Shootings will always happen
Memorial Day is around the corner. A day to remember those who died in war, and those who have served, and since have died. Wrong to compare war with those who have been killed by guns. However, 48,000 people a year die from gun-related injuries in the United States. It comes across that we are in a different war. Certainly, never to come to an end, due to rights of having a gun. Due to people willing to buy a gun for someone, who has no right to a gun. Due to people in the political parties that do nothing, but say it is wrong to kill. Due to this indifference, gun shootings will always take place.
Marie Patton
Fox Chase
Banning gas-powered leaf blowers
Even if you don’t own a gas-powered leaf blower, you certainly have heard them. Most people don’t realize that they can harm your hearing, even at 50 feet away. Their low-frequency sound can travel long distances and go through walls where they can still damage your hearing. Unfortunately those who operate them may be damaging their hearing permanently, without realizing it. Their loud noise may also trigger stress hormones that can raise your blood pressure, leading to heart problems and diabetes. They also spew toxins like carbon monoxide and formaldehyde from unburned fuel while dispersing tiny particulate matter, which can carry toxins directly from your ears to your brain. Consequently, these blowers should never be near schools or playgrounds as children are especially vulnerable.
This is why there is a movement Clean Green Philly that is trying to ban all gas-powered leaf blowers. We need to support their efforts to reduce pollution and protect our hearing and health. We need to protect ourselves and our neighbors.
Sandra Folzer
Chestnut Hill
4 more years? No thanks
President Biden’s voters being willfully blind to his physical and mental decline. Many in America, especially the scraps of the middle class that barely exist enough to pay a heat, electric or grocery bill since day one of this hologram called President Biden. If you talk to a person simply walking down the street and ask, “How is your family doing?” With rapid 40-year-high inflation, an unstable stock market, retirement accounts that have lost much value including my own upon Biden taking office. Take notice to the response of hurting Americans who cannot survive another four years of Lunchbox Joe. Since I study presidential history I want to bring up the name Jimmy Carter, many consider his presidency full of flaws and many failures and also hurt America on the world stage, but people should not be comparing Joe to Jimmy for one main reason. President Jimmy Carter didn’t fundamentally seek to change America, didn’t attack the country that has provided more freedom to more classes and groups of people than any other nation in the history of the free world. Many are saying that President Biden shouldn’t run. The fact remains after 50 years in public office and acquiring the Office of the Presidency, he is after the power the office brings him, we have seen his antics against parents, churches and American energy companies. Unfortunately, he has proven to be untouchable. After many calls recently to mention that “No one is above the law” maybe we should ask ourselves who is actually in accordance within the law? When your family can financially benefit from selling access to the vice president in a foreign country does that fall within “No one is above the law?” When tech oligarchs collude with government intelligence agencies to downplay crucial information to the American public before the presidential election of 2020, does that fall within “No one is above the law?” When a president can use the IRS, DOJ and the FBI to selectively choose who gets indicted or charged while his son has openly and publicly committed more crimes so blatantly while anyone of us would have the leg irons slapped on and the jumpsuit already on, while that person parades around in Ireland shaking hands while facing tax evasion charges along with multiple other investigations, does that fall within “No one is above the law?” The longer we fail to hold accountable those who have committed crimes for years, the more and more we lose the very fabric of this republic that we all love so much. A second term of President Biden would leave America weaker domestically and abroad and further erode confidence in the values we cherish as Americans. The country sits in this position because of Biden’s voters who are knowingly continuing to deny the decline of a sitting United States president during a time of looming New Cold War. I’ll ask everyone reading this article, “Are you better off or safer than you were three years ago?”
John Peter Zadzura
South Philadelphia
