Letters to the Editor
Phila. lost
a big slice of its past
Why did Philly let I-95 slice through its oldest historical area, knocking down the original small homes in Southwark, with their old fireplaces and small rooms, and obliterating stone lanes dating back to the 17th century?
We are left with a billion-dollar mistake cutting off the city from its waterfront and its past. The best we could now do is divert the traffic, fill in I-95, and restore William Penn's Green Country Town down to the river. But it will never be the authentic area that we so stupidly bulldozed in the name of transportation progress.
Pete Sigmund
Ambler
Details,
details
Details were lacking in the article on the new Kennedy-Dodd proposal for changes in the health-care system ("Kennedy, Dodd offer new plan on health," Friday).
The story glosses over the major problem: Too many of the employers who don't offer health insurance are in that position because they can't afford to do so. Extra taxes or fines on such struggling companies are likely to drive them out of business.
John D. Froelich
Upper Darby
Doctors are
overbooked now
The Inquirer will no doubt support any health-care program the Democratic Congress votes for, and probably without qualification, but there was a good argument against doing so in Monday's paper ("Waiting to see the doc: We truly do apologize").
A doctor wrote in a column that she and other doctors have a difficult time taking care of their caseloads of patients. We now see physicians' assistants and nurse practitioners filling in for them. If we get 40 million more patients, who will attend them?
The answer, of course, is to give the old patients a couple of aspirin and send them home. Old people will no longer be a priority.
John Fallon II
