Misplaced priorities

The Missouri Senate is about to put Missouri last in the country when it comes to supporting working parents’ need for child care. Why? So we can continue to let corporations and private citizens get away with not paying their taxes. 

Instead of enacting a tax amnesty program that would recover more than $70 million in back taxes, the Senate is cutting child-care assistance for low-income working parents, and services for kids who have been abused or neglected.  The cuts to child care assistance will impact 6,190 children in Missouri.

Favoring tax deadbeats over vulnerable children is irresponsible. Instead of slashing services for Missouri’s kids, the Senate should make sure corporations and private citizens are current on their taxes.

Terry Bloomberg, Frontenac

Preserving the theme of Passover seders

Regarding your April 4 story, “Local seders explore social justice themes, identity,” I would like to offer a note to the JCRC, JCPA and other sponsors of “alternative” Passover seders that emphasize local hunger, social justice and other subjects. My answer to the question, “Why is this night different than any other night?” is: “This is the one night a year when anyone concerned about Jewish continuity should put aside “current events” and spend (imagine) one entire evening celebrating the “specialness” of the Jewish people, and to pass on that sense of specialness to our children and grandchildren. The 3,000-year-old universal Jewish practice of keeping the singular focus of Passover seders on each generation teaching the next about the specifically Jewish experience of “going out of Egypt” has helped keep our people together in many lands and under many difficult circumstances. May it, and we, long continue!

Richard H. Senturia, Director, Citizens for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East

Questionable calendar choice

How low can you go? Strange things are happening when the venerable Jewish Light starts providing a forum for the “St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee.” Your ChaiLights calendar of April 11 promoting a talk by Michael Berg at the University City Library hits the Jewish community below the belt. This group’s talk does not deserve a forum in our paper.

I’m more than upset.

Jerry Koenig, Chesterfield