Letters: Warm response to 1st responders

AS A LIFETIME resident and a retired Philadelphia Fire Department captain and paramedic instructor, I couldn't be more proud of the professional response of our Fire Department and Police Department under the Command of Deputy Commissioner Jesse Wilson.

Many lives were saved and injured aided due to their professionalism.

We are truly blessed to have the best public-safety departments.

My prayers go out to all the victims and their families.

Gary Morgan

Philadelphia

Congratulations to columnist Christine Flowers for pointing out what should be obvious to most readers: Knee-jerk rush to judgment accusations based on political opportunism are totally inappropriate when discussing the causes of the tragic Amtrak train wreck of May 12. If only there were cooler heads working cooperatively to analyze and take steps to prevent such catastrophes.

Miss Flowers also acknowledges the deep appreciation we owe to those first responders who always go toward rather than away from danger to save human lives. The death toll would certainly have been higher without their immediate and totally unbiased action.

Gloria C. Endres

Philadelphia

Blind injustice

Rudolph Kitt's mother and girlfriend are upset that he has been charged for hitting four police officers. They don't think he is responsible because "he gets disoriented after his seizures. . . . That's just like taking a blind person and blaming them for something they can't even see that they did."

Excuse me?! If a blind person chooses to get behind the wheel of a car, he will be criminally responsible for what happens. Pennsylvania law says that a person who has seizures is prohibited from driving unless a doctor certifies that he has been seizure-free for six months.

If he chose to drive with a seizure disorder, he chose to put everyone else at risk. He is criminally responsible for the assaults he committed.

Glynnis Gradwell

Philadelphia