Letters, Thursday Dec. 14

Posted 12/12/12

After one ticket, enough is enough!

I've been a loyal Chestnut Hill shopper for some time now, but the current militant attitude of the parking meter people from Philadelphia are chasing me …

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Letters, Thursday Dec. 14

Posted

After one ticket, enough is enough!

I've been a loyal Chestnut Hill shopper for some time now, but the current militant attitude of the parking meter people from Philadelphia are chasing me away!

Even if you pay – don't dare miss by two minutes – they are there!

Don't have a broken meter.

They are there and they do not care!

Trying to load at Killian's with your blinkers on and trunk open? Better have a guard out there or your purchase will be an additional $26. Wyndmoor Hardware is close and most purchases in Chestnut Hill aren't worth an extra $26.

 M. Pullin

Chestnut Hill

 

City employees help save a life

At 7:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, while many families were sitting down for dinner, I was rushing to my school to watch a drama unfold that I will never forget.

A car had crashed into the side of one of our buildings. When I arrived at the scene, about 20 city employees were already there. I was deeply moved by their performance. Police had blocked traffic. Firefighters labored for 90 minutes to free the driver from the car. Fire-rescue personnel transported him to the hospital.

A building inspector from Licenses and Inspections and the fire chief searched the building for gas leaks and structural damage. Police interviewed witnesses and collected a mountain of data. By midnight, the car was towed, the street was clean, the building was boarded up, and I was headed home.

Aside from praying for the life of the motorist, I found myself reflecting on our city, our municipal employees and even the taxes we pay. We hear so many stories about the problems our city faces. But I was proud to watch our city flawlessly perform over four hours to save a life, prevent further harm and manage the consequences.

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” At the end of a long Thanksgiving day, I said thanks for the blessings of this thing we call civilized society.

 

Edward Marshall, Head of School

Greene Street Friends School

Germantown

 

 

Culling deer ruins Christmas

Beginning now and continuing through March of 2013, the sound of rifle fire will slice the night air in Wissahickon Valley Park. Once again, innocent deer will be killed. This, the unexamined fashion of “deer management” is going on in and around every major eastern United States city, all for the same bogus reasons.

It’s been said that deer are killed because of “arrogant human-centeredness and alienated ignorance endemic to a culture that neither respects nature, nor recognizes that other natural beings have as much intrinsic worth and right to live as human beings do.”

Tragically, the fabricated “facts” about deer still stand. And many critically important factors carefully omitted from the “Final Deer Report” are now in oblivion. Yet it is this never-peer-reviewed report that is the basis for the 15-year-long atrocity in our backyard.

It will continue unabatedly because not enough people will act in an effort to stop this evil among us. Remember, killing deer is self-perpetuating. Albert Einstein once said, “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

There goes my Christmas. Thanks Philadelphia Parks and Recreation.

Bridget Irons

Chestnut Hill

 

‘Great article’ on Hill ballet dancer

What a great article you wrote for the Local this past week on Carinthia Bank (“On her toes: Chestnut Hill teen Banks on huge talent”)! What a shame that the online version doesn't display like the actual newspaper. The overall design of the article was beautifully arranged with photos and graphics. It was really impressive.

I just wanted to thank you for taking our press release and developing a feature on this story. Carinthia is a special girl, coming from a special family. We were blessed to have had Carinthia and her sister, Caroline, in our school for so many years. I knew right away that she could go the distance. She had prima ballerina written all over her from a very young age.

Just wanted you to know how much I appreciate the article.

Nancy Malmed, Artistic Director


Wissahickon Dance Academy

Germantown

 

A sad day at Rutgers University

It is sad that Rutgers planned a celebration for the 60th anniversary of Selman A. Waksman receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 (which took place on 12/12/12) without any mention of Albert Schatz, (Ph. D,) in its program notes or in the titles of the 10 presentations that were made that day.

Len Lear’s article in the Chestnut Hill Local, “New book reveals betrayal of genius/humanitarian – Mt. Airy scientist’s discovery saved millions of lives” (11/14/12), summarizes Schatz’ life and the controversy around his discovery of streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, when he was a 23 year-old graduate student at Rutgers University. Waksman, Schatz’ department head, stole credit for the discovery.

Lear wrote, “Not many human beings on earth can honestly claim that something they did was responsible for saving millions of human lives. But West Mt. Airy resident Albert Schatz, who died of pancreatic cancer at 84 in his home in January of 2005, did just that. And this humble humanitarian never got the proper credit for his astonishing achievement.”

In 1994, Rutgers righted their egregious wrongdoing when they awarded the Rutgers Medal to Schatz as “co-discoverer” of streptomycin. The award states, “The worldwide impact of this discovery is now part of medical history.”

It behooves universities to make sure that graduate students, such as my father, get due credit for their discoveries.

Linda Schatz

Mt. Airy

 

NCAA punishment of Penn State is ‘cruel and unusual’

The Penn State University Nation is being held hostage by the NCAA's decision to punish hundreds of thousands of blameless people. The NCAA used its absolute power to punish not just the actual offenders but the entire Penn State Nation.

Yes, terrible acts were committed by a former football coach and a few others who did not act when presented with the situation. They participated in a cover-up and, as always, the cover-up expands the magnitude of the crime and the related fallout.

How many of us recall being in class when a teacher demanded to know which one did something bad. When no pupils responded, the entire class was punished. Innocent students resented the guilt by association. Think about what happens in the military when one or two men, either by neglect or laziness, fail to clean their area of the barracks knowing that an inspection is coming. When the inspection happens, the entire company is punished for the acts of one or two members. Everybody loses in this situation.

The four-year penalty handed down to Penn State University by the NCAA represents cruel and unusual punishment. Sounds familiar doesn't it.

The collateral damage is sweeping and has had an impact on every aspect of the University's programs and on the Penn State Nation. I wonder how many talented high school graduates will not select Penn State because of the punishment in place?

So now, untold numbers of young high school seniors have changed their minds and are applying to other colleges. The NCAA tentacles have impacted faculty, student body, administrators, local merchants and Penn State fans. How about benefactors who regularly donate stipends of money and/or include Penn State in their wills?

Here is what should be done to correct this situation:

1. Reduction of the four-year penalty to a two-year sentence.

2. Reduce the 60 million fine to $30 million.

3. Allow any students/players who elected to transfer to another school to return without penalty.

4. Increase the number of new football scholarships from 15 to 30.

5. At the end of year two, everything returns to normal as it was prior to the NCAA action.

6. Finally, at the end of year two, they should restore all honors formerly held by Joe Paterno. This includes records, memorials and all other material symbols and honors he had earned and have nothing to do with the issues.

If Winston Churchill were still alive, and became aware of the NCAA/Penn State situation, he might paraphrase his original “so many, so few” WWII speech to read: “Never have so many been punished for the acts of so few.”

Ronald “Red” Barnes, Ph.D

Flourtown

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