August 7, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

From our readers

Editor and Harris doing a great job

I have been following your articles about the Attorney General’s investigation and the strange election for the CHCA board. I think they have been fair and gutsy, considering what has happened to previous editors of the Local who also tried to do what editors are supposed to do. I just want to say keep up the good work. The Local is a very good little paper, and I can’t say that about too many of the ones that have been gobbled up by the big chains.

And I don’t know where you found Jim Harris, but don’t let this guy go. He is a treasure. I read the Inquirer and the New York Times, and they don’t have anyone as funny and biting in wit and satire as Harris. The last one in his league was Steve Lopez at the Inquirer. His last two articles, about what has happened to banks and about Americans buying a lot of useless junk, had me laughing out loud. I actually made copies and mailed them to some old college buddies. If Jim keeps this up, he is going to cost me a lot in postage.

Robert Gillespie
Wyndmoor

I’d like to thank you for your coverage of the controversy surrounding the CHCA and the CHCF. I found the letters printed in the last two issues of the Local —  one from president of the CHCF, the other from a former CHCA board member — especially enlightening.

The first, from the CHCF’s Jean Hemphill, was well thought out and well written. Her case was clearly and soberly set down. Contrastingly, her opponent was over-wrought, rambling and, in the end, unconvincing.

As a long time supporter of the CHCA and contributor to the CHCF, I am reassured that Ms Hemphill is watching over the Fund; it would appear to be in good hands.

James Hill, Jr.
Chestnut Hill

Marie Jones: A Philadelphia Icon

In my collection of newspaper clips of my version of history during my lifetime — Rizzo Dies (right after ordering a turkey sandwich at his campaign office during the 1991 election), Rendelphia (great Daily News headline before his jumping in pools, hoagie eating phase), hanging chads, Sixers Take The Title, 9-11 — is the exact Inquirer Magazine with Marie Jones on the cover featured in last week’s Local. In my mind, Marie was not just a Chestnut Hill icon, but a Philadelphia icon.  She was firm in her beliefs and unswayed by opposition. Yet, she had a gentleness about her. I had the pleasure of interning with Marie and later, when I was just out of college trying to break into P.R., Marie brought me on as a stringer for the paper.

Legendary — Marie Jones certainly was.

Pam Rosser Thistle
Wyndmoor

‘Fall from horse’ clarification

I want to clarify a photo caption in the story I wrote that appeared in last week’s Local Life section titled “Devastating Fall From Horse ‘could have been worse.” The caption read that I was thrown by a spooked horse, and that is not the case. Typically I write the captions, but because of a backlog in work due to my accident, I simply submitted the photo sans caption. I take full responsibility for not taking the time to submit an appropriate caption.

However, if one were to read the actual story, I thought I made it abundantly clear twice that we were riding along when the horse came to an abrupt stop when his hoof got caught on a tree root. I pointed out that the horse did not bolt, run away or try to stomp on me. As a matter of fact, he came up and nuzzled me on two occasions to make sure I was OK.

Since October of 2005, I have taken approximately 200 rides in the park with no other injuries of note. I hope that this recent experience, which again was nobody’s fault, does not dissuade anyone from riding in the lovely Wissahickon Valley. Whether you walk, ride a bike, a horse or jog in the park, there are simply certain risks — and also great joy — involved in being outside and not sitting on a couch watching the boob tube. 

My intent was not to scare prospective riders away, but to share my experience regarding the many heroes who stepped in to help me and the fact that despite your best efforts, sometimes things just happen. I would be happy to chat with anyone who wanted to consider getting into riding in the Wissahickon. Thank you for setting the record straight.

Barbara L. Sherf
Flourtown

Thanks, Bob

I am sure that many of us appreciate the beauty of the petunias in the hanging baskets along Germantown Avenue.

Kudos go to the dedicated work of Bob Markowski. He is there faithfully watering the plants and (to me) tenderly weeding those on the ground level.

It is good to see such a conscientious worker. Thank you Bob from all of us.

Pat Leaming
Chestnut Hill

Privatization: profit over people

The Republican platform re: the presidential election includes some areas that need close attention: They call for “Lesser Government,” i.e. PRIVATIZATION. President Bush wanted to privatize Social Security benefits. Happily, that measure never was passed. It would have seen citizens placing money into some areas that might have done badly over the years, leaving older residents with far less money to spend in their final years.

They would also like to see privatization go into many other areas. Thus, it might have seen the end of Medicare as we see it today. How would private companies handle it? The bottom line would be maximum profits. Again, in many cases not giving ill people the best care, because of the cost.

In Iraq, private contractors have misused billions of dollars. Again, in many cases to the detriment of those who would benefit.

Senator McCain suggests if he were elected president, he would never allow raising taxes (for the wealthy). Having spent some time doing tax examining work for the federal government, I learned about these very wealthy people, finding LOOPHOLES which saved them much money: investing overseas to avoid taxes; selling “antiques” for highly inflated values, etc.

Today, our country is badly in debt. (Over NINE TRILLION DOLLARS.)

This, in part because of waste, tax evasion, the war in Iraq. Indeed, we have just been told that our deficit for this year alone may reach almost half a trillion dollars)!

I hope that WISDOM finally comes into the planning by both nominees. Plans should be not only for the present time, but to allow the next generations to live, without want!

Gerald Samkofsky
Chestnut Hill

What happened near Rex bridge?

I have just visited the location where a toxic spill recently killed fish in the Wissahickon Creek near the Rex Avenue Bridge.

Philadelphia’s water department explained this as a water main break — pure and simple. Not so fast, please. Why are these two fire hydrants here? What does the big manhole cover marked “SEWAGE” lead to? There appears to be a huge underground structure that has blown open — what is that? The whole place reeks of sewage — why? Our water department owes us a more complete explanation.

Charles Parsons, president,
Monoshone Watershed

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

As we reflect on the anniversaries of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 8, 1945), there are those who still adhere to the “official” US government. view that it was necessary to drop the bombs in order to save up to one million American soldiers, whose lives would have been lost if the US had to invade Japan.

I would have probably gone along with that view back then (when I was 11) had I given it any thought. But now these many years later — after much awareness of the duplicity of our government’s policies — I couldn’t disagree more with that official view.

Was there a more human way to end the war and thus save lives of Japanese and Americans? Yes.

Harry Truman could have explored the feelers the Japanese made to the Soviet Union about surrender. Truman could have also publicly assured the Japanese people that the Emperor would be allowed to stay on the throne. Intercepted cables showed that he (the Emperor) was on the side of those who wanted to end the war.

Finally, if all this failed, the U.S. could have dropped the bomb on an isolated island in the Pacific.

So why weren’t some of these moves explored?  My take on history is that Truman and Churchill wanted to send a clarion call to the Soviet Union (and the rest of the world), that the US would seek to bring the world into a pattern of its own choosing

An expensive “call.”  More than 200,000 people were killed as a direct result of the bombings, with the countless more suffering through the years to come.

Lawrence Geller
Logan