Eliminate PIAA high school football playoffs
In the opinion section of the Dec. 7 edition of The Morning Call, Stephen Eustis Jr. presented a very practical fix to the current farce known as the PIAA high school football playoffs. However, rather than trying to fix a bad and patently unfair system, why not just get rid of it, lock, stock and barrel?
The current format is a few decades old and doesn’t prove anything. Moreover, through the domination by private schools that can recruit across district and state lines, the outcomes are mostly preordained. In the process, great old annual and traditional rivalries among our neighboring school districts have disappeared or gotten interrupted. Hardly any of the classic Thanksgiving Day games remain. Getting rid of the state championship ends the season in late November and allows for more students to play winter sports.
I believe our children will gain more from experiencing the traditional neighborhood competitions, which help build a sense of community that seems to be dissipating throughout the region. A mythical “state championship“ was created by adults who needed something more than just the joy of competition experienced by the student athletes. Let athletics be for the student-athletes and their enjoyment.
Nick Noel
Palmer Township
Help after a painful fall renewed faith in people
On my daily run Dec. 6, around 8:40 a.m., I was crossing Second Avenue on to Prospect Avenue in Bethlehem, when I caught my toe on the curb and took a nasty fall. After a trip to the emergency room, I was checked out and patched up and I am fine. While I was on the ground trying to get up, several passersby of different ages and ethnicities stopped their cars (one man was walking his dog) to help me up and check my bruises. One of the men even offered to drive me home. They all were so kind and compassionate in coming to my aid.
After I got home from the hospital, I thought about those men who helped me. How refreshening to think in the current climate that we are living in, filled with mistrust and vitriol, that these total strangers would stop to help me. It gives me a real good feeling to know that there is still a lot of empathy and kindness in our community and hopefully our nation.
Thanks again, guys, for your actions and concerns. You have renewed my faith in the human spirit.
Art Smith
Bethlehem
Headline about Fight was misleading
Being a headline scanner, looking for articles that catch my eye, I get disturbed when I see a headline whose wording isn’t supported by content of the article itself, or whose wording misrepresents said contents.
One such headline appeared on the front page of Dec. 7 Morning Call. It read, “Mamdani operatives set sight on Pa. races.” The literal interpretation of this headline implies that people, somehow part of Zohran Mamdani’s organization, are working on Pennsylvania races.
The reality is that Fight, the organization in question, is based in Philadelphia, was founded before Mamdani ran for office, and he was just one of its many clients.
Why the misleading headline?
John Sise
Hanover Township, Northampton County
Tackle national concerns like they were NFL games
In comparison to what takes place in NFL pregame analysis, if we as citizens would learn to put as much concern, attention and effort into acknowledging and identifying our national issues and problems through listening to and talking to each other, conducting appropriate research, discussion, debate and by reaching consensus and/or compromise, then we would be in great shape as a country. The same is true for properly studying the candidates and preparing to vote in elections. What exactly are our priorities?
Robert Ockenfuss
Perkasie
Americans need help with health insurance costs
Next month, over 22 million people in our country will see their health care costs skyrocket due primarily to the expiration of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits.
I know two people personally that are being affected.
Price increases are going to be close to 200% for these people. One of these people will struggle and pay, the other will drop their health care insurance and take their chances.
Since the inception of the ACA Republicans in Congress have said it is terrible and implied they had alternatives. Where are they? Now is the time to make a difference and offer alternatives and options to these Americans.
We certainly are sending money to other countries, we need to help our own citizens now.
Patricia Downing-Rasich
Allentown
Are attacks on alleged drug smugglers a diversion?
The diversionary war theory postulates that when a national leader is running into difficulties with his actions on the domestic front, he fabricates a conflict with an external alleged enemy in an effort to divert the attention of the nation’s citizens away from the internal turmoil. It is interesting that the recent slaughter of supposed drug smugglers clinging to a piece of their sunken boat and the demand of Congress to have the video showing this be released has taken position front and center in the news to the extent that we now rarely hear anything about the Epstein files being released.
James M. McMahan
Upper Nazareth Township
The Morning Call publishes letters from readers online and in print several times a week. Submit a letter to the editor at letters@mcall.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication.
