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Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois
62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com
THEY DESERVE THE BEST CARE
I am happy to see Illinois Times president
Fletcher Farrar bring to the public the problems faced by our older
citizens [“Why is Illinois so stingy to its oldsters?”
April 21]. As the regional ombudsman for a 12-county region (Cass,
Christian, Greene, Jersey, Logan, Macoupin, Mason, Menard,
Montgomery, Morgan, Sangamon, and Scott counties), I agree
wholeheartedly with Mary Link, former ombudsman and Elizabeth
Brown’s younger sister, in her plea for our society to take
better care of our elders.
The “greatest generation” that now
resides in long-term care facilities is mostly forgotten and
invisible. They deserve the best possible care that we can provide.
If societies are judged by how well they treat their elders, then
we must do better before our judgment is upon us.
The ombudsman program was created by the Older
Americans Act in the 1970s to promote the rights and well-being of
residents in long-term care facilities. Ombudsmen provide
“resident-directed service” in that they are advocates
for what the resident wants — not what the doctor wants, not
what the facility wants, and not what the family wants. In
addition, ombudsmen can speak out about poor conditions in
facilities and about laws and regulations that will affect those in
long-term care.
Some residents have no family or friends, and
the ombudsmen are the only ones who visit them, help them with
problems, and make sure they are getting good care. The ombudsman program in this area, called I CARE,
is a volunteer-based program that serves more than 6,000 residents in
the 12 central-Illinois counties listed above. If you would like to
know more about such issues as how to choose a nursing home, what to
expect when you are there, and how the ombudsman program can help you
or your loved one, please visit our Web site, www.icare.ws, or call
800-842-8538. In addition, those wanting more information or
considering becoming a volunteer ombudsman can attend the next public
information session, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, at the
Illinois Retired Teachers Association building, 620 N. Walnut in
Springfield (reservations required).
Brigit Dyer Reynolds
Regional ombudsman
Springfield
IGNORE ASININE
CRITICISM
There is a piece of advice most are given at a young age:
“If you cannot say something good about someone or something,
say nothing.”
Undoubtedly this bit of wisdom has either
been forgotten or is ignored by the detractors of the Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. How anyone can criticize
the buildings is beyond belief. The beauty of the exteriors is
breathtaking. The contents of both the library and museum give both
the interested visitor and the Lincoln scholar a tremendous amount
of material covering all aspects of the president’s life.
Generations will benefit and be thrilled by this tribute to Abraham
Lincoln.
There will always be those who find fault with
everyone and everything. With any luck, the asinine criticism of
the ALPLM will be ignored.
John D.
Kolaz
Springfield
SUE THE BUMS — OR IMPEACH ’EM
I listened carefully to President George W. Bush’s speech
Thursday night and reread the transcript Friday morning. Here is my
reaction. President Bush wants every citizen to have a private
account. We have private accounts today: They are called IRAs and
401(k) plans.
Social Security won’t be able to redeem
the Treasury bonds it currently holds without a massive tax
increase because the money isn’t there. Instead, President
Bush proposes to establish private accounts, which would be
invested in Treasury bonds, among other assets. So we will trade
U.S. government debt to itself for U.S. government debt to private
citizens — and still won’t have the money to pay when
the baby boomers try to cash in the bonds.
President Bush won’t raise the Social
Security earnings-tax limit beyond the current $90,000 salary cap,
claiming it will stifle new-job creation. Most new jobs are at the
lower or entry level. I haven’t seen too many new entry-level
jobs paying $90,000 unless they were for politically connected
cronies.
President Bush’s statement also implied
that $90,000 a year is either poor or middle-class wages. But when
it comes to Social Security, he wants to cut benefits for the
“wealthy” recipients of pensions and so on who are
making more than between $30,000 and $50,000 (depending on which
proposal gets passed). So if you are working, $90,000 is poor, but
if you are retired, $30,000 is rich. Must be that new math they
teach in school.
President Bush also wants Social Security
benefits to be cut progressively for wealthy recipients. Guess
what? We have that now, in two forms. First, all Social Security
income is federally taxed, and the federal tax system is a
progressive system. Second, Social Security benefits are already
slanted to the lower-income earner. So Social Security is already
progressively reduced twice, once by the tax system and once by the
credits per dollar earned.
The bottom line is, the baby-boom generation
keeps our part of the Social Security bargain. We paid the money;
the federal government wasted the money. We baby boomers should all
file a class-action lawsuit against every former and current
president and member of Congress charging them with theft of
government moneys and the abrogation of their elected
responsibilities. The pensions they received as a result of their
government service should be forfeited, and all moneys received
from government service should be returned to the federal treasury.
If that doesn’t work, let’s figure out a way to impeach
all of them.
John Weinhoeft
Springfield
INNOVATIVE EFFORT TO FIX EYESORE
Almost every day for the last few years I have
looked at the ugly empty lot surrounded by an uninviting chain-link
fence at Fifth and Jefferson, next door to my building.
Then, almost overnight, just before the April 19 dedication of the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, this lot was transformed into a
beautiful work of art.
It was Anne Dougherty, U.S. Sen. Dick
Durbin’s representative on the Beautification Subcommittee of
the Springfield Readiness Committee, who came up with the idea of
transforming this eyesore into something beautiful. Anne
didn’t know what to do, but she knew who would. She contacted
Springfield art teacher Lou Ann Davenport. Lou Ann and fellow art
teacher Jan DeLong put their heads together and came up with the
brilliant idea of weaving strips of colored plastic cut from
plastic tablecloths through the chain links of the fence to paint a
colorful picture of the symbols of Lincoln’s life from his
birthplace in Kentucky to his burial at Oak Ridge Cemetery, and
everything in between. Davenport and DeLong got members of the Boys
& Girls Clubs to help execute their design.
The fruits of the efforts of Durbin,
Dougherty, Davenport, DeLong, and the Boys & Girls Club members
is an innovative work of beautiful art that enhances the
presidential-museum neighborhood and is sure to brighten the day of
the visitors to and citizens of Springfield who see it.
Sam Cahnman
County Board Representative
District 18
JOINING THE MOVEMENT
I was excited Friday afternoon, stepping out
of my workplace to see bicycles rolling down Wabash Avenue.
Critical Mass has finally reached Springfield — and how
uplifting it is!
Many concerned citizens are boycotting their
vehicles — and also the war in Iraq. To me, walking or biking
is the best way to protest the U.S. imperialist invasion for scarce
natural resources. Springfield is very hard to get around if you
are not driving a vehicle. This is evident to anyone who has walked
or biked to work or for pleasure. I dread walking down major
streets, often the only ones with sidewalks. Vehicles whiz by at
outrageous speeds, burning massive amounts of gasoline, just to get
there a little faster. Living on a major commuting street is also
difficult, with drivers usually exceeding speed limits with
disregard for the residents of these neighborhoods, plus the nasty
pollution that driving a vehicle produces.
For those not familiar with Critical
Mass, bike riders join together on the last Friday of the month to
demonstrate that they are traffic as well and that streets need to
be shared. They ride in large groups for safety. As someone put it,
“Critical Mass is not an organization, it’s an
unorganized coincidence. It’s a movement . . . of bicycles,
in the streets.”
Carey Smith Moorman
Springfield
This article appears in May 5-11, 2005.
