Letters to the Editor
Scanners harm rights, maybe health I take exception to the U.S. government's recent call for full body scans in airport security. The government should not be permitted to search what is under our clothes. The Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects Americans against unreasonable random searches and seizures, which in essence is what the government is attempting to do.
Scanners harm
rights, maybe health
I take exception to the U.S. government's recent call for full body scans in airport security. The government should not be permitted to search what is under our clothes. The Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects Americans against unreasonable random searches and seizures, which in essence is what the government is attempting to do.
Furthermore, there are health issues that add to the problem. Despite the fact that the radiation given off by these body scanners is not as harmful as that in a CAT scan, how do we know what effect the scanners will have on our bodies after 10 years or more?
Cole Smith
West Chester
Ackerman ducking
her responsibility
From the day when 30 Asian immigrant students were attacked at school, Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has consistently excused herself and the principal of South Philadelphia High School from their responsibility to ensure equal access to education. Her commentary Monday ("It's everyone's problem") continues to throw smoke at the situation.
Why does Ackerman keep telling us what she can't do instead of focusing her attention on what she can and should do to keep the kids safe and insist upon respect for all, every day, at South Philly High? Since the large-scale violence there thrust the issue into public view, Ackerman has been wasting our time and her own in self-justification.
Sorry, Ms. Ackerman, you're not the victim. All we need is for you to spare no effort to understand and fix what went wrong at that school.
Nan Wallace
Philadelphia
Agreeing with
Specter's way ...
Sen. Arlen Specter is what we used to call a dedicated public servant. Sure, he wants to get reelected - who wants to lose a good job after many years? - but his first priority is always to craft legislation that makes sense and then pass it.
In a Congress deeply divided along party lines, he is interested in ideas, not ideology. I don't always agree with his positions, but I always agree with his approach. So I have just four words for him: "Mr. Senator, be well."
Matthew D. Baxter
Huntingdon Valley
... except on
Clarence Thomas
Re: "A survivor on his own terms," Sunday:
Sen. Arlen Specter prides himself in being instrumental in getting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, where he has been for 18 years, sitting like some silent monk on a mountaintop.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in the very short time she has been on the court, has asked more questions than Thomas has in the many years he has been there.
I voted for President Obama because I knew he would not nominate justices with such limited intelligence. We deserve and should have better than a seat-warmer.
Was this Specter's biggest mistake?
Philip Lustig
Downingtown
That was
some plan
So, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin believed her selection as Sen. John McCain's running mate was "God's plan" (as revealed by a McCain political strategist). Perhaps it was the plan to illustrate her simple intellect, the inability to grasp the root causes of international conflicts, or offer workable solutions to domestic problems that allowed for a crushing presidential defeat.
All of the cute winks, "gotchas," and other homespun homilies added up to a failed plan, be it God's or the McCain campaign's.
Gene Muccolini
Eastampton Twp.
One more
business bust
NBC's putting Jay Leno in prime time, after his dominating success on The Tonight Show, was like Coca-Cola coming out with the "New Coke" some years ago.
Both ventures were huge marketing flops.
Dom Marucci
Philadelphia