Stop the shooting
What is happening to our country? It is a sorry day to think that the National Guard has been called in to curtail crime in one of our cities. Where did it all go wrong? What has happened to the people who resort to shooting and killing people right on the streets? Is there an end to such crime? One can only hope that there is a better future than carrying a gun and using it to shoot and kill.
Marie Patton
Fox Chase
St. Louis Larry
The editorial cartoonist misrepresented Larry Krasner as a “carpertbagger.” Krasner, while born in St. Louis, was a criminal defense attorney right here in Philadelphia for 30 years, until he was elected to be the district attorney.
Lawrence Chosed
Bustleton
Paying for freeloaders
Water bills are going up again this month. This goes along with higher electricity costs, gas bills, property taxes and just about everything else.
As seniors, we are told to seek out state and city programs that help with these bills.
Yet I find out that every assistance program I have ever attempted to enroll in, indicates: “You don’t qualify.”
The rare exception is the Brian O’Neill property tax “homestead exemption” that helps nearly everyone.
Almost all government programs have severe income cutoffs. This is very unfair to senior citizens living alone, who pay the same property tax rate as a couple does. The baseline delivery charges for water, electricity and gas are the same for a senior as for a family of 10.
This is why many seniors are being driven out of their homes. Taxed, surcharged and regulated to death.
Many of us do not meet the low-income threshold because we were responsible all our lives – worked, budgeted, denied ourselves fancy cars and now have some savings income. We are told we are lucky. We are not lucky, Mr. Politician; we worked for it.
At the end of our lives, what we get back for being thrifty and careful is socialism’s slap in the face. I’m for helping the poor, but not the irresponsible; yet you don’t qualify for aid because you lived a responsible life.
So, wear a sweater and watch that thermostat this winter, grandma — while the freeloader can set his heat as high as he wants.
Richard Iaconelli
Rhawnhurst
