Dear friends and colleagues, 
I was pleased that my letter was included in The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Thanksgiving issue.

To the editor:

I am grateful that, against great odds, our Philadelphia Inquirer staff refuse to relinquish the importance of their mission in serving our historic, brave but divided, and, in many ways, tortured city. But there is more: Although it is not overt, there is poetry in our hometown paper’s editing and design, and poetry provides enduring hope, despite all. Take, as an example, the Nov. 17 letter to the editor headlines: “Poor delivery,” “Rethink location,” “Understanding,” “Enough war,” “Bipartisan effort,” “System works.” Wow! (The wow is mine.) And there is still more: The Inquirer is widely read and respected. My recently published letter to the editor led to an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune. In accepting my submission, the editor, who also knows how necessary poetry is, offered me two poems, which I now offer you: “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam Zagajewski and “A Brief for the Defense” by Jack Gilbert.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

To The Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2023

I am pleased that The Philadelphia Inquirer printed the following recently submitted letter.  With warm wishes in this tragic, dangerous time of deepest possible suffering for all concerned, SaraKay

To the editor:

When I was young, my mother became ill, and I went to live with my grandfather. Though I could not understand his references to the pogroms or concentration camps, I did learn from him that the world hated Jews: “We are not family, and never will be.” I remember my joy in 1945 when Bess Myerson became the first Jewish Miss America. Waving her photo in the Baltimore Sun, I spoke with much excitement: “Look, Pop. You’re wrong. Look, we are not hated. We are family.” My grandfather shook his head. “This only happened because of the guilt about the camps, when no one stopped the Nazis till it was too late,” he said.

A few years ago, my husband and I attended a Seder where survivors of concentration camps spoke of changes in America, ones reminiscent of their experience in Germany as Hitler was gaining power. They referenced extreme right and extreme left movements “fanning the flames” of hatred. At that time, neither my husband nor I had ever experienced antisemitism personally. That has changed.

Raised in a modern Orthodox setting, I never parted with a knit suit with a matching beret bought many years ago for going to synagogue with my parents. Recently, invited to an Orthodox bar mitzvah, I took the outfit to an excellent dressmaker I’ve known for years. As she was pinning the suit to alter it, she asked where I was going to wear it. A week or so after the event, I took some of my husband’s shirts to her shop to be laundered. She greeted me with a look I had never seen, and a tone I had never heard. “Did you have a good time at the bar mitzvah with your rich Jewish friends?” she asked with contempt.

Now, following the barbaric assault on Israeli civilians — where atrocities too horrific to wrap one’s head around took place — the world is protesting Israel’s response to that brutality. “What,” asked a thoughtful and intelligent friend, “do you think that Israel did to provoke the massacre?” As she concluded her sentence, I was no longer at a cocktail party. I was instead at my grandfather’s kitchen table.

I often dream of Pop. In past dreams, I look for him everywhere, but cannot find him. Amid today’s horror, my dream changed. I do find him; he grabs my hand and I tell him he was right: Jews will never be family.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

To The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 25, 2023

I am pleased that the following letter was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 4th, 2023

To the editor:

Ed Rendell took office as Philly’s mayor in 1992. For the next four years, former Inquirer reporter Buzz Bissinger was given unparalleled access to the hellish obstacles Philadelphia (and all urban cities) faced as we struggled to survive. The result was Bissinger’s 1997 book A Prayer for the City, which depicted our mayor on his knees doing everything possible to save us. Although Rendell has not been mayor since 2000, as the ravages and deaths due to addiction increase yearly, his recent letter to the editor finds him still on his knees for his beloved city. Rendell supports overdose prevention centers, where people using drugs can do so under the supervision of trained staff, out of the view of children and families.

Two centers in New York City confirm what data collected worldwide have shown: When sites are offered, overdose fatalities are decreased, and the areas where they exist show no increase in crime. In his letter, Rendell asked that City Council not do away with the possibility of having these centers in Philadelphia, but instead follow Councilmember Jamie Gauthier’s wise guidance and trust the decision to individual communities. The next day, a misguided Council, lacking awareness or compassion, effectively killed a long and dedicated effort to finally bring overdose prevention centers to Philadelphia. In doing so, it ignored yet another prayer for our tormented city.   

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

To The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 4, 2023

Dear colleagues and friends,
This letter was submitted but not printed.  I’m posting it because I cannot forget how Charles and Camilla selected Diana, planning for their relationship to continue, and how she was used, manipulated, discarded.   When Charles proposed, he and Camilla were 33 years old, Diana 19.  Diana died when she was 36.  There is no doubt how dearly she loved her sons, and all she contributed to the endurance of the monarchy. Yes, divorce was necessary, but as the mother of a future king, respect and police protection were surely her due.

To the editor:

I write to strongly differ with coverage of King Charles’s “surprising” popularity (September 9-10).  The king's popularity is not one iota surprising.  Charles commands an enormously powerful PR machine, in concert with press, which has successfully reframed the torment that he and (now Queen) Camilla devised for a newly 20 year old, poorly educated innocent, Diana:  She would provide the future of the monarchy, as their relationship continued.  Further, Brits are loyal to their monarchs, wanting to see the best of them. They now offer their king the warmth denied him by his distant mother and emotionally abusive father, and are moved that, unlike Elizabeth who disdained being touched by the public, Charles relishes returning sincere affection. This said, it is important to remember that the cruelty and destruction the monarchy is capable of — which necessitated our separation from them — remains alive and well. They continue to do all possible to destroy the lives and remembrances of those who threaten their power, but in less obvious ways.   

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

To The Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2023

Dear friends and colleagues, I was pleased that The Philadelphia Inquirer printed my letter about the plea bargain for the killer of 20-year-old Sahmya Garcia, whom he murdered after she had the courage to end their relationship. An appalling miscarriage of justice!

Not Enough

To the editor:

The family of 20-year-old Sahmya Garcia — who was tormented and beaten by Marcus Burney and murdered after she ended their relationship — has every right to be “disappointed” by her killer’s plea deal, which spared him from life imprisonment. The family has every right to be enraged. I surely am. Garcia’s murder occurred just moments after the police were unsuccessful in delivering Burney a protection from abuse order. However, even if they had been successful, history shows that this order is not a deterrent for someone determined to kill. These murders are carried out by those who lose control of their rage once they lose their power to dominate their partner. In Burney’s case, fury and lawlessness were palpable, but some who murder for these reasons appear to be model citizens. A response to the following question is long overdue: Why is the abuse and murder of women less important than the protection of their killers?

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 3, 2023

I am very pleased that The Philadelphia Inquirer printed this letter, recalling special memories.

Remembering Icons

To the editor:

In my mind, Philadelphia’s 1928 art deco jewel, the Drake Towers, whose magical exterior was captured in Chris Hytha’s drone footage of vintage skyscrapers, is woven with memories of singer Tony Bennett, whose extraordinary life and talent. The Inquirer celebrated after his recent passing. My husband and I lived at the Drake from 2007 to 2013, where we showered two tired, shabby floors with love and care, and my husband created a wonderland of flowers and trees on 1,700 feet of terrace. Still, we never felt this space was ours; we saw it instead as a treasure on loan, to be enjoyed by others, including any nonprofit who asked to use it for fundraising. To thank us for its use, leadership at the Mann Center invited us to attend Bennett’s Aug. 28, 2010, performance, and to meet him afterward. At 84, Bennett enchanted a full house with two hours of timeless classics. Backstage, though noticeably tired, he greeted each of us with his wondrous smile and a private word.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 26, 2023

Much work to do, not only in Philly...

Detailed electoral study

To the editor:

The Inquirer’s eye-opening, detailed study of the six electoral coalitions leading to the overwhelming victory of Cherelle Parker (May 17), where she would not have needed one single vote from the three voting blocs made up mostly of white Philadelphians, speaks volumes: Parker supporters are desperate for safety and appropriate resources in their neighborhoods — especially for their children. Our city has paid lip service to those resources, but not provided them. Parker supporters are sick and tired of leaders who ignore their basic needs and treat their neighborhoods as invisible. They trust that finally, they have found a political leader who sees them, knows them, and will work tirelessly to deliver necessary care and protection. Further, the study shows how deeply out of touch white neighborhoods are with the fears and suffering our fellow Black Philadelphians face minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 28, 2023

I am pleased that The Inquirer printed the following letter at this urgent time

Suspend Search

To the editor:

I have never met JoAnne A. Epps, Temple University’s acting president, but have closely followed her extraordinary accomplishments, demonstrated loyalty, and evidenced maturity. Notably, when now-former president Jason Wingard “removed” her — a highly regarded and trusted provost — from her position, she did not react by resigning. Instead, she remained on staff as a so-called presidential adviser, who I strongly suspect was never consulted. Presidential search committees are, of course, de rigueur. However, to survive as a university, the challenges Temple faces are a microcosm of what Philadelphia must also confront, and desperate times such as these call for flexibility and unique measures. Temple trustees should immediately disband plans for their presidential search and appoint Epps as president. Temple desperately needs her evidenced strong, knowing, sensitive leadership, both now and in the foreseeable future. As does Philadelphia.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 18, 2023

Fighting Rock

To the editor:

I was flooded with many memories, both sweet and horrible, after reading Elizabeth Wellington’s review of Chris Rock’s Netflix special Selective Outrage at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre. Baltimore is my hometown, and I know the Hippodrome well. Throughout my childhood, there were periods when I lived with my grandmother, and each year before school started, as a special gift, she bought us tickets in the Hippodrome balcony “scholarship section.” In the Baltimore of my youth, where odious Jim Crow laws thrived, the Chris Rocks of that time would have taken their lives in their hands if they tried to walk into the Hippodrome, or even open its doors. In Wellington’s review, she criticized Rock for prioritizing the reactions of white people over his own pain, using his explanation for not striking Will Smith at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony to make her point: “And you know what my parents taught me: Don’t fight in front of white people.” Wellington’s point taken! However, as I experience his words, the magnificently brilliant Rock used this example, veiled in humor, to lay bare the universal terror all Black parents share about their children’s safety. And more — to demonstrate a conscience they planted deeply within him, as well as the hope and determination for something better than hate.

SaraKay Smullens

Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 10, 2023

I am pleased that the Gazette printed the following.  Warm new year wishes, SaraKay

Putting together your full introduction to Liz Magill [“Liz Magill Is Listening (in a Good Way),” Sep|Oct 2022], and the emphasis offered in Proudly Penn [a supplement mailed with some copies of the issue], I see our new president as a much-needed gift for the present, a leader with long awaited qualities. As a graduate of our School of Social Work (now the School of Social Policy and Practice) and a former board member, it is clear to me that a university that protects a School of Social Work echoes its conscience and commitments.

Liz Magill both highlights and lives this commitment, one that can only serve our proud, historic university and all we touch and inspire very well. In your description of a woman who is available, listens deeply, and treats all with respect, yet is tough and decisive when this is called for, Liz Magill qualifies for the highest compliment I can offer. She, like the present dean of my grad school, Sally Bachman, is a “natural social worker.”

SaraKay Smullens SW’65, Philadelphia

Found on The Legal Intelligencer.

Found on Law.com

Found on The Philadelphia Inquirer on 9/13/21

Letter submitted to the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 28, 2021.

To the editor:
Simone Biles’ brave withdrawal decision offers a wake-up call about danger to parents and educators — indeed all who hold the well-being of our young as paramount — one that applies far beyond the Olympics. Biles frames this danger with precision:,…”what I love has been taken away from me to please other people. (It) hurts my heart.” Her words call attention to many of our young deprived of the opportunity to be, to play, to relax, to learn to think for themselves, and in this way, decide what they want and need. Instead, they are programed relentlessly, all free time filled with activities, pushed far too hard to accomplish perfection, Why? To please all of their important role models — to make others feel good about themselves. The dangers of this pattern, without the insistent intervention, “enough is enough,” echoed by Biles, are palpable: life marked by constant dangerous choices and decisions -- or an underbelly — lack of self-confidence, withdrawal, and giving up on life entirely

Sincerely, SaraKay Smullens

Found on The Philadelphia Inquirer on 8/3/21.

Found on The Philadelphia Inquirer.