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Pope Francis endorses civil unions
My reaction as a lifelong Catholic: What about divorced Catholics who want to remarry? Are we people who deserve family, too? Or women: Do we deserve the full dignity and personhood of being priests? Given the number of gay men in power in the church, this change is not a surprise. What would be a surprise would be for the church hierarchy to recognize the rights of groups of people they don’t identify with, i.e., women and sexually active heterosexuals. I’m talking about female priests, birth control, and “safe, legal, and rare” abortion rights. Seeing the humanity in people like you is not a big stretch. Seeing the humanity in people not like you is what is Jesus was about (parables about Samaritans and how great they are, hanging out with sex workers and tax collectors), and the church would do well to get some more of that going on.
Linda Falcão, Esq., North Wales, lindafalcao@gmail.com
Public bank could help businesses get federal aid
In reference to “Billions in aid funds are untouched” (Oct. 20), it is sobering to learn that of all the states and municipalities in the country, only Illinois and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority have taken advantage of the opportunity to get funding from the Federal Reserve. Clearly, the terms are too onerous for states and municipalities that are reeling from the pandemic. If the Fed could create money without strings to bail out private banks after the 2008 recession, certainly they have the capacity to bail out states and municipalities. Interest payments on municipal debt end up transferring more than $160 billion every year from taxpayers to wealthy investors and banks on Wall Street. The Fed should offer state and local governments long-term, zero-cost loans. Furthermore, a local public bank could be used to administer these funds in a much more equitable way than that experienced by the small business in the article because it could establish its own lending guidelines driven by service to the public good rather than profit.
Beth Finn, Philadelphia, befinn@gmail.com
Working homeless
A reader, Mark Buechele, commented on the city’s plan to “give away” housing to homeless people, saying that if the city pays for utility services, it would be “a slap in the face to all the hardworking citizens who go to work every day to make a living and pay their own way.” Has he read other articles in this newspaper about people with full-time jobs who can’t afford housing, and that many of today’s homeless people are unemployed for the first time in their adult lives, and that unemployment and homelessness are major issues all over the U.S.? I wonder how long he could afford to pay his own way if he lost his job tomorrow.
Jacques Gordon, Devon
Save the USPS
I depend on the U.S. Postal Service more than ever because I’m trying to avoid shopping in person as much as possible, so it’s essential to lowering risk during the pandemic. My partner has asthma and I can’t risk that. I get checks through USPS. It’s more reliable the FedEx or UPS and delivers to rural areas. We need Congress to pass $25 billion Postal Service relief and investigate Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for his fox-in-charge-ofthe-henhouse behavior. Rep. Dwight Evans, Sen. Bob Casey, and Sen. Pat Toomey all should be supporting the most effective and useful public institution in this nation.
Spencer Koelle, Philadelphia
2,000 daily COVID deaths is front-page news
On Tuesday night, Donald Trump held a rally in Erie, Pa. He laughed and joked around with his cult members and lamented about how tired everyone was with the pandemic. He never mentioned the 832 Americans who died that very day from COVID-19. On Thursday, another 994 people passed away from the virus. Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was in Philly last week and claimed that no one is dying from the virus anymore. If an airline crashed and a hundred people died, it would be front-page headlines. As a faithful reader and subscriber to The Inquirer, I would like to know why the deaths of almost 2,000 of our fellow Americans in just two days is not front-page news. You gave Rudy the column space to whine about “cancel culture.” Rudy and Donald have been on a mission to cancel the truth. Will you please hold them accountable.
Bob Zigmont, Morton