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Letters: The Archdiocese's school plan is a 'doom loop'

AS AN ALMOST daily communicant, a retired businessman and a longtime admirer and supporter of Philadelphia Catholic schools and Philadelphia parish life, I have a different perspective on the Blue Ribbon Commission report than does its chairman, John Quindlen.

AS AN ALMOST daily communicant, a retired businessman and a longtime admirer and supporter of Philadelphia Catholic schools and Philadelphia parish life, I have a different perspective on the Blue Ribbon Commission report than does its chairman, John Quindlen.

It is clear to anyone who can count that our school system has been under tremendous stress. Quindlen, whom I have never met, responded exactly the way a CFO of a large chemical company would be expected to react. The numbers became the issue.

The Archdiocese is entitled to and should desire financial stability, but its mission should be quite different from that of a du Pont. The arrogance shown by the Blue Ribbon Commission in dishing out its bad news only added fuel to the fire initiated by the sexual-abuse scandal. I am sure that Quindlen is quite intelligent, but has shown no "street sense" at all in his decision on which schools to combine and where to send many of the misplaced students. It showed a complete lack of understanding of his targeted market.

I offer you this warning, which I am confident will be the long-term outcome if this plan is enacted as is: Many families will find it impossible to send their children to the suggested schools for a variety of reasons, including cost, safety and convenience. These are the families who still support a church that has hurt and deceived them. These saddened families will send their children to public schools and will be added to the ranks of the disgruntled who no longer attend Mass. Their children will follow suit. Any expectations that church contributions will increase or even stabilize is simply naive. Any intelligent businessman would view this as a doom loop, and as a religious leader, you should be saddened.

Francis X. O'Neill

Philadelphia

GIs' critics are all wet

I felt I must write in response to Signe Wilkinson's cartoon featuring U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan urinating on the dove of peace.

It is indeed ridiculous to send young men off to war - the most uncivilized activity a man can engage in - and expect him to still act civilized. The frontline soldier must constantly live with fear, deprivation, devastation and, above all, death and injury 24 hours a day. It is quite easy for us to sit here in our comfortable living rooms and harshly judge their actions in this situation.

When you consider that our enemies have repeatedly desecrated the bodies of U.S. soldiers, I think that this particular incident is relatively minor in comparison. During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong used to hack off the genitalia of dead U.S. soldiers and then stuff them in the corpses' mouths to send a message to those who would follow. I'm sure we also recall the news footage of people dragging the dead bodies of U.S. soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, back in the early '90s. And let us not forget the bodies of soldiers hung by piano wire from bridges in Baghdad during the early days of the Iraq War.

In comparison to this, I'd say a little urinating is relatively minor. Especially when you consider that these Taliban were trying to kill those soldiers only moments before. What would your reaction be?

These are just kids who are doing the fighting that the precious little snowflakes of the liberal media are not doing. We need to walk a mile in their muddy boots before being so smug and self-righteous.

Fred Valente

Broomall

The mural imperative

As a lifelong Philadelphian, as well as a proud guide for the Mural Arts Program, I must strongly object to the recent editorial praising the billboards of Zoe Strauss while ridiculing the murals.

How can these temporary billboards (albeit creative and interesting) possibly compare? How have those huge photographs given hope and skills to kids at risk and neighborhoods in distress? Maybe the folks in the editorial office need to take an official MAP tour to learn that the Mural Arts Program is about dramatically improving lives of Philadelphia residents, not about beautifying "bare, blank, brick walls."

Jerry Silverman

Philadelphia

I was alarmed to read the editorial placing Zoe Strauss' excellent billboard installation in direct contrast to Mural Arts' contributions to Philadelphia's public-art scene. Although Strauss and Mural Arts employ different strategies and processes, both are equally valuable to the city's art ecology and cultural identity. The best way to build a diverse and thriving public-art sector is to increase funding for all kinds of public art, rather than further fragment the small allocations that Philadelphia currently provides to Mural Arts and several other arts entities.

Mural Arts has given thousands of Philadelphia residents the opportunity to have a strong voice in how our neighborhoods are developed and how we present ourselves to visitors. It is an enduring world-class art initiative that has been replicated and honored around the country and across the globe. Murals are about hope, and if someone thinks there can be too much of that, they are sadly mistaken.

Liz Dow

President and CEO

LEADERSHIP Philadelphia