Look at the establishment
The city of Philadelphia is run by a group of people called the establishment. This establishment has overseen Philadelphia my whole life. It is becoming more evident every day that this establishment is more out for themselves than the residents of Philadelphia. This city just had its district attorney plead guilty to corruption charges. The person in charge of upholding the law has admitted to breaking it.
The money from the beverage tax goes to pre-K education and our parks and playgrounds and libraries. Do we really believe that?
The only way to fix this is for people to believe they have a say. The people must stop believing that there is only one way to do things in Philadelphia. To change things, we must realize that the word Republican is not a dirty word. The right Republican is for the safety and well-being of your friends and families. This person is also not for raising your taxes.
Currently, under the establishment, a budget is just numbers on paper. Being responsible for taxpayer money and how it’s spent is not important. Being fiscally responsible is not important. But making sure that your friends are taken care of is always important to the establishment. Being for the people is not the establishment way. I ask any resident of Philadelphia to prove me otherwise.
David Lee
Chalfont
Help available for disabled
I am writing to inform families who care for loved ones who have an intellectual or developmental disability, that a new job training program is now available. Valley Forge Educational Services, located in Berwyn, has expanded programming to serve adults with disabilities in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
They are offering an intensive pre-employment transition program this summer, with a strong focus on work readiness, community-based vocational experiences and career exploration and discovery. This program is called the Vocational Immersion Program. It is designed for young adults ages 18–24 with exceptionalities, including autism spectrum disorder, speech-language and neurological impairments, developmental disabilities, learning differences, and social-emotional difficulties.
VIP will run through Aug. 4. To learn more about the Vocational Immersion Program, call 610–296–6725, Ext. 128.
Thomas P. Murt
Pennsylvania State Representative, 152nd Legislative District
Motorcyclists are a menace
I am losing my mind — and my hearing — thanks to the motorcycles that cruise up and down the avenue with no regard for public safety or their own. Motorcyclists have become a hazard and nuisance to our society.
What right does one have riding, not a loud, but a deafening motorcycle through a residential neighborhood? They are polluting the air with noise that sounds like the equivalent of a sonic boom.
Every community has laws regarding noise pollution. What good are these laws if they are never enforced? When is the last time you saw a police officer pull over a motorcycle for any reason? Probably never and that is the problem. This is not an occasional problem. It is a 24/7 problem.
It is not only the noise but the handling of the motorcycles on the road. They zoom in and out of traffic lanes putting everyone at risk. At such high speeds and erratic maneuvering, there is absolutely no margin for error.
A motorcyclist is completely defenseless. They are more likely to die in a crash than be injured. This should be a very sobering fact but one that is apparently ignored until it is too late.
Ronald M. Rolli
Rhawnhurst
Don’t listen to union bosses
Usually I have a lot of empathy for those who lose their jobs. This time around, I am finding it hard to have sympathy for those who voted for Jim Kenney and are about to lose their jobs due to the soda tax.
You were told what Jim Kenney was going to do once he became mayor; he said it himself nearly a year before the election. Yet many of you still took the marching orders your union gave you. One Pepsi worker told me, “That’s who my union told me to vote for.” How are you going to explain to your kid that the reason you can’t get him that bike for his birthday is because you were told to vote for the man who was responsible for your job being taken away? My question to you is, are you going to march to the polls in 2019 and vote this guy in for another term? Or are you going to vote for someone who will try to repeal this garbage?
Peter DiGiuseppe
Rhawnhurst
