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
THE PEOPLE ON THE BUS . . .
Again our city’s mass transit, which serves just over 100,000 people, is being compared to that of a city of more than 500,000 — and not Chicago or St. Louis but [a city in] Kazakhstan, of all places [Mila Dvoretskaya-Lemme, “Taking the public out of transit,” Dec. 9].
You’re right, Mila, this is America. And people drive cars here because this isn’t a Third World country. People can afford cars and the expense to run them. I’ve been to Eastern Europe (Ukraine), and when I ask why people park on the sidewalks there, they tell me there is nowhere else to park. Then I noticed they don’t have parking lots or ramps. Here, people drive their cars and have a place to park; they don’t ride the buses like they have to over there.
Many years ago, Springfield buses ran at night and all weekend. So, you ask, who decided that buses don’t run on Sunday and after 6 p.m. here? Well, Mila, the people of Springfield decided that when they quit riding the buses at night or on Sunday.
As for the schedules, my 76-year-old mother, who, like you, has never driven in her life, doesn’t seem to have any problem reading them, and I can’t recall that she missed her bus. You sound like you don’t want to take the time to learn how to read them.
As for the bus stops, if you’ll look at the condition of the shelters downtown, you’ll see that they are not in very good shape. Why? Because people vandalize them, that’s why . . . They are not going to put shelters at every stop just so they can be vandalized and have to be constantly fixed.
When I was in the Ukraine, I didn’t see shelters at all bus stops. Maybe that’s a Kazakhstani thing. And I think that’s great. But I do agree that our scheduling and times could use some work.
Joe Schleyhahn
Springfield
. . . GO UP AND DOWN
Thank you, Mila Dvoretskaya-Lemme, for your accurate portrayal of Springfield’s sorry public-transportation system. I hope your call for reform will not be ignored as past protestations have been.
Unfortunately, the people in the greatest need of a healthy public-transportation system are the least empowered when it comes to the politicized decision-making process. Poor, minority, disabled, elderly, youth, nonresident visitors, and environmental activists lack the clout of the vast majority car culture that dismisses the issue as a nuisance and unnecessary expense because it doesn’t personally affect them.
But part of the reason it is a financial drain, as I assume it is, is because of its deficiencies. If it were reformed to be a healthy system, it would be used. “If you build it, they will come.” Will others take up this righteous cause? Here it is once more: Longer hours of service! More frequency in pickups! Comprehensive but uncomplicated routing. Don’t let this issue go away and die again.
Michael J. Hart
Springfield
NICE AX, MOTHER TERESA
I find Rod Helle’s commentary absolutely ridiculous [“It worked for fascist Germany — why not here?” Nov. 25]. It is like comparing Mother Teresa to an ax murderer. The best thing that ever happened to Germany was that we won. They haven’t attacked their neighbors in 60 years.
As for Anatol Lieven’s quote, I offer one of my own: “The classic modern strategy of an endangered left-wing oligarchy . . . is to divert mass contentment into class war.”
Mr. Helle wouldn’t be a wage slave of my public money if I lived in his district because I would free him from his job. If he owes credit-card bills, that was his own poor judgment, not the corporations that are contributing to the wages that afford Americans the best standard of living in the world. That’s world.
As far as looking out for our own interests, you bet we are. We don’t want to sacrifice another 3,000 of our fine citizens to the noble task of the terrorists. If anyone thinks that Saddam Hussein would not have provided training camps and money to any terrorist that applied, they are living in a dream world.
Joan Marblestone
Taylorville
GREAT ARTICLE, BAD PRINT JOB
What a marvelous, informative, and well-researched article on the Emiquon Preserve [Jeanne Townsend Handy, “The reawakening,” Nov. 25]. Ms. Handy and photographer Tom Handy have displayed their talents in sharing their experiences in this conservancy area. As in her past articles, she again displays her unique writing skills by discussing current environmental issues with reflections from the past of various naturalists who were concerned with similar topics many years ago. I hope all of your readers will have the opportunity to read more of her excellent writings in the future.
Is there any chance of perhaps rerunning the photos, which truly show the beauty of this area?
David H. Binstadt, M.D.
Springfield
Editor’s note: Tom Handy’s photographs may be viewed on our Web site,
www.illinoistimes.com.
STATE OF GRACELESS
All right, what happened to the Grace Smith column? The only reason I look at Illinois Times is to read her column down here in Florida.
Melinda Hall
Clermont, Fla.
I enjoy much of the news in your paper. I read it on my computer while I spend
the winter in Florida. I do miss Grace Smith’s column as I thought it was interesting
and sometimes very funny.
Mary Homer
Dawson
CORRECTIONS
Ken Crutcher resigned as executive director of the Springfield Housing
Authority in February 1996, weeks before the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development took control of the local agency. A recent story incorrectly
said SHA’s former executive director had been forced to resign [Todd Spivak,
“Logan’s run,” Nov. 25].
Contributor Mila Dvoretskaya-Lemme’s name was misspelled in a recent commentary [“Taking the public out of transit,” Dec. 2].
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2004.
