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The cold reality
of PGW’s plan
Since we are now in the prime winter heating system, I caution all those who "think" they sehave curity by annually buying a PGW parts and labor (P&L) plan for their aging home heater. In fact, many of you have NO coverage, even if you bought the plan.
If you have a gas heater aged 25 or 35, even if it’s chugging along nicely, beware. If your old heater breaks down on a cold January day, you may suffer through a cold night, and feel relieved when PGW finally arrives — BUT surprise, any significant repair to an older heater must be called in for "approval" to repair.
The fine print in PGW’s P&L plan says if the heater’s value is less than the cost of repairing it (by PGW’s estimate), PGW can simply walk away, and not fix it!
They will tell you instead, we are refunding your plan fee. That’s it. Even if you bought the plan for the last 10 years, it leaves you shivering, stuck and now looking frantically for someone else to come and repair it!
For many of you with old heaters, PGW is simply taking your money. PGW knows this — the people with older heaters are the ones most in need of coverage, and most likely to want the P&L plan.
PGW takes no risk by insuring old heaters. Any repair they don’t want to do, they just don’t do — even if they leave you at risk on a 10-degree winter day. Could any private business choose to behave in this way? PGW could simply be honest and not insure heaters over, say, 25 years of age. But no, they take your money and give you a false sense of security.
Our City Council and new mayor need to look into this very deceptive — and potentially life-threatening — insurance practice.
Richard Iaconelli
Rhawnhurst
Crossing guards are
our guardian angels
Some things in life never get much attention, like the wonderful job our crossing guards do each and every day.
They stand on the corner in the rain, in the snow, in the heat and the cold.
They are the eyes and ears of the community when they are out on the corner, constantly putting themselves in harm’s way just to assure the children of this fine city can cross the street and make it safely to school.
Crossing guards are and have been the fabric of the city for a very long time.
I can remember 40 years ago when I was in elementary school and how important the crossing guard was.
I had the honor of being a part of the safety patrol and working side by side with the crossing guard.
I’m sure we all have very fond memories of our crossing guard when we were growing up. We looked up to and respected the crossing guard. We would not even attempt to cross the street until the crossing guard acknowledged that it was safe.
I still see this each and every day as I make my way through the city, the same faces on the same corners, dedicated and committed to the children’s safety.
I strongly encourage all parents who send their children out to school each morning to realize the importance of the job that your child’s crossing guard is doing. Please take the time and go out to the corners where your children cross and personally acknowledge and thank them for doing such a wonderful job of monitoring pedestrian traffic.
The job of crossing children safely across any intersection has become quite difficult as a result of increased vehicle traffic and less patience from the general public. Please, if you are out there driving when school is opening and closing, have some respect and patience, because that could be your child crossing that intersection.
If anyone has any ideas on how to propose a day of recognition in the city for our guardian angels, please get in contact with me and let’s begin the process.
Steve Brennan
Bell’s Corner
Crime victims made
themselves easy targets
This is in response to recent letters from Marianne Murphy and Theresa Ulmer. Marianne said that someone stole her son’s iPod from his bookbag while he was at Father Judge’s wrestling practice, while Theresa lamented her Coach purse and clothes were missing from a truck in North Philadelphia.
To Marianne: What is your son doing with an iPod in school anyway? Isn’t he there to go to class and learn? He has no business having an iPod, cell phone or anything of that nature in school. In fact, he’s lucky the principal didn’t take the iPod from him before his classmate did.
To Theresa: Are you serious? You left all those valuable items in a car in North Philly? That was your first mistake. Your second was not filing a police report. How dare you blame the Philadelphia Police Department for your carelessness.
To both of you: What happened to personal accountability? If you leave a valuable item unattended and accessible to other people, of course it’s going to be stolen. This isn’t the 1950s where you can leave your front door unlocked or your purse in plain sight. You watch the news and read the papers and see the crime going on in this city — so why on Earth would you think it wise to leave your belongings where people can see or get them? Wake up!
And by the way, before you comment on the fact that I live in the suburbs where there is less crime, note that I still triple-lock my apartment doors at night and don’t leave anything in my car.
Lauren Fritsky
Jenkintown
Three cheers for Boy Scouts
and Burholme Park
I have two solutions to two heated issues. First the Boy Scouts, since we have 16 immoral City Council members (thank God for Brian O’Neill) who voted to kick the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America out of the home that they BUILT AND MAINTAINED FOR MORE THAN 80 YEARS.
I have two things to suggest to the Boy Scouts.
First, sue this immoral city for all the money that you have poured into this building over the 80 years you have resided there.
Second, apply for demolition permits and tear this building down so this city cannot reap any monetary value from it. Remember, the building belongs to the Boy Scouts, the land the city.
As for Burholme Park, I am sick and tired of hearing that the two civic groups that represent these two neighborhoods, Burholme Civic and Fox Chase Homeowners Association, overwhelmingly support this project.
These two groups have 100 members between them, but 100 residents of these two groups do not speak for the thousands who reside in these two neighborhoods.
The president of Burholme is in no position to support or not support this project, because his job requires him to promote economic development in Northeast Philly.
This seems to me to be a conflict of interest, and he should not be testifying on behalf of the neighborhood in front of City Council as president of Burholme Civic!
I have read in this paper the names and degrading remarks directed at the opposition, kooks, tree-huggers, cancer cure opponents, etc. This is a disgrace. These people care about open space, which we have little of in Burholme. Once this parkland is developed, it is gone forever. It was left to the citizens of Philadelphia to be used as a park, not a giant medical center.
Also, FCCC threatened to leave the city (economic blackmail), if their plans were not OK’d. That’s easier said than done. FCCC needs a full-service hospital (Jeanes) that has an emergency room. FCCC cannot have an emergency room, because if they did it would make them an acute care medical facility, thus canceling their research hospital status!
I am not against any research that could cure cancer, and neither is any of the opposition. No one is against the unions that will build this project.
I support building up on existing buildings, so I suggest to the Ryerss family, the minute that Orphans Court judge throws out that will, and he will, take this city to court and demand your land back, and when successful, immediately donate it to a non-profit national land trust or conservation group that will keep it as a park.
I want my grandchildren to play in this park like I did as a child. I live in Burholme, and not one of these people who are deciding the fate of Burholme Park (Fairmount Park commissioners, City Council members, the creepo mayor, the goofy governor, the Orphans Court judge, etc.) live in either Fox Chase or Burholme. So why should we sit back and let them decide our park’s future? Save Burholme Park!
By the way, no one has seen me hugging any trees in Burholme Park lately!!
Mike Cosgrove
Burholme
Waterboarding is not torture,
but it sure is effective!
So the Rev. Tim Griffin, in his Speaking of Religion column of Dec. 20, wonders where the outrage over waterboarding is?
I’ll stand in line to reply that I’m outraged plenty. Outraged that waterboarding is called torture in the first place. And outraged that the words "we have become a nation that tortures people" so easily rolls from his pen.
As a professing Christian and a former U.S. military officer, I can categorically state that waterboarding is not torture, despite the assertion to the contrary by one prominent presidential candidate. In fact, many members of our armed forces are trained in how to resist torture by being waterboarded themselves.
Words mean things, Rev. Griffin. When the meaning of a word is blurred in order to support one’s ideology, one not only makes something out to be what it is not, but the meaning and power of the original word is lost. And one loses moral credibility in the process.
In this case, calling waterboarding torture not only elevates temporary extreme discomfort with no lasting ill effects to the level of the immoral, but it diminishes the horror and hideous nature of true torture. You see, if you start calling things "torture" which are not, what then do you call those things which you previously called torture?
Outrage? No, Rev. Griffin, I’m perfectly comfortable with the thought of my government using waterboarding, a technique of temporary extreme discomfort, on my behalf and in my name. Especially seeing how effective it has been.
And lest the reverend thinks that being a minister offers him alone some moral high ground which may trump mine, I know literally dozens of ministers, many of them personally, of all faiths, both civilians and military chaplains, who stand squarely with me.
So his voice is just one among many who disagree with him.
Len Pundt
Burholme
• • •
Regarding the wimpy commentary by the Rev. Dr. Tim Griffin entitled Where’s the outrage over waterboarding? there can be only one response: "Where’s the outrage over 9/11?"
Furthermore, his smear against the U.S. ("we have become a nation that tortures people") cannot go unanswered. One of the best measures of a nation’s greatness is the "gates test," i.e., are the gates on a nation’s borders designed to imprison those that are within its boundaries, or is their function to keep outsiders from coming in illegally?
Everyone knows that the latter is the reason when it comes to this great land of ours. People are breaking down the gates trying to get into this greatest country on Earth precisely because we are a freedom-loving nation.
Finally, the good reverend totally fails history by claiming that "peace and justice would appear only when we act peacefully and justly."
The best example is WWII: peace and justice prevailed only after we waged a just war to defeat one of the greatest evils in the history of mankind.
Leo Iwaskiw
Somerton
Why didn’t you vote for
Christmas, congresswoman?
Perhaps our Northeast Times readers would be interested in learning that Allyson Schwartz, our area’s representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, was one of only 18 out of 435 members who refused to vote in support of a resolution acknowledging Christmas!
However, to be fair, we should also relate that in October, she did vote for a similar resolution recognizing the Islamic holy season of Ramadan.
I, for one, would like to hear an explanation for her discrimination against Christmas in favor of Ramadan.
Joseph P. Wall
Cheltenham
Death penalty foes
cannot be swayed
Regarding your letter in the Dec. 20 edition (Pro-death penalty letter was vile), rest easy, Edward Huber. In an act of moral piety, and one that is sure to be contagious, the elected leaders of that landfill to our east (New Jersey) abolished the death penalty.
Who better to decide on such an issue than people like yourself, who have a better chance of flying a winged horse from Mecca to Jerusalem in one night than ever experiencing the devastation visited upon the families of the murder victims?
Thank [enter deity here] that moral crusaders like yourself not only exist, but also hold positions of power.
Common sense is your enemy and it will be destroyed one state at a time.
Technology will never provide a medium to allow you to witness Megan Kanka’s final moments on this Earth, but if it did, I’m sure you would hold firm your opposition.
Karl Zenak
Rhawnhurst
A different kind
of assassination
Virtually moments after confirmation that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Thursday, predictably (and properly), President Bush and other politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, expressed outrage and concern. The murder of Bhutto, the first woman prime minister of any Islamic state, is a blow against democracy, equality, human rights and world peace.
But not all political assassinations are violent, nor do they all result in the literal death of incumbent or would-be leaders. Some political assassinations are the end-products of set-ups and rigged, corrupt government. So, before Republican spokespersons for "democracy" wax too zealously, it should be noted that, in our own country, a man who is likely innocent sits in an Alabama prison because he dared to seek office against a candidate with strong ties to former Bush strategist Karl Rove, and not just any man!
Although 90 percent of the charges leveled against Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama and a Democrat, were thrown out before trial and he was found innocent of over a dozen others in the trial, he is serving a six-year sentence. An investigation is underway due to known links between Karl Rove et al, and the politicization of the Department of Justice in the matter. Forty-plus attorneys general, Republicans and Democrats, have petitioned for the investigation.
So while we lament the loss of a Benazir Bhutto, martyred by fanatics who hate the idea of democracy, we should not be so blind as to overlook those martyred, albeit "figuratively," in insidious plots to undermine democracy in our own country.
Arthur Gurmankin
Bustleton
For prez, don’t settle
for business as usual
Nationwide polls show that an overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens want to end our involvement in Iraq and bring our troops home. Recent elections across the country show that people in this country want a change. Many Americans put their faith in Democrats like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, hoping that their anti-war rhetoric would be translated into meaningful change in our foreign policy.
The sad fact of the matter is that we have all been let down by our elected officials from both sides of the aisle. It seems that much of the Republican Party has degenerated into a neo-conservative establishment fixated on policing the world and whittling away at our civil liberties under the guise of protecting us from terrorists.
The Democrats who have been given the opportunity to change our course haven’t done us any favors — yet many will still look to them in the presidential election, regardless of their ambitions to expand the scope of our government, which is already too big and bloated.
How many more elections will you participate in where you pick between the lesser of two evils before you step a little outside of the comfort zone? There is an alternative. Republican candidate Ron Paul has been shut out of numerous news reports, despite his vast and loyal following across the country, and despite his impressive performance at numerous straw polls across the country.
Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning and who has vowed to bring our troops home from Iraq immediately. He is the only candidate who wants to bring our troops home from the 130 other nations that we are stationed in around the world. He was also the first candidate to talk about eliminating the IRS and the federal income tax.
He is the only candidate who repeatedly calls attention to the crises we face with Social Security and Medicare, and our dollar losing its value. And he is the only candidate who presents innovative ideas for sparking the economy and granting relief to the middle-class, like eliminating taxes on tips earned by people in the service industry.
Please look beyond the meaningless information presented to you on the "top tier candidates" by the major news outlets. Please remember the special interests involved among the ownership of our major news outlets. Then consider the best interests of you and your loved ones.
Remember that there is no such thing as a wasted vote — except for the one that you opt not to cast at all. Please be sure to investigate all of your options and exercise all of your rights.
Matthew McGrath
Brookhaven
Passage of “Right to Repair”
protects vehicle ownership rights
The Motorcycle Riders Foundation has declared its support of the Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act (HR 2694) and strongly urges Congress to pass the legislation in order to safeguard individual vehicle ownership rights.
The legislative intent of the Right to Repair Act is to offer protections for motor vehicle owners by making it illegal for vehicle manufacturers to withhold information necessary to diagnose, service or repair motor vehicles.
The fact is that consumers are entitled to the right to choose how their motor vehicle is maintained or upgraded. The point of Right to Repair is not to discourage vehicle owners from using the dealership for service, but to protect the freedom of American consumers to choose how they take care of their motor vehicle, be it in their driveway or at a trusted repair facility
We have formally committed to support the Right to Repair Act because we believe that safeguarding individual ownership rights is an absolute must. Access to accurate information when it comes to the repair or upkeep of a vehicle is essential to the safety and well-being of the entire American motoring public.
We encourage all motorists to visit www.righttorepair.org to send a letter to each of their congressional representatives, urging them to support the Right to Repair Act by adding their names to the growing list of co-sponsors.
Jeff Hennie
Vice president of government relations, Motorcycle Riders Foundation
Respect all life:
Drive carefully
It was a beautiful day and I started my day in a good mood as usual. My day usually begins with my usual visit to Starbucks for tea and my car ride back with the windows down and the serene ride home. Where is this story going? Well, I am about to tell you.
On my way back, I witnessed a squirrel get hit by a van. The van did not stop but kept going. I stopped my car and got out to see if she was still alive. She died within a few minutes of being hit. I made the cars go around her out of respect for the dying squirrel.
Some people may say to themselves that it was only a squirrel and it was not worth the effort of my actions. Let me pose this question, then: In a world where people are pro-life, isn’t an animal alive? When people are crossing a street, don’t you slow down for them? When people are hurt or injured, don’t we get immediate help for them?
What is the difference between a human and an animal, other than us? Aren’t we supposed to be higher life forms? If we respect life, than we need to respect ALL life forms. Now, I am not saying that the person in the van intentionally knew that they hit an animal, but if they did and kept going, they disrespected nature and every being’s right to life. They could have at least tried to aid the animal. If you have a pet, that must mean you love animals and you would be upset if your pet was hit or injured. What is the difference between a squirrel and a hamster? Does an animal have to do something for us to get respect?
If you don’t have a pet and you don’t care for animals, then you just don’t like them, but don’t intentionally run over one because they’re inconvenient or simply "in your way."
I’m not one of those sign-holding protesters that will try to obnoxiously try to get my point across; I just needed to express my feelings and I hope that others understand and the ones that don’t may think twice about it. I hope my next trip out is a far better one!
Angela DeNofa
Normandy
Special-needs families
cannot be overlooked
Harrisburg Report
State Rep. Thomas Murt
I recently chaired a public hearing that addressed the issue of adult children with special needs and the families who care for them. I held this public hearing so that our elected officials could hear remarks from caregivers as well as well as from Deputy Secretary Kevin Casey from the Department of Public Welfare and other professionals.
The hearing was well-attended by many families in our community who care for an adult child with special needs. For me personally, this issue is one of the most important ones facing our elected officials in Pennsylvania. The tragic lack of resources we dedicate to caring for the adult members of our families who have special needs is simply appalling and must be addressed.
State law requires that up until 21 years of age, special needs children be educated in public schools or in another appropriate setting. In our area, school districts and intermediate units work hard and with great compassion to provide educational programs for our special needs children.
Dedicated and professional special education teachers, aides, bus drivers, and support staff do an outstanding job of working with our special needs children and teaching them academic concepts, marketable skills, life skills, behavioral modifications, and other training experiences that will empower them to live their lives to the fullest.
Once these special members of our families leave the public school system, however, they and the families who lovingly care for them are frequently left to fend for themselves. They navigate an underfunded system that requires them to wait, beg, and sometimes pray for services for their loved one who has special needs. Additionally, after these special-needs men and women leave school, many do not have opportunities either socially, educationally, or with employment.
Many of these special-needs members of our communities stay at home and are understimulated and sometimes develop even more health, emotional and other mental health issues due to a lack of services and programming. Some special-needs adults will only be given a housing placement outside their parent’s home if their caregiver dies.
A parent told me at the hearing that the sole way of his son getting a housing placement was if "I killed myself." Frustration levels are high for these devoted families, and something needs to be done.
One very serious condition that is bad and has been getting worse is where elderly parents who care for an adult child with special needs experience their own serious health problems. Now, in addition to having to care for themselves and worry about their own healthcare issues, these older parents must also care for a special-needs child, who might be approaching 60 years of age and have his own health challenges. The families who care for these loved ones with special needs already face painful challenges every day, and the aging process exacerbates these challenges even more. There simply is not enough funding — state or federal — for our adult family members who have special needs, and this must change.
The first order of business is to learn as much as we can about this issue. This issue is quite complicated and requires much effort in order to simply understand its magnitude. As one representative, I will continue to work hard to learn as much as I can about caring for adult Pennsylvanians with special needs.
Furthermore, I will do everything in my power to increase the state funding we dedicate each year to caring for adults with special needs.
I will be testifying again in 2008 before the powerful House Appropriations Committee to plead for more funding for adults with special needs and the families who care for them.
One of my favorite quotes is by former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey when he said, "The moral test of government is how that government treats those in the dawn of life, our children; those in the twilight of life, our elderly; and those in the shadows of life, our sick, our needy, and our handicapped."
I want to be able to say that I passed that moral test, so I will be working harder and more passionately than ever for Pennsylvania’s families who care for adult children who have special needs. I will also be encouraging and imploring my colleagues in Harrisburg to do the same. ••
Rep. Thomas P. Murt serves the 152nd Legislative District, which includes the Philmont Heights section of Somerton as well as the suburban areas of Lower Moreland, Upper Moreland, Hatboro and Bryn Athyn. The district also includes portions of Upper Dublin and Horsham Township. Rep. Murt is a veteran and served in Iraq with the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division.
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