Pa. Turnpike should have been closed for safety

ISSUE | BLIZZARD OF 2016

Turnpike should have been closed

Behind the chaos of 500 motorists stranded on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 24 hours in last month's blizzard is a fundamental question: Why did otherwise intelligent people put their lives at risk ("On turnpike, a blizzard of questions," Sunday)? Why did universities and businesses send their students and employees into the dangerous storm? And why did the Turnpike Commission not close the highway?

Washington closed its Metro system from Friday evening through Sunday night. That city recognized the danger and urged people to stay home. The Turnpike Commission should have recognized that it could not protect people on a western stretch of the highway where they could not be rescued.

We have again learned that the commission reports to no one. Closing the turnpike would have been the responsible thing to do.

And Temple and other universities should not have allowed their student-athletes and coaches to travel in that storm.

|M. Patricia West, Philadelphia

ISSUE | DRUG ABUSE

Education needed

John Decker, an athlete, volunteer, and financial analyst, died at 30 of an accidental heroin overdose, his father suspects ("Life of promise lost to addiction," Sunday). I feel his parents' pain as one who has had the same experience of losing my beloved son, Greg, to the same disease.

I am not the chief executive officer of a Philadelphia corporation or the head of a large law firm. Neither are most of the parents of the more than 2,400 Pennsylvanians who lose their lives each year to substance abuse.

I am writing to express my disappointment in coverage by the Philadelphia media of what has become a national epidemic. To stem the tide, it is necessary to erase the stigma of the person with the disease and of the loved ones. It is necessary to educate those who have not yet been affected by the disease.

Many of us have become grassroots advocates for changes in drug policy. There is so much that remains to be done. I applaud the courage of the Decker family in helping to shed light on this disease.

|David Humes, Wilmington, humesdc@gmail.com

ISSUE | CAMPAIGN 2016

Trumponomics just don't add up

We know what Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump thinks about Latino immigrants and Muslims. But the media must do a better job of alerting the public about Trumponomics. This is truly voodoo economics, based on magical thinking that works on TV but not in reality.

He thinks he can give himself and super-wealthy people a tax cut by reducing the top rate to 25 percent and eliminating the estate tax (which would save his family billions). At the same time, he says he'll eliminate income taxes for 72 million households, simplify the tax code, keep Social Security well-funded, and increase military spending.

These things just don't add up. It is not sound economics. We should not follow this Pied Piper over a financial cliff; it's like 2007-08 all over again.

Trump's history of four casino-and-resort-company bankruptcies should be a warning to us all.

|Edward A. Aguilar, Pennsylvania director, Coalition for Peace Action, Philadelphia

Voters ready

for change

Donald Trump isn't a real Republican, and Bernie Sanders isn't a real Democrat - that's why they are so popular. After eight years of George W. Bush, who collapsed the economy, and seven years of President Obama, who taught us that "hope" and "change" is really "nope" and "same," people are tired of Republicans and Democrats. We want someone else.

Trump's Republican presidential opponents are puppets of their billionaire sponsors. Trump is no one's puppet; he's his own billionaire.

Sanders has a history of saying what he means and meaning what he says. Some people may not like his positions, but everyone knows where he stands. I have always been a big fan of Bill Clinton, but Hillary Clinton is no Bill Clinton. She'll say anything to get elected.

With Sanders and Trump drawing crowds of tens of thousands, America is telling the parties that the insanity has to end. So let's have a contest between people who aren't more of the same kind of politicians that we are tired of.

|Marc Perkel, Gilroy, Calif., marc@perkel.com

Independents should change the system

Voters are fed up with partisan politics ("Political parties no longer appeal to voters," Sunday). Yet we are stuck with an electoral system created by and for the two major parties.

Until we, the voters, band together to enact meaningful electoral reforms, such as open primaries, top-two or instant-runoff voting, fair redistricting practices, and fair ballot access, we will remain under the thumb of the two major parties.

Independent Pennsylvanians (www.paindependents.org) is a volunteer, nonpartisan organization that has been working for such political reforms. Independents are a majority, and we can make a difference in our elections, but we must first join together to change the system.

|Barbara Patrizzi, member, Independent Pennsylvanians, Philadelphia, barbarapatrizzi@gmail.com

An anti-Semitic reference in column?

In George Will's column about Michael Bloomberg's possible presidential run as an independent, I was shocked to read: "The perpetually dependent would doff their cloth caps and tug their forelocks, grateful to be taken care of" ("The next New York candidate?" Friday). I took it as a blatant anti-Semitic remark and a slap in the face of Jews in New York City, Philadelphia, and nationwide.

|Miriam Stamm, Philadelphia

ISSUE | EDUCATION

SAT still flawed

Though the SAT will undergo an overhaul in March to make it look more like the ACT, the changes fail to address the test's fundamental flaws ("Back to the basics," Sunday).

The SAT will remain a weak predictor of undergraduate success. High school grades will continue to provide more accurate forecasts of college performance.

The test revisions will not level the admissions playing field. SAT results will still skew significantly by race, gender, and family income. That will leave students from historically disadvantaged groups even further behind. High-priced coaching companies say that the revised exam is just as susceptible to test-prep cramming as its predecessors, reinforcing its biases.

Neither the new SAT nor the rival ACT is necessary for high-quality, selective admissions. More than 850 accredited, bachelor's-degree-granting institutions, including Bryn Mawr, Franklin and Marshall, and Temple, no longer require applicants to submit scores from any standardized exam.

|Bob Schaeffer, public education director, National Center for Fair and Open Testing, Sanibel, Fla., bobschaeffer@fairtest.org

ISSUE | FOREIGN POLICY

Iran's taunts

Now that the United States has strengthened the terrorist state we know as Iran by lifting sanctions and returning billions of dollars to support its deeds, its leaders respond by flying a drone close enough to an American aircraft carrier to take a video and embarrass the United States by publicizing it ("Iran releases video of drone over carrier," Saturday). This follows the seizing of two Navy patrol boats (with 10 sailors) that accidentally strayed into Iranian territorial waters last month and a rocket test near coalition warships and commercial traffic.

How does the U.S. Navy allow a drone from a terrorist state to get that close to one of its ships? A Navy spokesman called it "abnormal and unprofessional"; the commander of Iran's navy called it "a sign of bravery."

President Obama has changed "America the strong" to "America the weak."

|Paul Geibler, Media