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Hassled by election robocalls

ISSUE | PHONE MANNERS Tame robo-calls at election time On the evening before the Pennsylvania primary, a string of robo-calls made a tough situation worse by peppering my landline with an irritating string of messages that tied up the phone. It's rude, but still possible, to hang up on a live telemarketer. However, it's not so easy to get a robo-caller off the line. Even when I hang up, the robocaller drones on.

ISSUE | PHONE MANNERS

Tame robo-calls at election time

On the evening before the Pennsylvania primary, a string of robo-calls made a tough situation worse by peppering my landline with an irritating string of messages that tied up the phone. It's rude, but still possible, to hang up on a live telemarketer. However, it's not so easy to get a robo-caller off the line. Even when I hang up, the robocaller drones on.

Fortunately, that night, my grown-up kid arrived safely on a flight that was an hour late, and he finally reached me on my landline. Dinner was late, but there was no lasting damage. Still, my line was blocked for way too long. That's unfair.

Robo-calls are not going to go away, so the software needs to embed a kill switch. When Robo Ed Rendell called me, I blurted emergency and the call ended. Not sure if that was an example of state-of-the-art robo-call technology, or if I just got lucky.

|Jamie Preston, Philadelphia

ISSUE | GREEN TOWNS

E-car welcome mat

Hats off to Phoenixville Borough Manager E. Jean Krack for installing an electric-vehicle charging station at Borough Hall and encouraging local developers to do likewise ("If you build it, will they come?" May 17). While I usually charge my Leaf in my garage - thanks to Pennsylvania's electric-choice program, our home uses wind power - it's nice to know I can also fuel up while eating, shopping, or catching a show at the historic Colonial Theatre downtown.

Born and raised in Phoenixville, I'm pleased that the town's leaders want to attract people who care about the environment. Electric cars just make good sense, and towns that are friendly to them will prosper.

|Lee Berger, Phoenixville

ISSUE | SERVICE AND SACRIFICE

Fateful Pacific air battle shaped family future

My dad, Harry Glassman, was a World War II gunner on the B-29 nicknamed the Devilish Snooks. He flew 32 combat missions out of India, China, and Tinian in the Mariana Islands. He was originally in the 395th Hard Luck squadron until the Army Air Corps decided to incorporate it into another, the 40th.

Dad's best friend was a Texan named Earl O. Rogers; like brothers, when they moved to the 40th, my father requested to be on his crew. As happens so frequently in the military, though, dad was put in another plane - rather than Earl's. Then, on a fateful daytime firebombing raid on Yokohama, with the end of the war less than three months away, a single Japanese fighter came head-on into my dad's formation and aiming for the lead bomber. Closing at 700 miles per hour, he missed the lead and hit Earl's plane, which was full of incendiary bombs.

So fate intervened, and my dad made it through 15 more grueling missions, and came home alive. He arrived in Philadelphia in December 1945, and I was born in August 1946. (Returning vets didn't waste any time.) This Memorial Day, I will remember the crew of that doomed plane, especially Earl O. Rogers. Without their supreme sacrifice, I would never have been.

|Richard Swift Glassman, Wallingford, tv@ferryvision.com

ISSUE | OFFICIAL GIFTS

Christie fumbles game-ticket disclosure

Reading about the tortured legal opinion from the New Jersey attorney general that Gov. Christie is not obligated to disclose the gift of tickets to a football game, I thought of the comparision with an executive order issued by Gov. Wolf within days of taking office ("Christie disclosure omits tickets," May 21). Wolf's order banned all employees of the commonwealth, including the governor, from accepting any gifts or gratuities.

It is indeed a tale of two states: one in which a governor has the attorney general, whom he appointed and who has never been confirmed by the state Senate, issue an opinion allowing him to skirt the clear dictates of the law, and the other of a governor taking a proactive approach to restore integrity to state government.

|Alaine S. Williams, Haddonfield

ISSUE | AMTRAK 188

Sell off the Northeast Corridor rail system

Let me get this straight: Congress passed an unfunded mandate with a price tag of $13 billion to deploy a complex solution - the positive train control system - with much yet-to-be-invented technology, using radio spectrum not available, that is still not deployed seven years later.

I'm pretty sure that if Amtrak were a private company and had to pay its own liability insurance, it would have deployed technology years ago to lower costs, spending less than that.

Let's sell off the Northeast Corrditor route to private industry.

|Tim Byrne, Wayne

ISSUE | ELECTIONS

Good coverage, followed by welcome accord

Although I found the turnout disappointing, The Inquirer did an excellent job of informing the electorate on Pennsylvania primary candidates (with the exception of the Anthony Williams endorsement, which wasn't supported by coverage of him). As noted, the prospect of a mayor and City Council linking arms gives hope.

|James H. Lytle, Philadelphia