Northeast Philadelphia residents discuss Starbucks, racism and the help of a local bakery in this week’s letters to the editor.
Thank you, Hutchinson’s
My childhood friend passed away last month at age 54. Her last week was spent at Fox Chase Cancer Center, and I was fortunate to have had many visits with her before she lost her fight.
One evening before heading down to see my friend, I telephoned Hutchinson’s Classic Bakery in my Somerton neighborhood and requested they make up boxes of cookies for me to take to FCCC. I told the bakery staff that my friend would most likely not be able to enjoy them but I wanted to give the staff at FCCC some treats for taking such good care of Sue during her stay. The boxes were full of cookies and very festive with lots of green shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day. They also packed up several dozen doughnuts and sent them with me (free of charge) to show appreciation to FCCC.
I was overwhelmed by the sweet kindness of the Hutchinson’s Bakery folks and would like to thank them again for their thoughtfulness.
The FCCC staff was grateful for the treats and many stopped into Sue’s room to thank us for thinking of them. Everyone should take the time to stop and support their local bakery. Many thanks to Hutchinson’s Bakery!
Gail Comas
Somerton
Workers must do research
In response to Councilman Al Taubenberger’s Letter to the Editor, “Pay election workers,” published in the Northeast Times on April 4:
Hello Councilman Al Taubenberger, I wholeheartedly agree that committee people and poll watchers should have a day’s pay worthy of the job they perform.
However, you and I both know that the job of an Election Day worker is not based on individuals who stand outside the polls with no knowledge of the candidate and never even knocked on a door or drove a senior citizen to vote for your elected officials.
Poll workers should be paid according to the homework they perform months prior to the election. I’m a Republican committeeman who also assists Democrats, if they are all about making Mayfair safer for my niece, Lily.
Al, you know as well as I do, helping the community is and has been a way of life since politics entered our lives. However, it is sad that committee people have their hands tied today, Unlike the days of the past.
P.S. Way to go, Lincoln Railsplitters, on that awesome basketball season.
Bill Heiser Jr.
Mayfair
Was Starbucks racist?
Starbucks has a policy that seats and restrooms are for paying patrons only. Most restaurants have a similar policy. The two men came in, took up a table, didn’t order anything and asked to use the restroom. When they were told the facilities were only for paying customers, they were asked to leave and didn’t.
How is it racism if a company simply follows its policy that applies to everyone? Why should it not apply to these two men? If they weren’t minorities and asked to leave, this wouldn’t be in the news at all.
Did the men say they would order something when their friend arrived? Did a Starbucks employee tell them that they need to place an order to occupy a table and use the restroom? Were there others at this Starbucks that were occupying tables while never placing an order?
If there were, then it would prove these men were being treated differently from others in the facility and can make a case for racism. However, there is no racism if the rules apply to everyone and are enforced accordingly. Seems these two men may have thought the rules shouldn’t apply to them.
Peter DiGiuseppe
Rhawnhurst
Blame Trump for racism
It is a literal sin and a shame that 50 years after the assassination of America’s most profound civil and human rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that two innocent black men waiting in Starbucks in Philadelphia were humiliated, handcuffed and arrested on a totally false trumped-up trespassing charge.
The overt and overwhelming racism, class-ism and sexism experienced by these two African-American males in Starbucks is absolutely customary of the current Trump era and it must be totally eradicated from the deeply wounded soul of America now.
America is in a state of emergency.
The Rev. Arthur L. Mackey Jr.
Roosevelt, New York
