Letters to the Editor

Open the process

President Obama's bipartisan Commission on Election Administration came to Philadelphia Sept. 4 and heard voters testify to being disenfranchised by partisanship at the polls, or by the laws of the commonwealth. Indeed, the two major parties have achieved laws so exclusionary to third parties that the president thought it sufficient to create a bipartisan rather than a "nonpartisan" panel.

The result of this two-party system has been paralysis, with no third party to mediate. Out of despair, 40 percent of American voters have renounced affiliation with either party. For Pennsylvania voters, giving up party registration comes at a price: the ability to participate in primary elections - even though, as taxpayers, independents help finance those closed elections.

But how will the commission whose very structure reflects the problem solve it?

Norma Van Dyke, Philadelphia, nvandyke2@verizon.net

Unlevel playing field

Philadelphia public school students are being cheated out of a quality education as a result of the doomsday budget passed at the end of May. Not only are students being subjected to a school year without extracurricular activities, but the students will be taught by fewer teachers, making class sizes too large.

With the layoff of 283 school counselors, it is hard to imagine how students will be able to cope with such drastic changes to the education system. Counselors provide support to all students, but are essential to juniors and seniors planning for college.

The lack of counselor support and extracurricular activities will be putting our city's students at a major disadvantage.

Angelique Caraballo, West Chester, AC49219@wcupa.edu

What's in a name?

"I never longed to hear a word till now," William Shakespeare once wrote. In Philadelphia, we have such a word. It's the word I've most recently used to rename my dog and my cat. And my parakeet. And my son. And my wife. It's simply: Chip.

Jules "Chip" Slatko, Holland

Never again, again

Missing from the precedents cited for and against military action against Syria for gassing its own people is the refusal of the United States to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz to stop the gassing of Jews in the Holocaust. The American excuse was that it would divert military efforts from winning the war, and the death camp was out of the way, despite the fact that Americans were bombing industrial cites in the Auschwitz complex. The British refused, and decades after the war, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher cited the same excuse. Anti-Semitism was implicated in both cases.

Considerations this time should be limited to stopping the killing of human beings no matter what their religions.

Burton Caine, Cynwyd

Kane, bringing it

State Attorney General Kathleen Kane has been proving she is not the lightweight, pampered daughter-in-law of a trucking executive, disguised as a reformer, that many Democrats feared ("Charges stun drilling firms," Sept. 12). She has shown genuine independence, with a taste for consumer protection, which Gov. Corbett has largely abandoned.

Ben Burrows, Elkins Park

So all can join party

The movers and shakers congratulated themselves on Made in America. But while hotels were full, a week earlier, six homeless mothers and their children spent the night on the sidewalk in front of the city housing office. There were 120,000 concertgoers, but a week later, 180,000 Philadelphia children returned to a gutted School District. And while there were few problems around the concert, in other parts of the city, several people were murdered. Great concert, guys. How about making the whole city great?

Nancy Love, Philadelphia