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Also this issue: Edge of the Abyss Bitter Pill Slave Reparations |
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April 4-10, 2002
mailbag
Money Side of Street
(Re: "Being John Street," CP Staff, March 28)
You gave a very balanced and objective interview with Mayor John Street, and I came away from the story convinced that Street is either a bald-faced liar or -- maybe even more likely -- he doesn't have a clue.
Let's pretend that we all live in the same fantasy world that Street and his supporters do, where the city can only afford $170 million in tax cuts. Then at the very least the city would have to continue the miniscule cuts in both the gross-receipts tax and the wage tax as has been done the last seven years. Street fails to realize that cutting the taxes is not an either/or situation.
I am 30 years old, a single professional living in South Philadelphia. I like being here as a single guy, but I'm looking to settle down and start a family in the next few years. What would Street offer me to stay in the city? Crime, high taxes, a corrupt and broken school system, and a filthy, patronage-ridden government of do-nothing bureaucrats and the Parking Gestapo. If the same lazy union slackers and hate-filled racists who put Street in office get him elected again in 2003, I'm leaving the city -- and the wage-tax dollars that the parasitic leeches of Street steal are going with me.
Jason Williams
Philadelphia
(Re: The Bell Curve, March 28)
What a cheap shot you made against the members of the Philadelphia electricians union when you made a joke about them in your Bell Curve column. Calling all union electricians high school dropouts making $45 an hour to change light bulbs!
Let me tell you something: My son is a "high school dropout," who is also an electrician who makes damn good money for a 20-year-old. But then again, let's look at and consider the Philadelphia public-school system. It is a school system that City Council for decades ignored and underfunded and was responsible for legions of dropouts and unsafe learning environments. This is the same City Council that finally surrendered control of the public schools to the state of Pennsylvania, and still thinks nothing of spending up to a third of a billion dollars on two new sports stadiums, instead of investing in the schools.
I wish that all Philadelphia high school students would be smart enough to drop out right away and become apprentices -- at least the union fights and cares for its members and apprentices, unlike the former city-run public-school system.
Michael P. Hill
Swedesboro, N.J.
It is difficult to see how the e-mails in question could be deemed “offensive.” Truth qua truth can never be offensive. Only that which is false can be offensive (e.g., the Tawana Brawley case). And truth, not political correctness, should be the sole criterion of what is deemed “offensive.”
Alfonso Georeno
Mount Laurel, N.J.
Last week's Hall Monitor ("New Political Machine," March 28) incorrectly reported that Philadelphia's new voting machines allow voters to select a "no vote" for any race in which they choose not to cast a ballot. In fact, there is only one "no vote" button on the machine, and it signifies that the voter does not wish to vote in any race. To not vote in a particular race, voters should not select any candidate for that race.
