A shiny new fire station at 11th and Ash in Springfield will lift the economy and spirit of the Harvard Park neighborhood. Thank you Mayor Jim Langfelder, Fire Chief Brandon Blough and the Springfield City Council for sticking with the plan to build there, despite the need for mitigation of hazardous materials left from the […]
Fletcher Farrar
Fletcher Farrar is the editor of Illinois Times .
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s note 05-19-22
Nothing said this week was better than Joe Biden in Buffalo. “Jill and I bring you this message from deep in our nation’s soul. In America, evil will not win. I promise you. Hate will not prevail and white supremacy will not have the last word.” He condemned the racism, violence and hate spread through […]
Posted inOpinion
Editors note 5/12/22
Canada by rail, a 2,775-mile journey from Toronto to Vancouver, impresses a traveler with the vastness of our neighbor’s wilderness and wildlife. But those who fall in love with the beauty, the bears and the elk, learn next that, however plentiful, these too are fragile, threatened by global warming and the pressures of people. The […]
Posted inOpinion
Editors note 4/28/22
When I arrived, Micah introduced himself, without anybody asking him to, and welcomed me to Mrs. Wells’ fourth-grade class at Sandburg Elementary. The kids have been reading Illinois Times as a class project, and so were well-prepared with questions, and with answers to mine. “How can a newspaper make money if it’s free?” “Advertisements,” several […]
Posted inNews
Editor’s note 04-21-22
Back when it started, I thought Earth Day was a trick to divert the attention of us college kids from the Vietnam war. More recently, I suspected climate change was a ruse to turn nuclear power and its deadly waste into a “clean” energy source. For Earth Day 2022, it seems we’re about to about […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s Note 4/14/22
If the Biden administration had gotten the U.S. military involved in a shooting war over Ukraine, Americans would be protesting by now. Instead they are solidly behind President Biden’s non-military strategy, which includes calling out Vladimir Putin as a war criminal and, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” Diplomacy is energized. Economic […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s note 04-07-22
It makes a lot of sense what Zelensky said, even though commentators dismissed it as fog of war. He said the U.N. should remove Russia and its veto from the Security Council and, if that doesn’t work, abolish the council. “The main thing is today, it’s time to transform the system, the United Nations,” he […]
Posted inOpinion
Letters to the editor 04-07-22
REJECT PRIVILEGE I read with interest Scott Reeder’s article regarding white privilege (“Leading a privileged life,” March 31). I am sure at some points I, too, have been privileged in this way, but I don’t want to perpetuate this social imbalance, either. I think one way we can end this treatment is by not accepting […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s Note 3/31/22
Eleven years ago this month Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation that made Illinois the 16th state to abolish the death penalty. Now more than half the states have either abolished capital punishment or have enacted a formal moratorium. This, along with opinion polls, the number of executions and new death sentences, shows continued erosion of […]
Posted inOpinion
Editors note 3/24/22
Senate Judiciary chair Richard Durbin, D-Springfield, reminded committee members on the second day of hearings on the Supreme Court nominee what the late Muriel Humphrey would tell her husband, the loquacious Vice President Hubert Humphrey: “A speech doesn’t have to be eternal to be immortal.” After all, Abraham Lincoln, R-Springfield, used just two minutes, with […]
Posted inOpinion
Editor’s note 03-17-22
A new acquaintance was wondering why we hadn’t met before, after having worked within blocks of each other for the past 20 years or so. “I don’t get out much,” is what I told him, although I do, but it’s to the same routine things, not much new. And for the past two years, nobody […]
Posted inOpinion
Editors note 3/10/22
Rhetoric may be the most important weapon of war. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, looking tough in his military fatigue T-shirt, is already famous for “I don’t need a ride. I need more ammunition” and “I’m not hiding. I’m not afraid of anyone.” Now to the British Parliament he invoked Winston Churchill: “We will fight to the […]
