Mike Wirshup, Glenmoor
VA ID no good
I spent two years in the service defending my country, so I showed my Veterans Administration identification with photo to apply for a Pennslvania ID to vote. Imagine my surprise when my government ID was rejected. It seems that the writers of the bill required an expiration date on the ID, so mine from VA was rejected. Its expiration date is when I die. Again, they made it difficult to vote.
David J. Hower, Willow Grove
Hazing different
I find Jonathan Zimmerman's thinking to be way off track ("Penn State, heal thyself," Tuesday). Comparing Florida A&M's situation, where band members broke the law while continuing a custom of illegal hazing, with Penn State, where no one has even suggested that the football players had any knowledge of the evil occurring at their school, is crazy.
Suspending the Florida A&M band for a time appears to be a perfect punishment, regardless of who did the suspending. But even thinking of punishing football players by suspending their season simply because they were at Penn State while the crimes were occurring just isn't sensible. The claim that this is a Penn State sin, and therefore Penn State must be punished, is a hazy thought. Penn State is an organization. Organizations are inanimate; they take no actions. Only people do things; only people can be punished.
Dan Landis, Broomall, dlbroomall@juno.com
Turn the statue
Rather than tear down the Joe Paterno statue, it would be more fitting to his legacy to turn its head to show Joe looking the other way.
Brent Thompson, Lincoln University
Corbett failed
Nice piece by children's advocate Jennifer Storm. However, she misses the larger point ("Corbett got the Jerry Sandusky case right," Wednesday). Had our then-Attorney General Tom Corbett not put so few investigators and such little time into the investigation, how many fewer children would have been raped or abused? Why wasn't Sandusky pulled from the sidelines of Penn State football in 1998, when the allegations first surfaced?
We can understand why he wasn't arrested — evidentiary rules and all that, but how about being watched? How about warning him that we're watching you and we know what you're up to? How many children have been raped and abused because our attorney general at the time and Penn State sat on their collective hands? How many lives have been ruined? The 10 that testified? If there were 10, there were 100. Where's that explanation?
Francis Saba, Philadelphia, Francis2520@Comcast.net
Irony seen
How sad that Abington Hospital, noted for it's OB/GYN proficiency, is on the one hand bringing new life into the world, and on the other hand killing unborn babies in the same facility. Is this ironic? Holy Redeemer Hospital will remain a bastion of life in our "society of death."
Elizabeth A. Corcoran, North Wildwood
Only IRS knows
Mitt Romney has released his tax returns faithfully for 40-plus years to the good folks at the Internal Revenue Service — the only people who need to know, and who have apparently found nothing wrong or suspicious. Everyone else ought to mind their own business.
Daniel Meck, Havertown, djmeckrs@comcast.net
Fraud exists
There is much discussion of voter fraud and how serious it might be. Of course, there is little evidence of voter fraud. That's because there is little effort by the government to identify voter fraud. That's the problem!
Maynard Honesty, Chesterbrook
Smells like a tax
To people who see no difference between a tax and a penalty vis-à-vis Obamacare and say it's "a semantic difference without a real distinction," then why did its supporters and President Obama himself repeatedly stress that it was not a tax? Obviously, they saw a difference.
The answer can be found in the Constitution, which states that all bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. The House was specifically singled out to be the protector of the public against improper taxes, and the sponsors of Obamacare knew full well that the people, as represented by the House, given the opportunity to analyze the proposed legislation, would not agree to its odious provisions.
Donald C. Simpson, Moorestown, simplaw@gmail.com
Women exploited
Both "Learning the wrong lesson from military sex scandals" and "Female doctors grapple with salary inequity" (Tuesday) point to one undeniable fact: Professional women in our society are not only deemed less worthy of appropriate recognition and compensation than their male counterparts, they are also devalued as human beings and subjected to both discrimination and abuse by their male superiors.
Whether it be at Lackland Air Force Base or at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, there is a deeply disturbing pattern of misogyny, one that is completely entrenched in a patriarchal power structure that reflects a deep and abiding disrespect and disdain for women.
Peter C. McVeigh, Oreland, pmcveigh@comcast.net
