Letters: Another side to illegal immigrants story

I read the article, "Restaurant owners siding with workers" (Thursday), and it would have been much better if you also interviewed business owners who were not supportive of those illegally residing and working in Philly, along with those who support them.

Certainly those owners who chose to close or support this protest have that right, but what about the business owners who cannot afford to close or lose business, and those who follow the laws and don't employ anyone who is in the country illegally? Why no concern for someone who just wants to follow the law and succeed in their business who may be harmed by this protest? How is the protest helping them?

I do not see how it helps the cause of illegals, either; rather, it highlights where they work and who breaks the law to employ them.

Once again, an agenda from the media, not objective reporting.

|Suzanne Simonelli, Downingtown

I attended two meetings with members of our immigrant community last week. They were mostly young men and women, parents of families, people who had left everything behind in search of a better future. I have come to know many of them in my years of ministry in Camden. They work hard, pay taxes, and contribute to our society culturally and economically. They are friends and neighbors.

At these meetings they were encouraged to develop emergency plans: to identify and give authority to someone who would care for their children; to name someone who could access their finances; and to connect with a lawyer, whom they could call should they be detained and/or deported.

Reports of raids anywhere in the country send waves of anxiety through this community ("Christie defends Trump's immigration crackdown," Monday). An immigration crackdown was among the first of President Trump's executive orders, to fulfill a promise to his political base. Is that what the majority of Trump supporters had in mind?

Let's build bridges of connection so that we recognize all that we hold in common with these, our immigrant sisters and brothers. Perhaps then Gov. Christie will not defend a crackdown that sweeps up and separates families when "things don't always go perfectly."

|Sister Veronica Roche, SSJ, Camden

As a Jewish alumnus of Friends' Central School (2011), I was saddened to read in Tuesday's story, "Friends' Central suspends teachers": "The controversy has stirred passions at the school and shone a light on a thorny issue for many Quaker schools: While the American Friends Service Committee supports putting economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian territories, many students at Quaker schools are Jewish."

In constructing a false dichotomy between being Jewish and supporting "putting economic pressure on Israel," the story incorrectly depicted the Jewish community as monolithic. It is hurtful to think that people may make assumptions about me because of my religion, rather than judge me by my words and actions. Jews of all political stripes can agree that this is wrong.

|Alex Kleiman, San Francisco

As a family physician who has been advocating for action on climate change for three decades, I was thrilled to learn of the climate-crisis solution proposed by the Climate Leadership Council, a group of highly esteemed conservatives ("Citizens should push lawmakers," Feb. 7). Our public-health experts and military leaders continue to warn us that climate change is our greatest national security and health threat, with the least-able among us at greatest risk.

The council has responded with a market-based solution that puts a price on carbon, and it addresses social and environmental justice by returning all the revenue to households in an economically progressive way. It also proposes border pollution fee adjustments, to protect our businesses from unfair foreign competition.

After a half-century of increasing alarm about climate change and our country's failure to address it head-on, here's a proposal that members of Congress in both parties can get behind. Let's give them a call.

|Daniel Wolk, M.D., Narberth