Editorial for June 26, 2008 edition:


A crucial decision

It’s time for the vocal minority of tree-hugging, narrowminded naysayers who live in fantasy land to put up or shut up. Come up with a cure for cancer or step back and let Fox Chase Cancer Center do its job unfettered.
The esteemed facility is in the business of prolonging and saving human lives, but its plan to expand in a portion of Burholme Park has been stymied by unworthy opposition. Now it’s exploring opening a campus in Delaware, and officials have in the past allowed the possibility of vacating its Northeast campus altogether. If Fox Chase Cancer Center leaves town, that would be bad news indeed, and its opponents should hang their heads in shame.
Orphans’ Court, which is deciding whether the century-old will of Robert Waln Ryerss prohibits FCCC from annexing a portion of the park, hopefully will give the expansion plans a green light, and the folks who think batting cages and a miniature golf course are more important than saving lives will drop their legal and moral opposition and allow the project to move forward.
Fox Chase Cancer Center is a great big institution, but anybody who has cancer, survived cancer, knows somebody who has or had cancer — in fact, anybody who has a working brain — knows that in the quest to combat cancer, a bigger, more cohesive facility is better. For doctors, researchers and scientists, the sky must always be the limit.
An expanded FCCC would still leave Burholme Park with ample acres of green space for everyone to enjoy — park enthusiasts, protesters, and yes, cancer patients. Where there’s hope, there’s life. And if FCCC ever relocates, its new neighbors hopefully will be more gracious than some of their counterparts in Northeast Philly. ••

Respond to this editorial . . .

Click here for Letters to the Editor . . .