LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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Know the facts, make informed decisions

“Honor thy mother and father, get them and keep them out of a nursing home” is a strategy many disability and elderly advocates support. But to comply, one needs to know how many COVID-19 infections and deaths are happening in each of Pennsylvania’s 522 nursing facilities. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has been refusing to provide this information, even after The Inquirer’s front-page story (May 10). The only information provided to the public is that 68% of the statewide deaths have occurred in nursing homes.

Based on the reporting, we know the names of only two nursing homes, one in Beaver County, where nearly 10% of the residents have died, and one in Chester County, with 34 deaths and the death toll tripled over a few days. What about the other 520? Without data for each nursing home, people cannot make informed decisions, including whether to take their relatives home and apply for home and community-based Medicaid funded services and supports.

Stephen F. Gold, Philadelphia

Public safety, commerce can coexist

The Philadelphia region has weathered the pandemic better than many other places, thanks to the around-the-clock efforts of our federal, state, and city governments. We’re also indebted to our world-class hospital systems and the heroic doctors, nurses, nurses aides, and other health-care workers for remaining on the front lines. Our government leaders are trying to strike the right balance between people’s safety and the restarting of commerce. All of us in the construction industry are grateful to be back to work. The resurgence of construction is important to the economy’s recovery.

But we will proceed with caution, ensuring social distancing by operating three shifts around the clock to minimize the number of workers on-site simultaneously. Every union member is having their temperature checked before entering jobsites. We have medical personnel on-site and telemedicine access for all members and their families. We need our members back at work, but our top priority remains their health and safety.

John J. Dougherty, business manager, Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council

MOVE apology needed, too

Apologies go both ways. MOVE terrorized this city for years. It ruined a city neighborhood and people’s lives. How would you have liked to own the house next door? They used intimidation as a tactic, no different than the terrorists of today. Everyone looks at the end product and not the events that created it. They put their children in harm’s way. It’s time for them to accept their responsibility in this fiasco instead of blaming everyone else.

Richard Donofry, Philadelphia

The need for a new normal

It has taken the tragedy of a pandemic for the media to recognize that many workers identified as essential are also low-paid employees who have to work, with little or no safeguards and sometimes no health insurance. So it might be useful to examine why in the health-care industry the workers who clean up the blood, vomit, and urine, after the MDs and the RNs do their lifesaving work, are mostly people who look like me. People who because of failed public education are not qualified to get into schools to be MDs and RNs. Nationally, only about 9% of RNs are African American. And, for African American MDs, the figure is even lower at 4%.

I am sure there are many CNAs working in retirement homes or cashiers at Walmart who could have been in the upper echelon of the medical community if they had the high school math and science curriculum necessary to be admitted to higher ed and medical school. While many hope that we’ll soon get back to normal, I hope that we will throw out the old normal and replace it with a new normal that provides access to higher education for those who have been neglected and underserved by our education system.

Karen Warrington, Philadelphia

Caption didn’t tell story

I was disappointed in some of the May 9 coverage of the protest and counterprotest on May 8. It’s important to stand up to racism, so Refuse Fascism showed up to block the cars of the Proud Boys. Most important, the counterprotester who in a caption was described as “punches the hood of a car” had been struck by the red car, clearly on purpose. Protesters should not be permitted to hit people with their cars or with anything. Your misleading caption shows biased reporting, and an apology should be issued to the counterprotester.

Miriam Oppenheimer, Philadelphia, peaceempress@hotmail.com

Remembering Little Richard

In early August 1969, just days before Woodstock, a weekend “pop” festival was held at the Atlantic City Race Course. Scheduled to perform on the final day were such heavyweights as Janis Joplin, the Moody Blues, Three Dog Night — and what we thought to be an oldies act. I found out later that this artist had a standing clause in his contract ensuring that he be the last performer on stage wherever he played. The weather was cooperative, and all of the hippie acts were, too — even if I have no memory of anything they played. It was very late when the last of them unplugged their amps. Many of the younger fans started leaving, and the stragglers moved forward to encircle the stage. But even then there was a very long delay. (It may have begun raining, also.)

Finally, the stage was commandeered by an R&B band in black suits and narrow neckties, who broke into a frenzied riff. Their leader emerged like royalty and immediately demonstrated why every note that had preceded him was nothing more than prelude. He made no concession to the changing times. Yet his manic energy was contagious enough to transform a bunch of tired and mellow flower children into studio regulars on American Bandstand. Everything unique we thought we represented was happily surrendered. Little Richard’s only message was, “We’re going to have some fun tonight.” And his fellow performers on Sunday’s bill could count themselves lucky that he’d saved it for last.

Anthony Nannetti, Philadelphia, giacomo747@aol.com