Letters to the editor MUST be accompanied by your daytime and evening phone numbers for verification purposes. Letters without phone numbers cannot be considered for publication. Letters must include first and last names. We do not publish anonymous letters.
The colorful Mr.
Bryant Gumbel
I know you probably will not print this, but I had to say it anyway. Why is it that when Bryant Gumbel said what he said about the Olympic athletes not actually being athletes because of the lack of African-Americans involved, that no one was outraged?
I remember when Rush Limbaugh made his comments about Donovan McNabb, the black community was up in arms and wanted action to be taken, but this gets brushed under the carpet because it was an African-American making the statement. If they want equal rights, then they should have to live up to the same standards as the rest of us and be responsible for their actions.
Bobby Gass Jr.
Somerton
Nice job,
Officer Stephanie
I want to take a moment to thank the Northeast Times for the recent article featuring Police Officer Stephanie Ahrndt (Compassion in uniform, Feb. 2 edition).
The job of victim assistance officer is a difficult and delicate one. It takes a special type of person to effectively interact with the recent victims of crime, and Stephanie Ahrndt has consistently demonstrated that she is just that type of person.
Stephanie has been serving on the community advisory committee here at the Rhawnhurst NORC, and at every CAC meeting she brings us situations where she is looking for resources to help seniors who have been not only victimized by neighborhood crime, but often marginalized by a system that is not as responsive as it should be.
She takes these incidents personally and interacts with seniors in a way that they know they are in good hands. The Philadelphia Police Department and the citizens (especially senior citizens) of the 2nd Police District are well-served by this outstanding officer.
Alan McHale
Outreach worker, Rhawnhurst NORC
Ramp plan is a lemon
I just finished reading the article about the new I-95 ramp (Big plans for I-95 in Tacony, Feb. 23 edition). Does anybody realize that this is not really fixing any problems about traffic in our residential areas?
Something definitely needs to be done about the amount of traffic and the speed at which this traffic is moving through our neighborhood, however, moving the ramp a few blocks south is not going to help. At present, cars use Tyson Avenue as a shortcut to Princeton Avenue. These cars travel down Tyson at speeds of 60 to 70 mph at times. They travel to Torresdale Avenue and make a left to Princeton Avenue.
What makes anyone think that they will not make a right on Torresdale Avenue to Disston Street? At present, Disston Street does not have any traffic lights. Can you imagine the speeds they will be traveling on this stretch of road to get to State Road in order to access the new I-95 ramp on Longshore Avenue? Disston Street is the only other street that accesses State Road beside Princeton Avenue, which has traffic lights and traffic.
Everyone (PennDOT, sate officials and the Tacony Civic Association) states that extensive studies have been done, however, I have lived in Tacony all my life and I have lived on Tyson Avenue for the past 12 years, and I can tell you that traffic has increased substantially over these past years.
I do not need a PennDOT study — I am living the study, and I am here to tell you that once drivers realize that they do not have to wait in the lights and traffic along Cottman Avenue to access the ramp to I-95, they will quickly change their route.
Something needs to be done to address the quality of life that will soon be upset on Disston Street. Making Disston Street one way coming toward Torresdale Avenue would make Princeton Avenue the only access road to State Road and the new ramp. Just think about it.
Janine Halbiger
Tacony
Mr. President, do you know
what you are talking about?
President Bush recently found a bright side to outsourcing, saying that the loss of U.S. jobs to foreign countries helped create markets for American business.
Is he saying that it’s great to send our jobs over there for a fraction of what we pay our people here so those people could make money to spend on things made here for big businesses to get richer?
"It’s true that a number of Americans have lost jobs because companies have shifted operations to India," he said in a speech previewing last week’s trip to India and Pakistan. "More than 1.2 million Indians work in high-tech jobs, many for U.S. companies or their affiliates."
Is he saying almost 1.2 million American jobs are now there and there is a bright side to that?
Americans buy more goods from India than they sell to Indians. The United States had a $10.8 billion trade deficit with India last year, because even though U.S. exports to India have been steadily increasing, imports from India have risen more.
Almost 1.2 million jobs lost and a $10.8 billion trade deficit, and our president can see a bright side. Guess he is just an optimist — dumb, but an optimist. The only bright side to outsourcing would be if we could outsource his job.
Fred Staffieri
Mayfair
A few words from
a very proud mother
Regarding Darlene Finch’s letter to the editor in the Feb. 23 edition, first off, I am not a fan at all of hunting animals by any means, but Dick Cheney is not sending our sons and daughters into danger; our sons and daughters (including my stepson) are volunteering to protect our country. I am so proud of each and every one of them.
Nancy Schultz
Port Richmond
Cuts in arts program
hurts our children
This is in response to John Ruppert’s letter to the editor about the budget cuts in the schools (Students’ dreams dashed by budget cuts, Feb. 16 edition).
My daughter attends Lincoln High School. The cuts affecting Austin Meehan are flowing down the street to Lincoln. Why is the school district with the motto “No child left behind” cutting our children’s arts programs? As of next year there will be no performing arts program at Lincoln High School. The music classes will not be rostered into the students’ day. It will be considered an after-school activity that will eventually stop. This will do away with marching band, concert band, jazz band, choir and other related activities.
Many of these extremely talented students will not be able to attend after- or before-school programs due to scheduling conflicts. Some of them work, have to help at home with siblings, have homework or do other already established after-school activities.
Many of these bright young men and women foster good and decent friendships through the arts programs, develop strong characteristics such as pride, determination and self-discipline through these programs.
These young people are gifted and talented and many have nowhere to take their talents except for the school, so with this, our children are silenced. They learn about different venues of music, different cultures and how to work as a group to accomplish a goal.
Please think about the pride in the faces of these children as they play a difficult piece of music or sing a song they heard from a grandparent’s time. I have actually been so moved by the faces of these students at their concerts that I felt as if they are all my “own children.”
If this were a sports program, would there be silence about it? I doubt it.
In the next few years, Lincoln High School will be torn down and rebuilt into a “state of the art” high school. WHERE is the money coming from? It is going to cost the taxpayers too much of our hard-earned tax dollars to do this. Why don’t we demand that this money be put into improving an already intact building and put money into all the programs for our students? It is a waste of our dollars to rebuild this school. If there are so many budget cuts, why is there a new million-dollar school district administration building? Why wasn’t some of this money put into Lincoln and Austin Meehan?
Please do not silence our children. It will hurt them and may possibly change the way they view school and remaining in school. Please help by writing letters and contacting our local politicians Thank you on behalf of our future.
Johanna Jones
Mayfair
• • •
I am a former student at Austin Meehan and Lincoln HS. I am so angry about the changes at Austin Meehan and cannot believe that the programs there were dropped. Then I was told by a student at Lincoln that the music program was going to be pretty much gone, too! What a sad day it will be for those kids.
I feel these programs kept me in school. I was one of those students who every week was going to quit school, but something would come up with band or something and I stayed. Before I knew it, it was time for graduation. The music kept me in school. The teachers in the program are so terrific and dedicated.
I cannot believe that this could be an end of an era of concerts, the turkey bowl and friendships old and new cultivated right in a large classroom filled with sounds of music and laughter.
Is it money? I bet it is. And what “intelligent adult” came up with this bright idea to do away with arts in the schools? I can guarantee he or she NEVER heard Lincoln’s band play or saw the beautiful artwork from Meehan! Get yourself out to these schools and listen to the children. They want these programs and we do learn from them. The experience is as valuable as all the other classes we take, and it is some students’ lives and careers.
Because of those programs, I graduated and am a senior in college. And yes, I am a music major who will go into teaching. I was so thrilled to be possibly thinking of teaching in the School District of Philadelphia, where “No Child is Left Behind,” but because all those arts and music children are left behind, I may just leave this school district behind.
Think about the hurt and discouragement this is causing and change this policy! Parents, stand up and let your voices be heard. Yell and scream until this is changed. This is important to your child.
Catherine Halloran
Holmesburg
The Miller Matter:
You call this justice?
Has Judge Benjamin Lerner set new guidelines for first-time offenders?
I’ve lost all faith in our "justice" system. It was one thing that Megan Miller only served 200 hours community service, but for her father, Richard Miller, to get off with probation and restitution is a crime itself.
Mr. Miller was the "responsible" adult that should have been in control of the situation from the word "go" that day.
Judge Lerner stated Mr. Miller’s outstanding character and community involvement as the reason behind the "light punishment."
If people like Richard Miller, who are held in high regard in their community, are going to make poor choices that result in the death of an innocent person, shouldn’t they be accountable just like anyone else? Lead by example, right?
As for the restitution, I never thought you could put a price on human loss and suffering. Maybe "I’m sorry" helps ease the pain for Mr. Miller, but it will NEVER ease the pain and emptiness felt by everyone who ever knew Sarah McGinley.
Fly high, sweet angel!
Eileen D’Alonzo
Port Richmond
Judge saw both sides
Last April, I was one of those who wrote in the Northeast Times about the stupidity of the father who allowed his daughter to practice driving his car without being of age to qualify for a learner’s permit. I was upset about the needless loss of life suffered by the family and that a baby would grow up without her natural mother present.
It is easy to allow yourself to simmer in anger and harder to sit back and forgive. To be young and to have to suffer the loss of your soulmate is one of the toughest tasks a man has had to confront.
I will not try to minimize the young father’s sorrow and anger, but I will assure him that as time passes on, even though the feelings will still be raw the responsibilities of providing for the material and emotional needs of the young toddler as she grows up will go a long way toward helping ease some of the pain he is feeling now.
No one should have to go through what he is going through.
We may not always be pleased with the way justice rolls. Had Richard Miller been a man with a long criminal record, the task of sentencing him would have been made much easier on the judge.
It is easy for a judge to put a man in jail and to order him to pay restitution while knowing very well that he will never be able to pay back the restitution if he cannot find gainful employment.
To craft a sentence requiring that he pay $7,500 toward funeral expenses in addition to serving three years probation is a way to allow Miller to keep his job with a defense contractor.
Were he put in jail, he would be forced out of his job and thus unable to pay the restitution so demanded by the judge in addition to the other bills created by the tragedy.
This is not something of a creation by a "soft-hearted" judge with a bias toward criminals, but a judge who took the time to weigh both sides of the issues raised before making a decision.
We will never know how 18-year-old Sarah McGinley impacted the lives of thousands of teenagers tempted to try to get their parents to let them practice driving on an empty parking lot without having to get a learner’s permit.
If this incident dissuaded even one kid from considering doing such a thing, then Sarah McGinley will not have died in vain. If there was anything this episode taught us, that would be the importance of respecting the laws we live in. If we choose to break or even bend the laws, then we will live in a society beset by anarchy.
Since it has been brought up that the gravestone for Sarah McGinley’s grave has not been funded in full, I would like to make a suggestion that a local gravestone dealer have a heart and to agree to provide one to the grieving family to be erected on the grave by the first anniversary of her death.
That gesture would go a long way toward helping the family try to reach closure. Payment for the gravestone can be made when all other bills related to the accident are settled in civil matters. I am sure that this gesture would be greatly appreciated by all in the community.
James K. Goodwin
Frankford
Was Megan capable?
What your editorial last week, Justice denied, calls for is not justice, but retribution. To obtain a learner’s permit in our state, one must be at least 16, pass a physical examination, a vision test, a knowledge test (but not a driving test), fill out a form and pay a $5 fee.
For lack of a better system, we set precise minimum ages for obtaining a permit and a license, for the right to enter into contracts, enlist in the military, vote, smoke, and drink, but no one can seriously argue that all 15-year-olds are not capable of driving, but magically become capable the midnight of their 16th birthdays.
At the time of this incident, Megan Miller was 15, but there is no evidence that she was not capable of practicing how to drive (in a school parking lot on a weekend); nor is there evidence that she would not have passed the physical, the vision test, or the knowledge test.
Had she been a little older and have gone through the required steps, this would have been treated as a tragic accident, but not a crime. The difference between a tragic accident and a crime should not come down to the failure to file a piece of paper. That is not justice.
Howard J. Wilk
Bustleton
It was a bad mistake
I take issue with the opinion expressed in Justice denied. I do not know Mr. Miller but I know of him, and by all accounts he has done much to help our community. Good people can and do make bad mistakes. Mr. Miller’s mistake caused the tragic death of a young mother. Calling Mr. Miller "a bad man" is truly uncalled for.
Some people felt Mr. Miller should not have faced criminal charges. I was not one of those people. He broke the law in taking his 15-year old daughter for a driving lesson in what I am sure he thought was a safe environment — a fenced-in parking lot. Mr. Miller was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced.
Sadly, nothing will bring back Sarah McGinley, but nothing, absolutely nothing, would be accomplished by sentencing Mr. Miller to jail. Even the prosecutor thought that a prison sentence would only satisfy vengeance, not justice. This has become a matter for the civil court system.
I also have to congratulate you on your "words of wisdom" directed to both Judge Lerner and the Defenders Association. Of course anyone who is accused of a crime must be guilty, and a pox on the houses of any attorney who represents a low-income person! Thank you for disavowing both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Mary O’Donnell-Green
Mayfair
The Pigeon Times?
From high aloft their ivory tower sit the grand inquisitors of the Northeast Times editorial staff. You could have chosen a million tactful ways to write the final epitaph of the tragic events that took place that April morning, but you chose to print a sensationalized, baseless, lowest common denominator editorial.
The majority of Mayfair residents who felt Rich Miller’s sentence was fair are the working-class, conservative, churchgoing people who, but for the grace of God, have made similar mistakes in their lives without the catastrophic results that befell both the victim and Mr. Miller.
Furthermore, to accuse Judge Lerner of lacking the objectivity to sentence Rich Miller because he has the audacity to believe everyone is entitled to a defense is libelous.
This editorial is sad and amateurish. You seem to base your whole argument on the line, "Laws, after all, are supposed to be obeyed, not ignored." In the utopian world your editorial staff lives in, that may be true.
However, back here on planet Earth, things seldom happen in such a clear-cut manner. You could have taken the high road and written of the fact that this was a tragic accident with no winners, only varying degrees of loss.
Instead, you played to the lynch mob, and for that your paper has proven to be what I always suspected it was, a glorified Carrier Pigeon with an editorial staff out of touch with the pulse of the neighborhood it purports to serve.
Brian P. Tait
Mayfair
There we go again
Justice is tough to find in Philadelphia, but we don’t stand much chance with you folks dragging out the old "bleeding heart liberal" mantra in the case of the tragic death of Sarah McGinley.
I think I would have sentenced Mr. Miller to some jail time. We can’t bring Sarah back, but we can give some feeling of justice to her family. But I give the benefit of the doubt to judge Benjamin Lerner.
If you do a Google search on his cases, it’s clear he is no fan of criminals. But you chose to ignore that possibility in order to offer this easy editorial rather than to ask the really tough questions. Nice job.
Bob Smiley
Frankford
Share your opinion by e-mail
Return to this week’s editorial . . .