Letters to the Editor | July 17, 2025

Our state legislature has resisted funding SEPTA and 32 other state transit systems. Despite much public feedback, there’s been little movement. In preparation for the funding loss, SEPTA has announced that on Aug. 24, service will end for many of our bus routes. Over the next few months, the remaining routes will see cutbacks and higher fares. All this just days before school begins. Our city leaders have been remarkably silent. We need their help, now. SEPTA is a state agency; they’re responsible for funding. If they don’t, someone else must step up. We need our local leaders to pressure the state, while also helping in funding SEPTA. Offer to be partners in keeping SEPTA rolling. We can’t wait for the last minute, as happened with the District Council 33 strike. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and City Council must take steps now to ensure there are no service disruptions. If this cuts into Council’s summer recess, so be it. We’re all affected by this threatened cutback. Kids need to get to school. Employees need to get to work. Shoppers and patients need to get where they need to be. Where are our city leaders?

Alfred Klosterman, Philadelphia

In too many cases, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids are being made by masked agents in plainclothes who refuse to show a badge to identify themselves. Who are these people? Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, admitted under oath that Republicans voted to allow Jan. 6, 2021, rioters, pardoned by President Donald Trump, to serve in roles, including those who assaulted police officers. What has happened to people arrested by ICE? Some have been deported without a court hearing. About 90 men are currently imprisoned in what is basically a concentration camp in the Florida Everglades. After a tour, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, “They are essentially packed into cages, wall-to-wall humans, 32 detainees per cage.” Another report mentioned little food, 24-hour lighting, and no protection from mosquitoes. A recent poll indicated that most Americans disapprove of the Trump administration’s tactics on immigration enforcement. Congress must end this deplorable situation.

Wayne Olson, Philadelphia

The president took an oath to faithfully execute his office and to protect and defend the Constitution. Instead, he writes executive orders that transgress the law. He intrudes into every aspect of our daily lives. With indiscriminate firings, he disrupts the lives and livelihoods of thousands of Americans and people overseas. He dictates what educational institutions are allowed to teach and threatens to withhold government funding for those who do not adhere. He has stopped funding scientific research needed to protect human lives. He has refused free press access to him and goes after news organizations offering different points of view from his.

The American public elected members to Congress who swore an oath to the Constitution, not to the president. Members of Congress represent an equal branch of government and can exert their power to fight the violation of U.S. laws. To those legislators who privately express disagreements with the president, I ask: When will you find the courage to say so publicly? If our laws are allowed to be trampled upon by a president, will there remain a democratic United States of America or a nation celebrating a 250th anniversary in 2026?

Rebecca Landau, Abington

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