Letters to the Editor

What about Sunoco workers?

Once again corporate America focuses on "determining the best way to deliver value to shareholders," as Sunoco plans to close or sell two refineries. Citing "tough decisions in the face of a challenging market environment," CEO Lynn L. Elsanhans has decided to throw 1,500 employees under the corporate bus so as to insure stockholders a profit.

I find it curious that whenever corporate America uses "profitability" as an excuse to lay off workers and close plants or outsource jobs, the ax is always swung at the bottom of the organization. Perhaps if Ms. Elsanhans' job were on the line, she and other CEOs would think twice about these decisions. But then, when CEOs fail they get multimillion dollar golden parachutes and move on to the next corporation. No wonder there is no employee loyalty left in America!

Harold N. Boyer, Folsom

Sunoco site is key trail link

Walter Payne of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection may have doubts about building the Schuylkill River Trail through the soon-to-be-sold Sunoco refinery site ("When Sunoco leaves, what might go up at South Phila. site?," Thursday), but he is in the minority. Building trails through former industrial sites is common practice. It was done here in Philadelphia at the former Dupont-Marshall Lab site by the Schuylkill River Development Corporation and Parks and Recreation Department.

A trail connecting those parcels to Center City to the north and the airport to the south will create invaluable transportation and recreation connections and will help attract future commercial development into the Lower Schuylkill section of Philadelphia. More than 4,300 have signed a petition in support of a completed Schuylkill River Trail, which is an integral component of the City's 2035 Plan, Greenworks and Green2015 Plan. Extending the trail into the Lower Schuylkill section of Philadelphia makes good economic sense.

Sarah Clark Stuart, Campaign Director, Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia

Ferris takes aim at wrong target

In his column Sept. 4, Kevin Ferris holds the "knee-jerk left" responsible for somehow spawning the current brood of extremist Republican presidential hopefuls ("Unintended help from knee-jerk left"). However, it is not the fault of liberals that the Republican Party has churned out a fleet of brainless Frankensteins, all eerily programmed to emit identical, vacuous phrases like "shrink big government," "private sector" and "job-killing Federal regulations." By obscuring history with catchy sound bites, Republicans spare us the hard work of analyzing their ruinous policies, thus ensuring victory for the party. Especially when there's a cohort of right-wing commentators just waiting to spin those sound bites into election year gold.

As for gratuitous ad hominem attacks, can you say "born in Kenya"? How about "road to socialism" or "hatred for white people"?

Barbara Quintiliano, Malvern, grellet06@gmail.com

Not all is well at WCU

Thank you for your laudatory article, "West Chester University plans new growth, new image" (Sept. 5). As a faculty member, there are a few problems that I feel compelled to point out.

First, the university is backing away from what was a pedagogically sound policy of low faculty-to-student ratios (small classes). Classes with up to 60 students are increasingly common, making discussion difficult. This might be because the state has turned its financial back on its own university system, but the result can only be a deteriorated learning environment.

Secondly, of the $250 million spent on construction, very little has gone to improving the cramped and sometimes unhealthy quarters occupied by core faculty divisions such as English, political science, history, etc. As a result, not all of us have experienced that "recent surge in school pride."

Lawrence Davidson, Department of History, West Chester University