Trump’s anticrime policy is working
President Trump has sent the National Guard to Washington and has indicated he may do that in Chicago and others to supplement local police. The mayors of these cities don’t feel it is necessary, that “crime is already decreasing” and there should be no interference.
While crime may be dropping, the situation in many of these cities is far from secure. Washington had a flurry of recent carjackings and still has a murder rate higher than many cities in the world. Interventions by the Guard show carjackings are already down by 87%.
Chicago still had over 500 homicides last year. Are city’s leaders satisfied that further intervention is not needed? Their policies aren’t working. Fear of backlash or being considered racist seems to drive much of that thinking. If the mayors of these cities are happy with this status quo, then these losses are on their hands.
Public safety can be improved with better enforcement and hot-spot policing. The president’s policy will save many more young lives. There is no scenario where these mayors should be accepting such loss of control in their cities and loss of life.
Mark Knouse
South Whitehall Township
Speak out against troops occupying US cities
The president of the United States has ordered armed soldiers to occupy the nation’s capital. My elected congressional and Pennsylvania representatives maintain their silence and I have communicated my displeasure to them. President Trump is threatening to occupy other major cities. What do you believe will happen when he occupies Philadelphia? I implore you to let your elected representatives know how you feel.
Dan Shephard
Palmer Township
Trump, McCormick favor fossil fuel companies
During the last presidential campaign, Donald Trump told a group of oil executives and lobbyists gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort that they should donate $1 billion to his presidential campaign because, if elected, he would roll back environmental rules. Now that he is president he seems to be trying to carry out that promise as well as cut funds for alternative energy efforts.
In the same spirit, at the Energy and Innovation Summit in July at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh Sen. Dave McCormick promoted Pennsylvania as an ideal spot for developing artificial intelligence data centers because of the state’s energy resources. What a great advance for Pennsylvania’s fossil fuel industry. In McCormick’s constituent communications, he emphasized it wouldn’t be fair to place a finger on the scale of marketplace competition for alternative energy industries. Do McCormick and the president overlook the hugely outsized tax breaks and subsidies for fossil fuel?
Perhaps their first priority is to keep their promises to leaders of fossil fuel companies.
Peg Church
Bethlehem
Congress must lead on gun control
Once again, the country is dealing with a tragic school shooting. This kind of tragedy is happening too often. There are many places to point a finger of blame, but one of the very obvious is the inability of our Congress to pass meaningful gun control laws.
If you have a criminal record, or a record of instability of any kind, it is still very easy to procure a gun in this country. Congress has abandoned the responsibility. Members of Congress should ensure that guns do not get into the wrong hands.
Raising funds for political campaigns has taken precedence over doing the right thing for the American people. The call for change is obvious and compelling.
Kenneth R. Smith
Bethlehem
The writer is a former mayor of Bethlehem, 1988-1997.
Trump not worthy of Nobel Peace Prize
How ironic that President Trump believes himself to be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. While he has created the atmosphere of a civil war in this country, he waits to be nominated.
Thanks to his divisive leadership, we now think predominantly as “red states” and “blue states” instead of as the United States.
We watch as he carries out his promise of retribution: firing, arresting and replacing “enemies” with “loyalists,” in contrast to Abraham Lincoln who named rivals to his cabinets.
He ignited an assault on our Capitol in 2021 based upon a big lie that still divides our nation. He endeavors to rewrite history by whitewashing references to slavery, reigniting leftovers of the Civil War.
He recently directed Texas to redistrict so as to create more Republican seats, acting against traditions of redistricting and causing “blue states” to retaliate.
We are as divided in identity as much as people were during the Civil War. He has done nothing to unify us. Beyond our nation, he alienates countries that have been longstanding allies. He merits an award for fostering divisiveness, not peace.
Gerald Tandarich
South Whitehall Township
Trump oversteps his bounds on museums
So President Trump has now appointed himself curator-in-chief of the Smithsonian Institution and its museums. This is outrageous. All this to reshape exhibits in his own image and to free them of his ideas of woke-ness.
Such a move is an attack on the independence of museums of American history, art and culture, the work of scholars who contributed to the formation of those museums and on the First Amendment of our Constitution.
I hope museums like the Smithsonian will fight back and that Americans “woke up” to the dangers of Trump’s action. Will the American historical sites and their museums in Philadelphia be next?
Martha Fox
South Whitehall Township
Meeting with Putin was a farce
The meeting in Alaska between President Donald Trump and President Putin was nothing but a farce. President Trump claimed he would put sanctions on Russia if Putin wasn’t agreeable. Instead Putin was treated like a hero, red carpet and all. Putin gave up nothing, still bombing Ukraine and wants territory in the Donbas region. Trump treats President Zelenskyy horribly and admires Putin who as I remember started the war by invading Ukraine.
Ann E. Honsel
Nazareth
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.
https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/04/letters-readers-weigh-in-on-troops-in-us-cities-the-pros-and-cons/
