Letters to the Editor
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Ted Tapper Takes Tobin To Task on
Taxes
In his column
defending lobbyists and calling for reform of Congress, not the lobbying process,
Jonathan Tobin, editor of the
Jewish Exponent, decries a "...government that confiscates much of our income...."
I always thought taxes went for necessary services, including a standing army, road repair, payment of interest on the national debt, public education, medical research, and security. Without federal taxes, we would have less of these services.
In supporting our American misadventure in Iraq, Mr. Tobin would no doubt be supportive of the $500 billion and more already spent on that disaster.
Isaiah calls for us to share bread with the hungry, ...take the wretched into our
home(s) and clothe the naked. Micah calls on us to do justice, love goodness and walk modestly with our G-d.
The rich and powerful among us should heed these prophetic words and work toward these goals rather than calling for lower taxes in the name of gathering more wealth for themselves.
-- Dr. Ted Tapper, Merion, PA Kudos
for Leach
Wealth, family, IQ: all measures of a person's worth. I use a different yardstick. I measure worth by service to others and one's ability to view the world with humor. By my standard
Rep. Daylin Leach is a mighty force in my community and my life. I honor his commitment to women's health Rep. Leach introduced legislation to ensure every woman in Pennsylvania has access to life-saving mammograms and cervical cancer screening. In coordination with existing programs, this bill would guarantee access to biannual mammograms and cervical exams for women between the ages of 40 and 50, and to annual mammograms and cervical exams for women over 50.
I honor his commitment to our community. Two years ago Daylin introduced legislation requiring Pennsylvania to start adding hybrid vehicles (cars and SUVs that use both conventional gas-powered engines in tandem with electric engines and get between two and four times better gas mileage than standard vehicles) to the state fleet. This resulted in a landmark agreement he negotiated with the state Department of General Services. The agreement commits Pennsylvania to begin introducing hybrids into the fleet by 2006 and calls for at least 25 percent of all new purchases to be hybrids by 2011. The benefits of this initiative are numerous: reducing our fuel costs and vehicle-related pollution, reducing ground-level ozone or smog, keeping our state's
natural resources clean, and saving taxpayers money.
I appreciate and honor Daylin's sense of humor, as quirky as it may be. I think his editorial
"Daylin Leach: Minyan Maker in
Harrisburg" is a hoot. His ability to see the absurd in our lives and inject a laugh gives me great joy. I am proud to have him represent me in the PA House of Representatives and to call him friend.
-- Sandra Moskowitz, Wayne, PA
No Vote On Alito
While the Modern Macher Establishment has never made any secret of its
preference for Republicans or Likud, it has equally made no secret of
its ambivalence, and sometimes outright hostility, to Israeli Labor governments under Rabin and Barak.
Paul Joseph's pretence (Letters,
March 2006) that disagreeing with an Israeli government is only the privilege of those who agree with him is hypocritical and specious. The respect and brotherhood of today's fundamentalist,
greed-promoting Republicans, is not the respect that Carl Sandburg described of Abraham Lincoln. It is rather more often the respect and brotherhood of Jews and Israel as the harbinger of their Armageddon and
Revelation.
As for Samuel Alito, I would have preferred that Democrats
filibuster the nomination based solely on the restoration of Senate rules, which Republicans used to sequester 60 Clinton federal judge
nominations, but refused to recognize for Democrats. Needless to say, Alito's nomination would never have reached committee, let alone the floor of the Senate, with traditional blue slips and anonymous holds in play. When Democrats briefly came to power in the Senate, Orrin Hatch immediately went to the Democratic leadership to restore Republican privilege under traditional rules. When Republicans once again gained the majority, Republicans refused to reciprocate this courtesy. However, Joseph's argument that all opposition to Alito was strictly partisan, is complete balderdash: it may not have been as articulate in some politicians as we would all have liked, but there were plenty of case precedents that Senators, and liberals, were entitled to reject, in disapproving this nomination.
-- Ben Burrows, Elkins Park, PA
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