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To the Editor:
After reading “Forward thinking” by Robert Rivera-Amezola (July 31), I had to look at the front page to make sure the paper was the South Philly Review and not one of the alt-weeklies. Those papers usually are home to the condescending, pseudo-intellectual forms of letters like Robert’s that use convoluted logic to make a point.
They dismiss the opinions of people like Joe Cirella (“Reflections of the good ol’ days,” July 10) who write plainly and honestly, as being “simplistic” in their observations about society. And I find Robert’s assertion that Joe’s “ruminations” as “dangerous” downright laughable. I’ve never “sanitized” the past. We’ve always had crime and other societal ills, but not at the epidemic levels that exist today.
I happen to be a child of Italian immigrant parents and lifelong South Philly resident, so I understand real diversity, having lived it my entire life. But what does it have to do with what Cirella wrote? I’ve witnessed many hardworking Italian immigrants with impressive skill sets. Why do you have to be “selective” by focusing on new Central American and Southeast Asian arrivals? That Asian community has been in South Philly for almost 40 years now, so they’re not new.
How about taking an “activist stance” on illegal immigration and hold politicians accountable for the porous southern border in this country? That’s one of many “very real problems” close to home.
Finally, I find it ironic that Robert quoted the “All in the Family” theme song. That show, by liberal Norman Lear (another irony), wouldn’t even get on the air in today’s politically absurd climate. I’ll take a society with real timeless values that aren’t labeled as an “imagined past” over one that uses rationalizations and euphemisms to justify a distorted value system.
Vincent DiGregorio
South Philadelphia
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