Philadelphia Weekly

NEWS AND OPINION

Letters to the Editor

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted May. 2, 2012

Giving It Their Best Shot

Regarding Tara Murtha’s feature about two photojournalists who are taking on the city’s gun crisis:

Wow. Once again Tara, you really hit the mark with this timely story. The suspect in my nephew’s murder is now on the most-wanted list but since I see no one has claimed any of the $20,000 offered in any of the city’s murders, I guess we shouldn’t get our hopes up too high. It just sickens and saddens me that people still don't realize the value of a human life.

TEAGUEM2005, via philadelphiaweekly.com

Outstanding story and very powerful. It’s terrific to see two dedicated people trying something different.

One comment: The reporter’s contention that Philadelphia’s gun violence problems would change substantially if Harrisburg allowed tighter gun control seems pretty implausible to me. Just over the bridge is Camden—and just down the road is Wilmington. Why on earth would we assume that guns would not stay cheap and plentiful in N.J. and Del. even if Pa. passed a radical law?

AMANDA, via philadelphiaweekly.com

The writer lost me when [she] wrote about gun control after stating earlier that the murders were committed with illegally-owned guns. Gun-control laws will have no effect on these people. They don’t work when guns are readily available through illegal sources, and the city doesn’t seem to be doing much about taking them off the street.

TIM WADAS, via philadelphiaweekly.com

There should be federal gun laws. The influence of the NRA should be resisted by dedicated politicians with integrity.

JOEL BENJAMIN, via philadelphiaweekly.com

No Holds Bard

Regarding J. Cooper Robb’s review of Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre’s “Titus Andronicus”:

While I agree that Aaron Cromie is immensely talented, and I’m sure this production is highly entertaining, J. Cooper Robb, once again, displays his lack of appreciation in regard to the brilliance of Shakespeare’s texts, when he writes “Instead of relying heavily on the text to communicate the story (the method usually employed by directors over-enamored with the Bard’s language), Cromie tells the story visually.”

Dumb shows and visual presentations can certainly be entertaining, but Shakespeare’s true brilliance lies in his ability to use text in such way as to create landscapes in his audiences’ imagination, which can’t possibly be equaled in the visual word. Perhaps, some day, a director, and a company of actors, will arise in Philadelphia who’ll enlighten him to that.

ANONYMOUS, via philadelphiaweekly.com