Letters policy
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address and a daytime
telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length and clarity.
Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois 62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: [email protected]
LINCOLN AND THE HOLY GRAIL
Todd Spivak’s recent article on Michael Scully’s dream for the Union Station clock-tower renovation was thought-provoking [“Back to the future,” Jan. 20]. I don’t know what Mr. Scully’s intent is for the meditation area at the top of the tower or the grail that he proposes accompany it, but I would like to think it might have something to do with something we all associate with Abraham Lincoln, the end of slavery, and how it relates to us today.
You wrote on page 3, in regard to the [proposal], “Exactly what the Grail has to do with Springfield or Lincoln is unclear, unless it’s some sort of metaphor for a quest for something elusive, magical, and transcendent.” I pose this thought: Lincoln was on a quest of sorts for something elusive, magical, and transcendent, as are we today. His quest was to end slavery (a severe form of racism). Wouldn’t it be appropriate to have a quiet area overlooking the museum and library that might inspire visitors to reflect on how they, too, might help end the modern day’s form of slavery (racism)?
Hmm, an area where people go to think about ending modern day’s slavery overlooking a museum dedicated to the man who ended slavery. Just a thought!
Julie Hammers
Springfield
TAKING THE DUSTY ROAD
I just wanted to let you know that I smiled when I read Mayor Tim Davlin’s letter to the editor [Jan. 13] — and I laughed at Dusty’s response in last week’s commentary [Dusty Rhodes, “My humble opinion,” Jan. 20].
I look forward to Dusty’s writing because she picks really good topics, writes with a lucidity that escapes many journalists today, and makes no apologies for her stories. The Brandon Overton story [“Dead reckoning,” Jan. 13] was so heart-wrenching — and I think that it took her unique flair for the sympathetic and experience with fluid writing to fully make us readers out here understand the emotion of his plight.
Thanks for having such a wonderful writer on staff, despite what some politicians may think about her commentaries. Dusty’s road is one I look forward to taking every week.
Pacia Anderson
Springfield
POLICYMAKERS SHOULD HAVE SERVED
The lack of military service by members of Congress, and even by too many key White House and Department of Defense staffers, is the primary source of many of our country’s problems. The war in Iraq is a good example. With better-informed policymakers, the war would have been planned, funded, and fought better. In fact, the war in Afghanistan would have been a lot further along before we jumped into Iraq. It is hard to offer suggestions and ask the right questions when you don’t have a clue about military service and soldiering. The “elite” has to get out more, and I don’t mean to the country club.
All the high-tech equipment is a real plus, but nothing is ever decided in a war until a military-truck driver moves something and we have enough boots on the ground. Pray and wish all you want, but God almost always goes with the biggest and best-equipped force.
Dan Cedusky
Champaign
MY VOTE IS FOR ENGINEERS
AmerenCILCO once offered the city of Springfield $21 million a year to manage the power plant. Of course, all of their plants use highly skilled engineers as managers instead of politicians.
Donald E. Palmer
Springfield
A TASTE OF CIVILIZATION
I just wanted to drop you a note to tell you how much I enjoy your publication. I’m a consultant who has been working in Springfield for the past eight months or so. I live in Sycamore, near DeKalb, and spend Monday morning through Friday afternoon in your fair city.
I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of “civilization” when I was sent down here, but I’ve been most pleasantly surprised. One of the real joys of the experience has been Illinois Times. I look forward to reading each issue to see what’s going on in the area and also to learn more about viewpoints and issues. I particularly enjoy Tom Irwin’s writings, as well as the articles by Dusty Rhodes. They are interesting, informative and very well written.
Thanks for providing a wonderful public service.
John Prendergast
Sycamore
ISN’T THIS A GREAT COUNTRY?
Recently I’ve heard a lot about how generous America is. This country does give millions of dollars in food, aid, and money to other countries in need. I’m very much in favor of that. But I — a single, unemployed American male — can’t get help anywhere. My unemployment ran out in November, and there is no extension. I have not had any luck getting hired at the worst of jobs. I’ve applied for welfare and called every charity and church I could find, to try and get help. No one will help a single male with no children. There are no vouchers or money for single males in need. Applying for food stamps is a nightmare. A person could starve to death waiting for them. I’ve been waiting three weeks so far. I’m getting evicted from my apartment this month. I will probably live in my car. Isn’t America wonderful? Who will help Americans if America doesn’t?
Michael Urbanski
Toledo, Ohio
A MONSTROUS ABSURDITY
The passage of SB 3186, the bill adding sexual orientation into the Illinois Human Rights Act, can only be attributed to heavy political pressure from the likes of Rick Garcia and Equality Illinois.
Sexual orientation in the text of the bill is described as “actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality or gender-related identity, whether or not traditionally associated with the person’s designated sex at birth.” Can anyone not conclude that this essentially states that whatever gender or sexual attraction one claims to possess is who he or she really is? As such, a new law will come to Illinois on the basis of what one person says he or she is. Is something wrong here?
People such as Mr. Garcia say this bill ensures that homosexuals won’t face discrimination in housing or employment. I’m not aware of high concentrations of homelessness in Illinois among gays, so that is news to me.
As far as employment goes, the Gay Financial Network proudly touts the high salaries of gay American professionals, often higher than [those of ] nongay individuals. I’m not aware of high unemployment rates of homosexuals in Illinois. So arguments of high rates of discrimination in housing and employment seem to be baseless.
The question needing an answer is, what “evidence” will employers and landlords need from homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals to back up who they are? It may seem bizarre to ask that, but given that such orientation is not always readily visible, shouldn’t some “proof” be provided in such instances? As for examples, I’ll leave that to the readers’ imaginations.
SB 3186 is a monstrous absurdity, and shame on Illinois lawmakers who supported it.
Nedd Kareiva
Chicago
DOWN FOR THE COUNT
By signing SB 3186 [legislation adding sexual orientation to the Illinois Human Rights Act], the governor has thrown the state of Illinois onto the wrestling mat with God.
It will mean that the state government could force the Roman Catholic Church to hire homosexual men to supervise altar boys, jail Methodist bishops if they don’t hire child molesters for their children’s daycare centers, sue the Lutheran Church for not hiring convicted sexual predators as camp counselors for teenage girls, threaten the African Methodist Episcopal Church if it doesn’t use arrested dope peddlers as basketball coaches, make the Greek Orthodox Church hire strippers as Communion servers, break the Evangelical Free Church if it doesn’t hire pornographers as church-newsletters editors, and chain Baptist women for not hiring wife-swappers as marriage counselors.
Like the Nazis under Hitler, the governor and the state Legislature promise religious freedom, but they seek to destroy the call of the Christian church because it speaks in favor of the weak and the voiceless. Let the battle begin. We will call on the aid of mercy. Let the governor and the state hold their bowels as they eat with the enemy of all mankind.
The Rev. James W. French
Dakota
CORRECTION
Union Station is on Madison Street.
The location was wrong in a story last week [Todd Spivak, “Back to the future,” Jan. 20].
