Guest Opinion | Thursday, March 3,2011

Our clothes reveal the story

I washed two loads of laundry one weekend while trying to follow the unfolding events in Egypt, Bahrain and Wisconsin.A label on my running shorts – “Made in Egypt” – caught my

Guest Opinion | Thursday, February 24,2011

Setting the facts straight about pensions

By Cinda Klickna

The media continue to publish inaccurate statements about the pension systems in Illinois. I would like to set the record straight.What is TRS? The Teachers’ Retirement System - established in 1

Guest Opinion | Thursday, February 10,2011

A letter to a young worker

By Nick Capo

Dear young worker: You’re in trouble.Sorry to rain on popular culture’s positive-thinking parade, but reality is composed of facts. Our wealthiest 1 percent already receives about 24 perce

Guest Opinion | Thursday, February 3,2011

The Big Read answers a big need

By Bonnie Matheis

“But all the time — no matter what she did -- there was music.” So writes Carson McCullers in her breakthrough novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which is being celebrated by The B

Guest Opinion | Thursday, January 27,2011

More important than repealing the death penalty

By David Barnett

I just finished reading the feature article on capital punishment by Bill Clutter [see “From death row to hero,” Jan. 28]. As good as the article is, Bill ignores the real challenge that i

Guest Opinion | Thursday, January 20,2011

End greed, invest in healthy economy

By Mitchell Gold

As a business owner who has created hundreds of jobs over the past two decades, I understand economic policies that build sustainable growth. Yet the billions in tax cuts for the wealthy recently sign

Guest Opinion | Thursday, January 13,2011

We need ERA now more than ever

By Riane Eisler and Kimberly Otis

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just asserted for a second time that our Constitution does not protect women against discrimination. That was one of the arguments for passing the proposed Equal R

Guest Opinion | Thursday, January 6,2011

Illinois loses at the blackjack table

By Fred Gottheil

Hockey is a game. Chess is a game. Placing a $50 bet at the blackjack table is not a game. It is gambling, even though casinos insist that they’re part of a gaming industry. But mislabeling is n

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 29,2010

What’s a school board to do?

By John J. Cassel

This April, as they do every two years, the citizens of Illinois will elect about 3,000 of their neighbors to four-year terms on local school boards. About 1,300 are typically new to the board. The Il

Guest Opinion | Wednesday, December 22,2010

Steps toward a fear-less nation

By Nick Capo

I recently read In the Combat Zone by Leslie Marmon Silko, a Native American writer and activist. Published in 1995, the essay contains this sentence: “As the U.S. economy continues to ‘do