Beverage tax: bad for business, good for kids | Readers respond

My voice was silenced when protesters prevented the Pennsylvania Senate Local Government Committee from holding a hearing about the impacts of Philadelphia's beverage tax ("Phila. anger bubbles over," June 24). If I had been allowed to speak, I would have explained that I moved to Philadelphia to build a better life for my family. I would have said that since this tax was implemented, my small corner store in Juniata has seen sales plummet by 30 percent.

We can no longer afford extra help, so my wife and I have been working overtime to make ends meet. These protesters used kids as props and blew air horns to keep people like me from telling our stories. They're hypocrites not interested in what's best for hard-working immigrants hurt by this tax - they're only interested in pushing their own ideology.

|Luis Adames Corcino, Philadelphia

I was saddened to read of the loss of jobs caused by the new city beverage tax ("Workers feeling soda-tax pain," June 16), but let's put this in perspective. With the imposition of high taxes on smoking, billions of dollars were added to government revenues for many useful purposes, health problems were reduced, and the quality of life was improved for the general public.

All of this will also be true of the beverage tax. In addition, not only will affected workers eventually be able to relocate and retrain into other jobs, but there will be many jobs created to educate preschool children and refurbish our dilapidated recreation centers.

The social value of these two much-needed programs for the entire community should be obvious.

|Milton Cohen, Philadelphia

The Coalition to Save McMichael Park congratulates Mayor Kenney and City Council for the progressive plan to develop neighborhood equity through the Rebuild initiative ("Phila. gets more places to play," June 20). Our East Falls community is fortunate to have four playgrounds, a recreation center, a library, and a cherished green space where children can safely play, all within a 10-minute walk for residents.

Unfortunately, McMichael Park, an urban oasis, is under threat of a proposed fifth playground. Councilman Curtis J. Jones Jr. and Park and Recreation Commissioner Kathyrn Ott Lovell are promoting a playground plan that would spoil this historic green space. A promised public-hearing process has been subverted by decisions made behind closed doors. It would be better to offer Rebuild to other communities that don't have the resources available to East Falls.

We ask the mayor, councilman, and commissioner to reconsider the proposed McMichael Park development and shift resources to other neighborhoods.

|Peter Logan, spokesperson, Coalition to Save McMichael Park, Philadelphia

We would like to assert that sea-level rise is not "a bunch of hogwash," as the mayor of Downe Township, N.J., said ("Rising anxiety," June 25).

Tide-gauge records across the Mid-Atlantic region clearly show rates of sea-level rise that range from three to six millimeters per year, a fourfold increase over background rates of sea-level rise experienced in the area over the last several hundred years. The Army Corps of Engineers is going to spend tens of millions of dollars to protect Margate, Ventnor, and Longport with beach replenishment, due in large part to sea-level rise, and the living shorelines installed around Money Island are designed to reduce shoreline erosion rates.

However, these actions are only stop-gap protections. It is up to all of us to make the right decisions as to how to lessen the impact of climate disruption. We cannot hide from it or simply vote it away. We hope we all make the right choices for our children's sake.

|David Velinsky, professor, vice president for science, and Elizabeth Watson, wetlands section leader, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

Excessive behaviors of any kind by members of a fraternity should be eliminated through a strict monitoring and enforcement process paid for by the Greek organizations themselves and approved by the university ("At Penn State, plan in place to make Greek life safer," June 23). Safety of the individual must come first and must be everyone's responsibility. Activities including hazing and excessive drinking at Penn State are clearly over the line and must be stopped immediately.

Enlightened college administrators and fraternity leadership should not throw the baby out with the bath water, but work to, immediately and diligently, develop a meaningful Greek system that protects all of the wonderful aspects of Greek life while eliminating quickly the repulsive activities in the headlines.

Organized Greek life has been the petri dish for leadership skills, personal values of responsibility and accountability, teamwork successes, and lifetime friendships for millions of young adults for more than 200 years, while contributing significant benefits to schools and communities.

|Thomas J. Lynch, Sigma Phi Lambda fraternity (1962), LaSalle University, Blue Bell

As we get ready to celebrate the anniversary of our independence, our beginnings as a free nation, it is a painful spectacle to see this date being used as the marker for exclusion and promotion of fear ("Revised travel ban takes effect," Friday).

Our ancestors who signed the Declaration of Independence here, in our World Heritage City, recognized the value of showing "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind," but we seem to be trashing that concept with the banning of immigrants and refugees - the core groups that founded the nation.

We should set fear aside and offer the best of our country to the world.

|Mary Day Kent, Philadelphia