Beyond hazing
I was shocked, saddened, disgusted, disbelieving, and angry to read about what took place in the locker room of Cheltenham High School last year. I grew up in Cheltenham, went through Cheltenham schools, have lived here all of my life, and am just sickened to see that we have made it to the front page of The Inquirer for something as horrendous as this. It is unconscionable that young people participating in an activity that should be the epitome of sportsmanship and proper conduct took it upon themselves to debase a fellow team member in such a barbaric manner. This is not hazing; this is sick, sadistic behavior.
My questions for those who participated, and even those looking on without intervening, are: Where did you ever learn such behavior, and why would you choose to do this to someone? Was your upbringing such that you learned that this is acceptable? What is lacking inside of you that you feel you have to harm another just to feel better about yourself?
The behavior these young men exhibited, and the fact that their coaches, men toward whom they should be looking for moral, ethical, and sportsmanlike conduct and guidance, gave them such devious advice, need to be addressed. No matter what kinds of punishments are meted out to any of those involved, they will never come close to erasing the scarring that this young victim will carry with him all of his life.
To quote an overused phrase: “We are better than this.” Cheltenham has always been proud of our community, our schools, our achievements, and our place in the world. This is not how we want to be known. Nothing like this should take place anywhere. There is no place in our community, or anywhere else, for behavior like this. We need to take a moment to think about how we got here, and make sure we never go there again.
Barbara Kotzin, Cheltenham
In support of Fauci
The attacks on Anthony Fauci say more about the current political climate than they do about his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Fauci, an American hero, was confronted with a once-in-a-century public health emergency caused by a novel virus that caused the deaths of over 1.25 million of our fellow Americans. His job was to follow the science at the time and make the best decisions he could to save lives. Science and data (rather than politics) have since taught us that, but for the measures recommended by Dr. Fauci, millions more Americans would have died. I suspect Sens. Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, and Bernie Moreno would say that’s a reasonable price to pay in making that binary choice between saving lives or rescuing the economy while obsessing over Dr. Fauci on national television. If that’s their position, they should say so.
Richard Golomb, Philadelphia
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