To the editor: Puerto Rico needs more attention

President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd as he hands out supplies at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd as he hands out supplies at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.

The Blade’s Sept. 30 editorial, “Our trust,” declares that President Trump’s visit this week to the devastated island of Puerto Rico should “cut the red tape holding up supplies and fast-track much-needed financial aid.”

But if this man has the means and the ability to speed up this desperately needed lifesaving and misery-reducing aid, we are left with a terrible question: Why has he cruelly withheld his skills and influence to help the stricken island for weeks of hell after Hurricane Maria?

Why has this horrendous humanitarian crisis taken a back seat to golf and football?

FRANK WARD

Goddard Road

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No more money for Springfield Twp.

My wife and I have lived in Springfield Township for more than 22 years. During this period, there have been numerous school levies proposed, with most of them passing.

I find it troublesome that district officials are now resorting to a “shakedown” approach to grab even more tax dollars by contesting home values (Sept. 28, “Residents seek halt to property value challenges”).

Officials make this matter even worse by indicating that “this method allows schools to collect extra dollars in an environment where school funding is scarce.” 

School funding is not scarce in Springfield Township. District voters have given plenty. Springfield Schools just needs to learn how to live within its means.

TOM ZOUHARY

Springfield Township

Bring back dignity of Obama days

The writer of the Sept. 26 letter titled “Trump delivers strong U.N. speech” defended President Trump’s strong tour de force speech at the United Nations and criticized former President Barack Obama’s “dangerously weak, reckless, and apologetic” foreign policies.

We now have a president who governs by tweets. He has alienated neighbors, threatens North Korea with nuclear annihilation, and has again restricted travel to Cuba.

Give me back the thoughtful, diplomatic, and unifying foreign policy of Mr. Obama.

The writer’s only agenda appears to be to malign the very popular former president.

STEVE ELZINGA

Erie, Mich.