governing, or beliefs upon us? I’m sure we’d fight. The people in that region (the Middle East) right or wrong, are the result of a culture that precedes ours by centuries. If we continue to try changing them through force, the engagement will make the historic 100 years war seem like a weekend.
I was taught that I would make very few enemies if I kept my nose out of other people’s business. But the real danger lies in making friends. I was told to choose them carefully, because one also inherits the new friends’ enemies. That’s why we have become unnecessarily involved in the woes of that region.
We can’t totally blame the present administration for this condition, since it’s been ongoing and expanding for many years. The president can be faulted, though, for perpetuating a foreign policy that invited antagonism, that ultimately has resulted in an unnecessary war. Our "dollar diplomacy," instead of paving the road to peace, has trapped us into a quagmire of debt that will not be paid for in decades, but in generations. Also, there are the lives lost and the many more seriously and permanently wounded in this senseless effort.
I voted for George Bush the first time around, but those among us who put him back in office have to take the blame for this continuing arrogant spectacle.
It’s a shame that for a country so full of history, we ignore the wealth of knowledge our past contains. In these troubled times, instead of listening to these false prophets, it would give us all a tried-and-true sense of direction if we would read some of the writings of John Quincy Adams, both before and during his presidency.
Samuel J. Munafo
Academy Gardens
Devaluation
of a Constitution
Some thoughts from an uneducated truck driver regarding the Supreme Court and politicians:
The argument over abortion, with the latest nomination to the Supreme Court, has come to a head once again. Generally speaking, conservatives are in support and liberals are against the nominee.
No one really knows how a nominee will vote on a particular case, but certain indicators seem to point in the direction of a court that might overturn Roe vs. Wade. Personally, I doubt it. I hope I am wrong.
Were this the case, it would only eliminate legal abortion as federal law. The matter would then become a state issue, and the states could either make it illegal or legal.
The battle will continue on a state level, where it should, constitutionally, be. The Supreme Court legislated it. It was not a judicial decision.
States with large, highly populated cities most likely will opt to legalize abortion. The less populated states most likely will outlaw the procedure.
This is where the battle would have remained had the liberal and activist court of 1973 not found this to be a right to privacy, which nowhere in the Constitution exists.
The real problem as I see it is that the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it is written on as long as certain politicians and judges are always trying to put something in it that isn’t there. It has been going on before the ink dried.
The very first thing that anyone should know is that the framers of that paper wanted a limited central government. It is stated clearly in the Constitution that everything that is not given to the federal government is reserved to the states.
Clearly, what passes for most federal law today is unconstitutional. Our politicians don’t have the stones or are too ignorant to do anything about it.
States’ rights has long become a dead issue.
The tyranny of a powerful central government is a reality.
If you don’t think so, ponder how your rights have been trampled under the entitlements that have been given to others by the politicians — executive, legislative, judicial.
There are many points to this that might be argued, moral as well as legal, but to settle a moral argument illegally is immoral. Besides, it is hypocritical.
Pasquale Varallo
Fox Chase
Pay raise fiasco
raises questions
The unvouchered money grab orchestrated by our slick legislators was despicable and enraged the voting public so much that the legislators repealed the pay raise.
This was the only motivation for the complete turnaround of their bold stance. To add insult to injury, they have done an end-run around our welfare. They have used a double-edged sword to prematurely cut taxpayer money out of our state treasury.
Two questions come to mind. Does this "early" raise add to their pensions upon retirement? And by donating it to charity, is it a deduction that will lower their taxable income? Clever, huh?
Is this a win-win situation for them? I feel as though our futures are in the hands of a self-serving enemy! Lucrative perks, cost-of-living guaranteed raises and pension and medical plans are not enough for these people. They are envied by the same taxpaying working stiffs who have had their minimum wages frozen in time by these legislators.
Returning these raises would have been the honorable thing to do, but there is no honor among thieves!
Robert Weisenbach Sr.
Parkwood
There’s just no rest
for the weary
As we come down to the end of 2005, let’s recap what our representatives in Harrisburg did this current session:
Last session, they voted on a huge pay raise in the middle of the night in July and then went on several weeks of vacation for the summer.
Pennsylvanians steamed over these raises for weeks until our representatives came back into session. The Senate and House after several weeks of negotiations came up with a repeal of that pay-raise law. The vast majority won’t or have not returned any of that pay raise that they have gotten while the repealed law was effective.
During this current session, did they pass a new revenue stream for SEPTA, increase the state’s minimum wage or any other laws that will benefit Pennsylvanians personally?
So, is it time for state House Speaker John Perzel to call a recess and let our representatives go on several weeks of vacation again yet?
Mayer Krain
Modena Park
Bustleton deserves
the facts
I am disheartened, but not surprised, to read of the tactics used by Councilman Brian O’Neill in his attempt to divide the Bustleton community.
As reported by Northeast Times reporter Jeannie O’Sullivan in the Nov. 24 edition, his course of action has resulted in the resignation of George Weiss Jr. as president of the Greater Bustleton Civic League.
Ms. O’Sullivan further reported that the councilman stated he did not want to notify the community, especially George Weiss, of a remapping plan because it was his opinion that developers would get a heads-up.
Without proof of such action, Mr. O’Neill has besmirched not only the character of George Weiss Jr., but that of all members of the executive board of the civic league who serve the Bustleton community.
In all the years that I was involved in the GBCL, I cannot remember any instance of the board members, or even dues-paying members, displaying unethical behavior. They have worked as a league — without pay, of course — for the betterment of the community. Even in this remapping dispute, the aim of the board is clearly not profit but to arrive at a resolution that resolves problems without creating others.
To paint these people as other than ethical as a means of justifying one’s own lack of communication with the community is inexcusable.
Perhaps the councilman has been in Council too long and believes the accepted norms of some of his colleagues have crossed over to his constituents?
Perhaps it is to be explained in the context of past and recent newspaper headlines that, for over 20 years and to this day, cry out, "Councilperson under investigation," "Councilperson indicted," "Councilperson convicted," "Councilperson jailed" and "Investigation continues into activities pertaining to City Council."
Pay-to-play is not something that community volunteers do. Where has the councilman’s voice been on this important issue? In his 25 years in office, what has he done in the form of proposing legislation to stop this activity that plucks cash out of the pockets of the taxpaying citizens of Bustleton and helps to deliver the sub-standard service that has become the norm?
It is time for the councilman to stop the theatrics of yelling fire in a crowded building. The people deserve facts, not fiction, and the GBCL has the right to remain independent, to ask questions and to have those questions answered.
The councilman does not have the right to expect or to demand a rubber stamp of his proposals. If for no other reason than the above, it is my opinion that Councilman O’Neill owes all an apology.
Bernice Sikora
Past president, GBCL
Street trouble?
Blame One Way Street
Can anybody tell me why the several streets off Knights Road were torn up and just left that way?
This has caused terrible driving conditions. I noticed that this started right around election time. Was this some kind of kickback deal?
Why was this started so close to winter time? Does this city have to drag its feet on everything it does? Park downtown in an expired parking meter, and you’ll have a ticket within minutes. Why can’t other city services work almost that fast?
Anybody I’ve talked to said that the roads were fine and did not need to be repaved. I have called Councilman O’Neill’s office and nobody knows anything about it. Just another reason why some unlucky people can’t leave this city fast enough.
Why does the Northeast seem to be on the bottom of Mayor "One Way" Street’s priority list? Why is the cost of living in Philadelphia so high and the quality of life so difficult?
Brian McGeehan
Millbrook