Letters to the Editor

What You Say

[Cover Story, "The Deluge," Doron Taussig, Jan. 11, 2007] was both fair and accurate, attributes that the Inquirer pieces lacked. No one can deny that mistakes have been made at the agency — one child's death is one too many. I wish, however, that someone would tell about all the good things Department of Human Services workers do (the Inquirer's conciliatory "day in the life" piece just didn't cut it). I am talking about the families that have been reunited, the four-figure utility bills that have been paid and the children that have been fed and clothed. I know of more than a few DHS workers who have bought clothing, heaters and even eyeglasses for clients with money from their own meager paychecks. And don't forget that we work in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, sometimes going into houses that reek of human waste and are so infested with insects that cockroaches are literally falling from the ceiling. I am not trying to say that DHS is perfect — there are bad employees here, just as there are anywhere. But the majority of the people I work with are hard-working individuals who are here for one reason — because they care.

Melissa S. Tulin
Social worker, DHS

Academic freedom, or the lack of it for the most part, has been an issue for as long as there have been schools. Moreover, schools are much less "free" or "liberal" than most critics contend. This is why it would have been preferable to reasonable readers had [Slant, "The War on Professors," David Faris, Jan. 11, 2007] not been constructed upon unedified bias. Faris' piece appears to have much more to do with a bigotry against Jews in general than it does with the important issue of academic freedom. Hateful and deceptive rhetoric — on the part of bigoted or evangelical pundits, staff, administrators, faculty or students at our colleges and universities — continues to undermine education. Also, student admissions, tenure-track-faculty processes and administrative hiring practices continue to oppose too many meritorious, non-Christian and non-white-skinned applicants.

Ivan Smason, Ph.D., J.D.
Santa Monica, Calif.

For Ms. Halpern, vegetarianism may be a "conversation piece," but for many it's a fundamental principle and practice [Food, "Death of a Vegetarian," Ashlea Halpern, Jan. 18, 2007]. For me, not killing animals is no more labored than not killing humans — and often considerably easier.

Jeremy Eric Tenenbaum
Manayunk

It would be appropriate for Ashlea to morally masticate the words of author William H. Hudson as she chows down on a chunk of a once-sentient being: "The sight of a sirloin on some hateful board, cold, or smoking hot, bleeding its juices into the dish when gashed with a knife, as if undergoing second death. ... The gentle, large-brained, social cow that caresses our hands and faces with her rough blue tongue ... the majestic creature with the Juno eyes, sweeter than the rosiest virgin, we slaughter and feed on her flesh." If you wouldn't eat a Chihuahua, why would you eat an animal arbitrarily condemned as food?

Gloria Feldscher
Plymouth Meeting

I enjoyed the article. I have an old New Yorker cartoon in which one woman says to another, "I started my vegetarianism for health reasons, then it became a moral choice, and now it's just to annoy people."

Pete
Abington

Totally dug the article on your encounter with Fabio [Paper Doll, "Absolutely Fabio," Ashlea Halpern, Jan. 18, 2007].We too were under the spell of the Italian love god when he visited our studio, the money shot being when he was about to lift our associate producer Nick into a cradling embrace for a photo op and whispered "just relax" into his ear.Love the B- and C-list guys who know how to have fun!

Preston Elliot
The Preston & Steve Show, WMMR

[ArtsPicks, "Among Cenotaphs and Angels," Rachel Frankford, Jan. 18, 2007] misidentified the lead architectural firm for the Barnes Foundation renovation. Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates handled the project. City Paper regrets the error.