LETTERS - Oct. 15

ISSUE | EBOLA

Over there, first

We must focus on two major themes raised in your Ebola editorial ("Ebola vs. the world," Oct. 12). One is to beat this epidemic at its source: in three nations in western Africa, where most of our resources should be focused. The other is to rationally - not hysterically - prepare for the few cases that may appear in our own nation, usually at a hospital or other health-care facility. With all the advanced technology that American hospitals possess, we must improve weaknesses in the health-care system, like effective and timely communications between and among medical staff, and taking a basic travel history if a patient is ill. These solutions are not expensive or high-tech, but are easily accomplished by a health-care system that regrettably has lost its way for many reasons.

|Richard A. Lippin, M.D., Southampton, ralippin@aol.com

Warriors, not medics

I am very concerned about the U.S. soldiers sent to fight Ebola in Africa. These troops are trained to fight enemy combatants of the human variety, not bacterial or viral. As the case of the recently infected health-care worker shows, there may be more to the contagiousness of Ebola than has been appreciated. Would we send 4,000 health-care workers to fight ISIS?

|Tom Mitros, M.D., Gulph Mills, twhsc2451@yahoo.com

ISSUE | VOTING

Eat more haggis?

The recent vote by Scottish people brought out 85 percent of registered voters. Wow, if only United States elections brought out close to that many voters who cared to inform themselves of the candidates' platforms and the issues.

Sadly, our elections rarely approach 40 percent turnout, and few people spend the same amount of time to research the candidates and issues as they do to purchase a new cellphone. The consultants who prepare and run TV and radio ads count on voters believing those ads and not checking their validity with Factcheck.org or the League of Women Voters. As with any exam in school, if you don't study, you get a bad grade - or elected official.

|Dave Savage, Collingswood

ISSUE | LEARNING JUMP-START

Picking candidates to stand up for pre-K

As children in our communities adjust to a new school year, the unfamiliar environment may be challenging for many kindergartners. This is because only 18 percent - or one in six 3- and 4-year-olds - in Pennsylvania have access to publicly funded, high-quality pre-K.

At United Way, we believe all children deserve access to a quality preschool education. Through Success By 6, our organization invests in education partners, including the Delaware Valley Association for Young Children and Montgomery Early Learning Centers, to improve the quality of child-care centers, train teachers and parents to be more effective, and ultimately prepare 8,300 children for kindergarten each year. Since 2007, nearly 140 Success By 6 child-care centers have achieved and maintained high quality as measured by the Keystone STARS initiative of the state Department of Education.

With less than a month until Election Day, we're also working with our Pre-K for PA campaign (prekforpa.org) partners to ensure candidates running for state-level office are ready to make pre-K investments a priority. When we come together and call for changes, we can get it right in the first five years and put our children on the path to academic success from their first day.

|Kevin Dow, senior vice president, United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, UnitedForImpact.org

ISSUE | TECH MEETS BIO CLASS

Range of humane alternatives to scalpel

With smart classrooms, access to videos and computer simulation programs, and an extensive range of animal models, there is no longer a need for high schools to pay millions of dollars each year for live specimens for study. The companies that supply schools take animals such as frogs from their natural environment, while the cats used for dissection are ex-companion animals from animal shelters.

Biology classes should encourage students to understand their natural environment and value life. Unfortunately, teachers who do not want to use live animal dissection have been penalized. Students feel stress by going against the perceived norm and can suffer anxiety after they perform dissections. It is time to save money humanely by removing dissection from the high school curriculum.

|Michelle Reeve, West Chester

ISSUE | EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Rail-line mural makes journey seem endless

Please tell me that "epic" graffiti isn't the new norm for Philadelphia's vacant walls ("Art among the ruins," Oct. 12). As a practicing artist, I think whoever conceived of the colossal Day-Glo orange smear along the Schyulkill and, now, yet another dubious rail-side venue north of town - both of which shout their contempt of all things artistic - ought to be given a one-way Amtrak ticket back to Palookaville. The work is little more than a spiteful and contemptuous, in-your-face slash of formless color and an assault on the tastes of everyone who desperately wants Philadelphia to rise above its third-world art-scene diaspora and become a citadel of contemporary art and design.

I do not fault the mural's installer as much as I do the design committee or others involved for not fully understanding just exactly why doing these patently awful works of art exposes the arts community to an unnecessary level of scrutiny and ridicule for not voicing their objections far earlier, and in the fullness of the public review process.

|Scott Cameron, Philadelphia, scottcameronart@comcast.net