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: editor@illinoistimes.com
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].
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2005.
