DIALOGUE

ISSUE | SCHOOL TAX

Courage of a vote

Thanks to the Editorial Board for providing laugh-out-loud material ("House of cards", July 3). You note that the legislature "fled the capital last month for its summer vacation (which is increasingly indistinguishable from its work)" - an on-point assessment, unfortunately, of the inaction regarding funding for the Philadelphia schools. While I cannot understand why legislators outside the city should be concerned with a cigarette tax that would apply only in Philadelphia, they should at least have the courage to vote on it.

|Joyce LaCrosse-Smith, Philadelphia

ISSUE | POLITICS

Turn the tables

Republicans just finished their fourth Benghazi witch hunt and found nothing. Maybe the president should sue them.

|Carl Heck, Aspen, Colo.

New perspective

In coverage of the Watergate anniversary, The Inquirer could replace "Nixon" with "Obama" and "tapes" with "IRS e-mail," and readers would see why the scandal is "worse than Watergate," as the Wall Street Journal contends ("After 40 years, weight of Watergate lingers," July 29).

|Leo Iwaskiw, Philadelphia

ISSUE | WAR ON TERROR

Unfinished business

President Obama's statement that "we tortured some folks" was glib and unconscionable, and his reminding Americans of their fears after 9/11 to justify torture was a hollow excuse ("Release of CIA report is delayed," Aug. 2). Fear had nothing to do with the cold, calculated programs set up for rendition, black sites, and torture. Details can be found in books such as Torture Team, by Philippe Sands, and other amply documented accounts. Personally, I feel that the nation lost its moral compass when it embraced barbaric abuse. Obama did not end torture, and it will continue until we hold to account all those involved in these brutal crimes. I had hoped, with Obama's rhetoric about change, that he would have investigated, arrested, and sent to prison those involved. CIA Director John Brennan should be fired, since it should be impoossible for the president to say he has full confidence in a person who unconstitutionally spied on Congress and lied about doing it.

|Judy Rubin, Philadelphia

ISSUE | GAZA

Outlook unchanged

In a recent television interview, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was asked whether it was possible for Israelis and Palestinians to coexist. After Meshaal spouted the usual rhetoric about occupation, the interviewer rephrased the question: "Without occupation, can you coexist? . . . Will you recognize Israel?" Meshaal simply said, "No." In Meshaal's view, the only thing to negotiate is how and when Israel should disappear. Since 1947, the Palestinian leadership stance has not changed, and those the leaders represent pay the price.

|Mel Flitter, Philadelphia

ISSUE | RED-LIGHT CAMERAS

Enforcement effort needs tweaking already

Abington's red-light camera program is set up to benefit two entities: the state Department of Transportation and the camera company, Gatso Inc. of Massachusetts ("Camera ticketing reaches suburbs," Aug. 1). The yellow-light timing and the enforcement rules for right turns on red and stopping before the stop bar are set up so that the vast majority of tickets will be issued to drivers who have endangered absolutely no one. Yellow intervals will remain too short for those traveling dangerous approach speeds, because PennDot intimidated Abington officials into not lengthening the yellows. That means PennDot's revenue will be high, with most tickets for violations of only a fraction of one second.

Federal research also shows that less than 1 percent of crashes at signalized intersections and of all crashes with injuries or fatalities involve a right turn on red. Like Philadelphia, Abington has set up its program to ticket mostly safe drivers, and the purpose is money, not safety.

|Tom McCarey, Berwyn

ISSUE | JOURNALISM

Such dogged scrutiny welcome elsewhere

Justice has been served by a judge throwing out the libel suit filed against The Inquirer by Carl Greene, former head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority ("Judge throws out Greene's suit against newspapers," Aug. 2). I had to chuckle, however, upon reading Inquirer editor William Marimow's statement that the stories on Greene "epitomize the kind of public service journalism a news organization should be doing - providing citizens with insight into the leadership of an important public agency and the expenditure of public funds." I guess that public service only extends to local government, not federal.

|Patricia A. Perrone, Swarthmore

ISSUE | BREAST-FEEDING

Improving the odds of making healthy choice

To coincide with World Breastfeeding Week, I am delighted to read that Philadelphia hospitals are now baby-friendly and not handing out bags of formula to new mothers ("Hospitals to stop giving formula to new mothers," Aug. 1). It's about time hospitals got in line with pediatricians who recommend that new mothers breast-feed their babies for the first six months.

When I had my children 40 years ago, formula was given out to all new mothers. Yet I breast-fed both babies exclusively for more than a year. Luckily, I wasn't in the workplace for their first three years, so I didn't have to battle - as mothers do now - for a place to pump breast milk while at work. Starting in the 1970s, I was also part of the Nestlé boycott. With many others, I didn't use any Nestlé products as a means of encouraging the company to stop marketing formula to maternity hospitals worldwide.

This latest health breakthrough for mothers and babies, in effect, makes Philadelphia the "City of Motherly Love."

|Barbara Cicalese, Ardmore

ISSUE | PHILANTHROPY

Hoping William Penn avoids more upheaval

The cryptic news of Peter Degnan's exit as managing director of the William Penn Foundation ("William Penn Foundation leader departing after six months," July 29) came shortly after a protracted leadership vacuum created when his predecessor, Jeremy Nowak, abruptly departed in 2012. The ongoing leadership upheaval is disconcerting for Philadelphia's communities. During our organizaton's assessment of William Penn, civic leaders shared concerns about volatility at the foundation's helm. The decision to elevate chief philanthropy officer Laura Sparks to executive director signals a positive move that will ensure continuity of grant-making priorities and strategies, as well as coherence between Penn's operations and programming.

I hope these repeated management changes have caused Philadelphia's largest foundation to abandon its rigid and hypocritical restriction against funding nonprofits that experience an executive transition until a new director has been in place for at least a year.

|Lisa Ranghelli, director of foundation assessment, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Washington, lranghelli@ncrp.org

ISSUE | IDENTITY

National ties bind Puerto Ricans, not race

The poignant article on the homeless in Kensington contained a reference to an "influx of young whites" that mistakenly may lead readers to believe that Puerto Ricans are nonwhite ("Homelessness on rise in Kensington," Aug. 28). Of course, this is incorrect. Puerto Rican is a nationality like American, not a race. We Puerto Ricans are from all races: white, black, Taino Indian, Asian, and various mixtures. Many are white; many are not.

|Luis W. Morales, Paoli