Letters to the Editor
For-profit racket
Pennsylvania is an unusual state in the way legislation is passed. The politicians can introduce a bill, it can be heard in a day or two, and it can pass out of committee immediately to be put up for a vote. It’s not a very transparent process.
It’s a real inside club where the lobbyists, especially the lobbyists for the ticket camera companies, get in there, they can put the fix in, and there’s no chance for the people to have any say in this. The process makes it impossible for the public to engage on proposed bills. Pennsylvania is one of the worst states with regard to how the legislature is run, how transparent the process is and what chance there is for the public to engage on camera traffic enforcement issues.
That’s why we have red light cameras, speed cameras, work zone cameras and school bus stop-arm cameras; collectively an enforcement-for-profit racket. The legislature needs to reform its process for passing legislation. A good start would be to ban all camera traffic enforcement in Pennsylvania.
Tom McCarey
Awareness, funding needed to fight ovarian cancer
As a survivor of two different forms of breast cancer, I was deeply interested in the report by Mark Zimmaro on a special cancer research fundraiser (“Another successful Sandy Sprint,” May 7).
In this report we learn the results of a very special fundraising event to support local and national research into ovarian cancer. Sadly, this cancer could take the lives of over 12,000 women this year alone. I was very encouraged to read that the event, held in South Philly at the Navy Yard in April, raised almost $300,000 to add to a total of over $6.4 million raised over 21 years. Brava!
To attract supporters, the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation held a 5K Run/Walk at the Navy Yard Marine Parade Grounds on April 26. As Zimmaro reports, over 1,000 participants showed up. There were also a number of famous Philadelphians like the Fralinger String Band and others to cheer on the racers.
It was especially sweet to see the color photograph in the Review of the runners carrying the banner with the word “SURVIVORS” on it. I am sure that many of the sprinters were indeed ovarian cancer survivors.
I just want to add that Sandy Rollman succumbed to ovarian cancer in May 2000. Her sister Adriana Way co-founded, with Sandy’s oncology nurse Robin Cohen, SROCF in an effort to save other women from this deadly cancer. So many thanks to Mark Zimmaro and the South Philly Review for reporting on this special event that raises not only awareness but much-needed funding for research into finally defeating ovarian cancer.
Gloria C. Endres