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THE CHOICES BEFORE AMTRAK Before Amtrak took over, I knew of three different
ways passenger trains went from Chicago to St. Louis — the one being
used now, the Illinois Central line, and the Norfolk & Western line
[see C.D. Stelzer, “On the right track,” Jan. 25]. I use to
live in Litchfield, and they had two ways to get to St. Louis or Chicago.
After Amtrak took over, there was none. Those two railroads would go by
each other from Mount Olive to Litchfield, cross each other north of town,
and meet again in Gibson City. You said something about Peoria getting Amtrak
service, but I also heard on television that Decatur might. If so, how? As
far as I know, Norfolk Southern won’t let service on their tracks
from what I heard a while back. Wish they would. Looks like they would use
the Norfolk Southern line to Bloomington, then get on the Union Pacific
line. Like the story said about faster passenger service,
from what I’ve been told, before Amtrak took over, the Gulf, Mobile
& Ohio got from St. Louis to Chicago faster and had more stops. I
remember back in ’85, Channel 20 was saying something about it then
and said the only stop would be Springfield. I ask this: How will there be
trains going more than 100 mph when Amtrak can only do 50 mph at times?
What do I mean? When it is hot and humid, rails expand, and Amtrak
can’t do 79 mph; they only run 50 mph. I live in Lincoln now and got
a scanner and pick up the railroad detector in Broadwell, and it gives the
speed the train is going. Before railroads started using what’s called
quarter-mile rails, and rails were only so many feet long, they could
expand when it got hot in the summer. That’s what causes some
derailment nowadays. Tracks can’t expand, and they buckle and the
trains crash. That’s why trains could go faster in the old days.
Plus, they took better care of tracks then, too. Plus, people act as though
every railroad crossing has to have singles or gates on them. Why? Back in
the old days trains went faster and there were more trains — and
there were just railroad signs at a crossing. Nowadays you have too many
nuts driving who try to bet on the train and get killed because of it. If
there are gates, they go around them. John Kellenberger Lincoln
NOT JUST TAKING THE VAPORS Some say it is vapor we see coming from power-plant
smokestacks [see R.L. Nave, “Powering forward,” Jan. 18].
Others say it is smoke. Both are correct: The first few feet, it is vapor
that quickly dissipates, and then it is smoke that we see for many miles! Donald E. Palmer Springfield
RACIAL PROFILING MADE EASY Black people don’t want to be racially
profiled, but people still want to and find ways to do it. In this case,
it’s by targeting movies that might appeal to a certain segment of
the black population [see Dusty Rhodes and R.L. Nave,
“Misstep,” Jan. 18]. The thing is, though — and theater
owner Tony Kerasotes kind of hit on this — by engaging in certain
behaviors some black people make racial profiling so easy and make the
lines so blurry that most of the general public can’t decide whether
it’s right or wrong. When Kerasotes mentioned that no one from the NAACP
or any other group contacted him about the violence that happened at the Black Christmas showing, he
made an easy sell to people who are still on the fence about racial
profiling. Who wouldn’t empathize with a theater owner trying to
protect his patrons from violence? Now, if this was the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the story
would’ve ended there, but I appreciated that your paper went on to
compare Stomp the Yard with the other R-rated, more violent films that showed at
his theaters. The story makes a clear distinction that Kerasotes
has limited tolerance for violence in black films, at any, even a PG-13,
level. But this is where the easy sell of racial profiling comes in and why
white people are having a hard time deciding if it happens at all and if
it’s wrong: Young black patrons caused violence on more than one
occasion, certain films are likely to draw more young black patrons, and,
as the owner of the theater, he has all the authority to decide which films
might draw which patrons. It makes it incredibly easy for him to do what
he’s done and not care what other people think. As a black woman and a Greek, I think there’s
way too much controversy over this film. It’s entertainment, and I
liked it. It didn’t represent specific fraternities and sororities in
a bad light [and] it exaggerated certain aspects of Greek life, but
it’s movie — they all do that. As for the violence breaking out
in theaters in Springfield, a conversation is long overdue about how
we in the black community have way too high a tolerance for violence among
our youth, in theaters or otherwise. Good article, though. I appreciated
the little history lesson at the end. Kara D.K. Evil Chicago
WHY I RESIGNED FROM WMAY Many readers of Illinois
Times were listeners to Donohue’s on WMAY (970
AM), but if they missed my last program, on Friday, Jan. 12, they may not
know that I resigned from the station at the end of the show. Management wished to turn my program into an
infomercial for local businesses nightly. I was not in favor of that
change, so I said my goodbyes at the end of my show that evening. During the six-month run of Donohue’s, I tried to make it
a solid alternative to the 6 o’clock television news, as well as the
run-of-the-mill right-wing talk shows that clog the AM radio dial. My Monday programs were usually devoted to the
activities of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce and affiliated
persons and organizations. Tuesday through Friday, the program was an
eclectic mix of the news of the day, some humorous bits, telephone or
studio interviews, serious discussions and/or in-depth analysis of how
seemingly disparate events may be connected. I would let listeners voice their opinions and very
rarely participated in the shouting matches that are regularly heard on
talk radio. I enjoyed interacting with local listeners, as well
as others who listened in via the Internet from other places in the world
and contacted me via e-mail. Perhaps one day WMAY will ask me to reestablish my
program, or some other station will. For now, I wish to thank the folks at
Midwest Family Broadcasting for allowing me three years to sharpen my
skills as a talk-show host, and I especially wish to thank you, the
listeners, who made my time on-air extremely enjoyable and personally
rewarding. If anyone wishes to contact me, feel free to e-mail
me at jeff_donohue2000@yahoo.com or at my day job at jdonohue@ilsos.net. Thanks to everyone for allowing me to participate in
part of your days. I hope we can get together again sometime. Jeff Donohue Springfield
INSIGHT NEEDS COMPETITION
A company’s income comes from the service it
provides to its customers and the willingness of customers to utilize that
service. Most companies realize that. When companies provide poor customer
service, customers go elsewhere. Most companies realize that also. Most of
the time, customers have the ability to go elsewhere. That is the basis of
free enterprise and the concept of competition. However, in the case of
cable service in Springfield, we have no other company to which we can take
our business when we experience poor customer service. The level of poor customer service I have experienced
from Insight Communications, locally and at its corporate office, is
inexcusable. Employees, local and corporate, refuse to apologize when their mistakes cause
customers undue complications, even though Insight’s Web site is
saturated with statements of how important “stellar” customer
service is to Insight. Springfield citizens need and deserve competition in
cable service. If we had it, Insight might actually exemplify the
“stellar” customer service their Web site claims is important
to them. Without cable-service competition, Springfield
citizens are being cheated. Talma Brown Springfield
This article appears in Feb 1-7, 2007.
