DIALOGUE

ISSUE | COUNTY BUDGETS

So much money,

so little citizen input

In early July, Burlington County passed its 2014 budget, with taxes for operations, libraries, and open space set at $170 million, or $500,000 less than in 2013, which drew praise. Combined spending approximates $280 million. Potential spending is a half-billion dollars, including a six-year capital spending projection of $247 million. Out of 400,000 residents, the shrinking, missing-in-action press, and the minority party, only one person at the budget vote questioned the use of $500 million in taxpayers' money. What apathy. And we wonder why the country is broke.

|Bill Love, Medford

ISSUE | CONCUSSIONS

Head for locker room

The National Federation of State High School Associations has some new football rules, but they are woefully inadequate since they will still result in brain damage to children. Maybe the best way to tackle this issue is to simply walk off the field.

|Joseph Carducci, Pittsburgh

ISSUE | SECURITY

Up against wall for 7th-inning stretch?

For the love of Connie Mack and Mike Schmidt, I have great difficulty rationalizing the necessity of using metal detectors to screen Phillies fans entering Citizens Bank Park to watch a ball game ("Phillies add metal detector at right-field gate," July 23). I'm not aware of any violence at the more than 2,400 Major League Baseball games held every year that was, or could have been, prevented by such a painstaking examination of cameras, telephones, and keys, and the deployment of electronic detectors.

If the ballpark security initiative actually prevails, maybe similar strategies should be employed at department stores, train stations, hospitals, public and private schools, and, lastly, at church on Sundays - to check out the sinners. A final vindication of electronic screening at every point in our daily lives would be its use in funeral parlors.

|Edwin E. Scully, Philadelphia, edwinscully2@verizon.net

ISSUE | BEER BUST

Pop-up pubs enhance city's youthful appeal

When you Google "brain drain Philadelphia," more than 200,000 results pop up, because losing young people to other cities after graduation has been one of the city's biggest disappointments for decades. Why, then, are four state legislators trying to quash one of the most exciting movements happening in Philly (where I was raised in Rhawnhurst)? State Reps. John Taylor ( R., Phila.) and Paul Costa (D., Allegheny) and State Sens. Chuck McIlhinney (R., Bucks) and Jim Ferlo (D., Allegheny) are encouraging the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to shutter the temporary beer gardens that have popped up over the summer.

Featuring live music, al fresco dining, and quirky attractions like hammocks and giant chess boards, these beer gardens draw the very young people (and their highly mobile tax dollars) that the city hopes to woo into permanent residency. Policymakers in Harrisburg should support Philadelphia's efforts to retain young people, starting with the city's burgeoning beer garden scene.

|Sarah Maiellano, Washington, sarahmaiellano@gmail.com

ISSUE | LIMITED GOVERNMENT

South Jersey voters have a choice

Garry Cobb, who is running for Congress in New Jersey's First District, is a man who understands the nature of poverty, as well as the harm that can be done by some federal programs originally meant to help. He has seen how the loss of a work ethic has hurt people, understands free markets and free enterprise, and how over-regulation can hurt business.

|Arthur Horn, East Windsor

ISSUE | GAZA

Seeking a middle ground is best hope

Aaron David Miller's analysis doesn't offer a solution, but if the two parties, Hamas and Israel, would realize how they are aiding and abetting each other's most militant and radical wings, perhaps something like a rational result might occur ("Awful symbiosis of Israel, Hamas," July 23). The extreme elements have everything to gain, or lose.

|Charlotte Glauser, Philadelphia

Reasoned defense

Rarely have I seen moral equivalency used as adroitly as by Aaron David Miller ("Awful symbiosis of Israel, Hamas," July 23). The pseudo-academic has a book to publicize, so perhaps he has no time to visit the region and learn the truth from the people most impacted by the region's bloody narrative. Truth might conflict with his convoluted theories.

Despite the hyperbole of Israel's right wing, the majority of Israelis desperately want peace with their neighbors. Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, one of several diplomatic initiatives, proves this to any dispassionate observer.

Also, Miller cannot grasp that an action is not the same as a reaction. Every battle the Israelis have fought was a reaction to Arab aggression. Defensive wars are legitimate under international law. However, since Israelis are held to a higher moral standard, their enemies ignore the law. Wars in the region continue because Arab Muslims in the Middle East do not want a Jewish entity there, or anywhere else, and nothing has changed in that regard for over 75 years.

|Barbara Grancell-Frank, Penn Valley