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Tags can save

your cat’s life

Although it is common and required by law for pet owners to license their dogs, it is very rare that cat owners do the same thing for their feline companions.
Cats are quick and can easily slip out of the house by accident unnoticed. Or people let their cats out and expect them to come home when they’re ready to come in. But what happens if she does not come home?
Sadly, the majority of lost or stray cats brought into shelters have no way of uniting them back to their families, so the cats are re-homed or worse, euthanized. The reason? Most cats have no identification, and your best friend cannot tell people where he lives. A few wear collars, but even bells and fancy collars can’t help shelter staff locate where that cat comes from.
Whether your cat is strictly an indoor cat or allowed outside, a cat-safe collar with an I.D. tag can save your feline friend’s life. If your cat protests wearing a collar, there is always microchipping, which your vet can safely give your pet. I.D. tags are inexpensive and are available online or you can make one instantly at PetSmart.
In shelters, all stray cats come from somewhere. Don’t let your cat become a statistic. Please keep your best friend safe. I.D. your cat.
Gina DeNofa
Normandy



Here comes the

deadbeat judge

I would like to know what the big deal is over Willie F. Singletary not paying his traffic tickets and wanting to run Traffic Court. After all, our twice-elected mayor didn’t pay his utilities before he took office, but was still elected to run the whole city. Why the double standard now? This will probably get him more votes in the long run.
Rus Slawter
Bustleton



Mayor’s race was great,

but bigger issues were ignored

People seem to be in a self-congratulatory mood over the recent mayor’s primary race.
There was no violence, little race baiting, and people voted across racial lines. It’s all to the good, but hold the applause.
I think the primary was largely a failure due to the lack of frankness over the biggest issues our city faces. I think our local TV stations were especially disappointing in their refusal to focus on these issues.
The greatest problem our city faces is the large, alienated, underclass that sucks up services and does not behave in a responsible way. Some candidate needs to say this, and not keep talking around it with discussions of "jobs programs" and "heating bill credits," etc. These are mere handouts — not a way out.
We have far more than a "guns" problem. When two-thirds of minority children are born outside of marriage, you have a dysfunctional-family problem that grows worse with each generation. The crisis of personal responsibility must be addressed with churches, schools, media, government leaders and our business community. The medicine, I’m afraid, must be tough.
Another huge problem is the creation of a "sanctuary city" for illegals, who often take jobs away from the underclass and who are unable or unwilling to assimilate. Every candidate runs away from this one.
Our city is in a period of bewildering demographic change, and it inspires no confidence when many citizens see the very government itself as a stubborn lawbreaker and in denial of the problems illegals cause in our communities with overcrowded apartments and fake licenses and identities.
Just these two issues alone account for much of the decline of our neighborhoods, and the feeling in many working class communities, that our values and the values of our grandparents, no longer matter. That is why so many of us either lock our doors (and our hearts) against the city, or simply give up and move away.
Richard Iaconelli
Rhawnhurst



Sign, sign,

everywhere a sign

Knox, Brady, Nutter, Fattah, Evans, the judges, commissioners and sheriff. What do all of these people have in common? Well, Northeast Philly, they all have their trashy election signs still littering our highways. These people DO NOT CARE about us or our city. They want to get elected not to DO the job, but to GET a job.
How in the hell can I get my neighbor to clean his yard and cut his grass when our so-called leaders (and I use that term very, very loosely) don’t care how our city looks? My youngest son is starting college this year. When he’s done, I am outta here. No more Filthydelphia for me, and I mean the government and the ground. The only "good news" is that the grass on the Boulevard will be high enough in another week to hide all those trashy signs.
Ed O’Neill
Castor Gardens

• • •

To ALL the politicians who still have their signs up on the Boulevard, PLEASE TAKE THEM DOWN!
J. Osborne
Lexington Park



Thanks so much,

Holy Terror trio

I would like to take a moment to thank Mike Tauscher, president of the Holy Terrors, along with Mike Sanford and Fred Makowski for many years of coaching, teaching and having fun with our kids. They have coached my son for more than 10 years.
Our kids have learned and can now play baseball (sort of) and I think they understand what giving back is all about.
Mike T. is someone that we will never forget, along with Mike and Fred. I know that I speak for all of the parents of our team to say thanks. What you have given to our kids and the laughs that the parents have had along the years cannot be forgotten.
Jean McGuigan
Holmesburg



It’s time for the people

to protect their rights

In regards to Lauren Fritsky’s front page article last week (What’s up at Lincoln?) as a former resident of the Cottman and Rowland area I would like to enlighten her about the problems that the animals from Lincoln High School create during the school year.
First, you have the morning rush, and if you live on the Rowland Avenue corridor to Lincoln, you are awakened to screaming, yelling, kids smoking pot and drinking in the driveways and all kinds of litter. This will last until mid-morning, when you then get the students who cut class and get out early, starting the whole process all over again.
If you’re fortunate, you will get a break until, say, 2:30 p.m., when the afternoon rush of thugs rush the neighborhood streets until about 4:30 p.m.
The behavior of these students is barbaric. The majority of the kids don’t respect anyone or anything and run rampant while teachers and police stand and watch.
While living there I called 911 and the school hundreds of times, but it was fruitless. I called our illustrious state Rep. John Perzel, and of course I didn’t get any help there either, and his office was located down the block on Cottman Avenue!
I called the then-principal David Kipphut and all I received was a "we understand what our kids are doing but what can we do?" attitude and empty promises to stop the violence and unruly conduct. I watched as kids did drugs, started fights and created havoc in the neighborhood.
Even after my house was broken into and after many confrontations the powers-that-be DID NOTHING! The unfortunate thing is that when someone gets killed — and believe me, with their antics it’s just a matter of time — every politician and cop in the "combat zone" will then step up and be heard.
Ask some of the businesses that are along Rowland Avenue about the Lincoln kids. They will paint a picture of theft, mischief and out-of-control kids who have nothing better to do than hassle good people.
What are school security and the police going to do about this problem? Both will give you the old "we’re trying the best we can and hopefully we get this under control." But nothing has changed. The cops stand at Ryan and Rowland avenues and watch these thugs wreak havoc. I have stood and watched this happen myself.
This problem has gone on for over 30 years if you ask some of the older neighbors, so that made me think about a few things. Thirty years, huh? That’s a long time for this type of behavior to last. Are the neighbors tired of nothing getting done and now have "accepted" this as part of living in Northeast Philadelphia? Could you blame them?
Considering how bad the area has become, why hasn’t the 15th Police District tried to nip this in the bud, say like 20 years ago? How about Lincoln High School itself? Shouldn’t they feel a responsibility for the actions of the students in the immediate area? How about the parents of these kids? Shouldn’t they be held responsible for their children’s actions?
I sincerely believe that "all of the above" should bear the blame of this insanity. Perhaps the neighbors, the Philadelphians that live in that neighborhood, should take actions into their own hands.
I’m not suggesting vigilante justice here, but the residents have the "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Who else seems to be protecting their rights as Americans?
Kevin M. Coughlin
Fox Chase



She has a few questions

for black people . . .

I am a native South Philadelphian, having lived there for about 40 years before a move to New Jersey back in 2002. After a few years there, we decided to move back home to Philadelphia, but Northeast Philly this time, due to the crime in South Philly.
Compared to the section of South Philly we lived in, Northeast Philly is like the suburbs! But I notice a very gradual change creeping into our adopted Northeast Philly, and it started the same way in South Philly.
I have struggled very hard throughout my life not to be a racist person, sometimes even shutting my eyes to the obvious. I have raised my kids to see the person, not the skin color. But now, even my kids ask me, "Mom, why do so many black people have to write on people’s fences and walls?" (They have seen it happening, over and over.) The Northeast is showing graffiti (written in typical African-American fashion) more and more.
My kids ask me why the news reports always show black faces when crimes are committed. I explain to them that white people commit crimes too, but like the story of the emperor’s new clothes, my kids see the truth with the innocence of their young years.
And so, I would like to address this to the black community. Would you please explain to me why you so often take no pride in your homes? Please tell me why you destroy almost everything you touch? Tell me why you seem hellbent on driving the crime rate in this city through the roof, why you can’t just let decent, hard-working people have a beautiful home and fence without your graffiti appearing on it? Why must you deface synagogues and churches? Why do you glorify a thug, criminal culture in rap music? Why do you glorify unwed pregnancy in black teenagers? The term, "baby’s daddy" has replaced "father" and "husband" for so many of you, and this is terribly sad.
Why is it that almost every time, when crime occurs, or graffiti occurs, or violence happens in schools, your children are at the root of it? Why is it that no matter how much help your people are given, it’s never enough? Why whenever things go badly for you, you play the race card and scream "racism"?
Is it racist to notice this? I no longer think so. I am beginning to think that the old saying is true, that "familiarity breeds contempt."
I have eyes in my head. Why is it "racist" to see the obvious? I dare the Times to print this. It’s what’s on the minds of so many people these days!
Anita Wasserman
Rhawnhurst



Another one is biting

the dust in Mayfair

Less than two years ago, my husband and I bought our first home in Mayfair. I had a 6-month-old son and was pregnant with our daughter. We were so excited to be moving out of our apartment in the suburbs and to be moving into our own home in the city.
Having grown up in the Northeast, I reminisced about all the times we had in our tight-knit little neighborhood and imagined it would be the same — maybe even better — for our little ones. We even had the white picket fence!
Two days after moving into our home, some punk broke into and tried to steal our car. A few days after that, another one wrote graffiti on that white fence. With the first mild day of the season, our cute little neighborhood turned into chaos. We had to keep the air conditioning on because the kids in the back yard stay up all night cursing and drinking beer, constantly waking our two little ones.
The more brazen kids sat right on our front porch with their beer cans and needless to stay, we cleaned them up the next morning along with their empty bags of weed. Why does the ice cream man need to come around at midnight? What happened to things like curfew and respect for our community?
I am one of the many people in Mayfair who will be putting up the "for sale" sign this year. I have had to call the city three times this year to tow abandoned cars away from the front of my house, and there have been many nights that I’ve come home from work after picking up the kids, only to find that there is nowhere to park.
The rental properties on my block seem to allow 20 people or more to inhabit these single-family homes. So once again, another young family will move out of Mayfair and into the suburbs. I’m sure that the house will be sold to some investor from New York who will turn it into another rental property and drive families like ours out of the beloved city and into the suburbs. I’m sick and tired of picking up trash that isn’t ours.
So Mayfair, you’ve lost another young, taxpaying, law-abiding family.
Hopefully the lawmakers can find a way to curb the rental properties in the neighborhood before it becomes more like Kensington or Frankford.
Jessica Byrne
Mayfair



Gas prices have you fuming?

You can take control

Soaring fuel prices have motorists scrambling to find ways to save money by using less gas. Sure, you can simply stop driving as much, but for many consumers, that’s not an option. But you can fight skyrocketing gas prices by taking control of your vehicle’s unnecessary fuel consumption.
Performing simple and inexpensive vehicle maintenance will not only save gas money, perhaps as much as $1,200 per year, but will also improve a vehicle’s safety and dependability.
The Car Care Council offers these gas-savings maintenance and driving tips:
Check your vehicle gas cap. About 17 percent of the vehicles on the roads have gas caps that are either damaged, loose or are missing altogether, causing 147 million gallons of gas to vaporize every year.
When tires aren’t inflated properly, it’s like driving with the parking brake on, and can cost a mile or two per gallon.
A vehicle can have either four, six or eight spark plugs, which fire as many as three million times each 1,000 miles, resulting in a lot of heat, electrical and chemical erosion. A dirty spark plug causes misfiring, which wastes fuel. Spark plugs need to be replaced regularly.
An air filter that is clogged with dirt, dust and bugs chokes off the air and creates a "rich" mixture — too much gas being burned for the amount of air, which wastes gas and causes the engine to lose power. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent. Keep your car properly tuned. A tuneup can improve your gas mileage by an average of 4 percent. Fixing a serious maintenance problem, such as a faulty oxygen sensor, can improve your mileage by as much as 40 percent.
These simple vehicle maintenance steps can add up to serious savings. To learn more about how to maintain your vehicle and reduce your fuel expenses, visit www.carcare.org
Rich White
Executive director, Car Care Council



Speaking of religion,

reverend’s wrong

In his effort to offer cover for Islam’s current, worldwide string of violent incidents, (Folks of all religions should follow their faiths, Speaking of Religion column, May 17 edition) the Rev. Tim Griffin wrongly maligns the Middle East’s most human nation: Israel.
Griffin’s accusations about Israel’s behavior last summer — indeed all of his recounting of last year’s war — is factually wrong.
Israel went to war only after the Muslim terrorist organization Hiz b’Allah launched a cross-border attack into Israel, ambushing soldiers and kidnapping two of them (still held hostage nearly a year later) and launched missiles at Israeli civilian population centers.
It was not a war that Israel sought, nor did it go to war against Lebanon. However, it was the Lebanese government and army which allowed Hiz b’Allah to amass tens of thousands of rockets that threatened Israel.
Before Israel launched any attack to try to stop missiles from being fired at its citizens, Israel gave plenty of advance warning for civilians in southern Lebanon to flee the area.
Unfortunately, one of Hiz b’Allah’s tactics is to operate among innocent civilians so that if and when Israel is forced to strike back, there will be more casualties. The warnings by Israel gave the terrorists time to flee as well.
This is a stark example of Judaism’s and Israel’s humanity: risking letting terrorists who killed dozens of Jewish civilians flee to kill again in order to minimize Lebanese civilian deaths — and Islam’s disregard for human life. The Muslims repeatedly intentionally target civilians, including their own.
As for Griffin’s accusation’s about cluster bombs, there is absolutely no evidence that Israel fired cluster bombs after the cease-fire, meanwhile, the reverend conveniently omits the fact that Hiz b’Allah fired cluster bombs into Israel as well.
Steve Feldman
Executive director, Greater Philadelphia District, Zionist Organization of America



State Senate panel knows

it’s time to clear the air

Kudos to the Pennsylvania Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee for making a commitment to the health of our state by pushing forward legislation to provide smoke-free workplaces and public places.
According to the group Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, if the bill is passed, Pennsylvanians would join the more that 50 percent of Americans who live in a city or state with laws mandating that workplaces, restaurants or bars be smoke-free. Smoke-free policies have now become the norm in the United States.
The Surgeon General’s 2006 report states that there is no such thing as a risk-free level of secondhand smoke. Even small amounts of exposure can be harmful. The report concluded that exposure of non-smokers to tobacco smoke increases their risk of heart disease and cancer by as much as 30 percent. The good news is that the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee understands this epidemic and voted in support of Pennsylvanians’ health.
Support for the elimination of indoor smoke pollution has gained momentum. Gov. Edward Rendell recently unveiled his 47-point plan for improving health care in Pennsylvania that included mandating statewide smoke-free places, worksites, bars and restaurants.
In a time when health care costs have reached an all-time high, Rendell’s public support of smoke-free legislation is a welcome sign that things are changing.
Furthermore, Pennsylvanians support this legislation. According to the Pennsylvania Alliance to Control Tobacco (PACT), four out of five Pennsylvanians state they are more likely to frequent a smoke-free establishment than one that allows smoking.
Even the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association supports the elimination of smoking in workplaces, including bars, restaurants, casinos, offices and manufacturing plants.
While some have raised concerns about how smoke-free legislation will affect businesses, recent studies suggest that it actually helps them. Dozens of reports indicate that smoke-free laws do not harm sales nor do they have any significant impact on employment in restaurants and bars. Following the enactment of New York City’s 2003 smoke-free law, business receipts for bars and restaurants actually increased.
Even more encouraging was the fact that the vast majority of New Yorkers indicated they supported the law. Such overwhelming public support coupled with the improved health and productivity of employees is evidence that smoke-free laws are good for business.
Improving the health of our community is surely a worthwhile endeavor. Now more than ever is the time to speak up and let your legislators know that you support legislation to provide smoke-free workplaces and public places in Pennsylvania.
The governor has spoken, the Public Health and Welfare Committee has spoken and now it is time for the people to speak. Everyone has the right to breathe clean air.
To find your legislator’s contact information, visit www.legis.state.pa.us
Diane W. Rosati
Bucks County Tobacco Control Project, a project of the Bucks County Drug Alcohol Commission



Murphy is helping

the environment

Far too often we read about politicians being criticized for casting the wrong vote while in office. But we should also take time to inform local residents about steps taken by our legislators to do the right thing as well.
For this reason, PennEnvironment wanted to thank U.S. Rep. Pat Murphy for recently taking two important steps to protect our environment, reduce the threat of global warming and promote the use of clean, renewable energy in America.
Rep. Murphy has co-sponsored the federal Safe Climate Act (HR1590) and the Renewable Energy Standard (HR969).
The Safe Climate Act is the most far reaching federal global warming legislation — and it is the only piece of global warming legislation in Congress that would implement the necessary pollution reductions recommended by the world’s scientific community.
The federal Renewable Energy Standard will require the U.S. to produce 20 percent of its energy from clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar by 2020.
Combined, these bills will take enormous steps to reduce the threat of global warming pollution, reduce air pollution and wean us off of polluting, foreign energy sources by promoting energy independence.
When our elected officials take steps like this to protect our planet and future generations of Pennsylvanians (and Americans), they deserve to be applauded. I hope that constituents who care about the environment will take a moment to call Congressman Murphy and thank him for championing these important environmental initiatives.
David Masur
Director, PennEnvironment



Buy me some peanuts

and crack Iraq

I fully understand political pork when the pork does not interfere with something much more important, but when it is used to blackmail the Congress or the Senate, it is time to look at the people that put in peanuts, spinach and other nonsense into a bill as important as funding the troops.
I believe that the politicians that insisted on placing these items into the bill should be made to publicly defend their actions. I hear much about proper armor and other protective devices, but these people on the right say it is OK after peanuts, spinach and other garbage.
Tom Finnegan
Somerton

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