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
THAT’S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE
I would like to thank Illinois Times for your
recent article on the problems of finding placements for adoptable
black and biracial children [Dusty Rhodes, “Baby
trade,” Feb. 17]. I have a unique perspective on this issue.
In August, my wife and I adopted a wonderful 13-year-old biracial
girl. What has surprised me most about being the white father of a
child who isn’t white is that the vast majority of people
don’t really care. This has amazed me. We frequently take our
daughter shopping or to restaurants or to Junior Blues games or to
church — and we have yet to encounter one snide remark or
even a second glance. All they see is a terrific, happy,
intelligent girl who has loving parents. I was expecting the worst,
and I would like to thank the people of Springfield for proving
that we can get our outdated racist ideas behind us.
I would also like to encourage adoptive
families to seriously consider minority children. There may be some
people out there who won’t approve — I haven’t
found any, but they may be there. Even if they are there, we
adoptive parents shouldn’t let complete strangers decide how
we put our families together. When I and my family see my daughter,
we don’t see a biracial child. We see Audrey Huck — my
daughter, their granddaughter, their cousin, their niece. And
that’s the way it should be.
Robert Huck
Springfield
THE RISING PRICE OF ADOPTION
I found the prices you quoted in your
article, “Baby trade,” astonishing. In 1961 we chose to adopt from China. We worked with the
state of Illinois and the Department of Children and Family Services.
They, in turn, worked with an organization called WAIF [World Adoption
International Fund]. There was a home study, background checks, medical
checks, financial checks, and reference checks. In about 9 months we
picked up our 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter at the airport. A second
2-and-a-half-year-old arrived in much the same way. Our costs were, per
child, $75 for medical and dental checkups and half of the price of an
airline ticket for a companion to bring the child from Hong Kong to
Chicago.
We might have been lucky because we were not
interested in an infant. It is obvious that “trading”
in babies is a very lucrative business.
Edith Smith
Springfield
A PENNY FOR HER THOUGHTS
I couldn’t let another day go without
saying thanks to Penny Zimmerman-Wills for all of her wonderful
food reviews in Illinois Times. I work with BRC Imagination Arts, and I’m
planning a cast and crew party in the Springfield area to celebrate
the opening of the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.
We’re the company who designed the museum, and we thought it
would be nice to do a preopening thank-you for all the cast and
crew.
As the event planner for this function,
living in California (mind you), I had to figure out a way to find
out about what’s happening in Springfield on the food beat.
Penny’s column has supplied me with a wealth of information
and leads. Thanks so much for her insightful articles.
Sherrie Burgess Brooks
Burbank, Calif.
WHY NOT LIST SMOKE-FREE VENUES?
I rise in support of Linda Schrodt’s
viewpoint [“Letters,” Feb 24]. If nonsmokers want to increase their social choices, they
need only support businesses or activities that currently offer a
nonsmoking environment.
Like to bowl? Lake Town Lanes has a Monday
night “Fresh Air” league with no smoking on the lanes.
Like live music? Andiamo! offers live music a couple of times a
week with no smoking in the room (the Wednesday-night music even
starts at a decent time of 5:30 p.m.). Like to dance? A regional DJ
hosts monthly smoke-free dances at the Springfield Knights of
Columbus hall on West Isle and also near Decatur at the Macon
County Fairgrounds, just two miles south of Interstate 72.
Perhaps people just aren’t aware of the
places that offer a smoke-free environment. How about a column in a
near-future edition of Illinois Times listing who, where, and what is smoke-free in
Springfield?
Mel Davis
Springfield
RESOURCE FOR FINDING BIRTH PARENTS
I was born on June 5, 1973, here in
Springfield. A few short days later I was adopted by a wonderful
family who has given me all of the love and support anyone could
want. As I got older, I began to want to locate my birth family.
Through some research I found the Illinois Adoption Registry here
in Springfield. Here I was able to supply them with all information
I had concerning my birth (time, date, location, etc.), as well as
my contact information. The hope was that someone from my birth
family would do the same so that we could be connected. Seven years
later, this is still my hope. I am hoping that this letter will
alert people to the existence of the registry because it is not
widely known. Also, if anyone has specific information concerning
my birth on the above date, I would greatly appreciate any
assistance.
The registry can be contacted through the
following means: Illinois Department of Public Health, 535 W.
Jefferson St., Springfield, IL 62761 (217-782-4977, fax
217-782-3987).
Michael L. Reynolds
donincog@hotmail.com
Petersburg
KEEP PROMISES MADE TO TEACHERS
For the last 25 years, public-school teachers
of Illinois have been able to retire before age 60, enabling local
school districts to control costs and reinvigorate their
educational programs with younger teachers. Now Illinois
politicians, in an effort to bail out the state after its failure to live
up to its responsibility to adequately fund the pension systems for
teachers and other public employees, want to eliminate or severely
restrict the early-retirement option for teachers.
At a time when we are attempting to attract
more professionals to the teaching profession, some politicians are
proposing that the state curtail the financial incentives
for teachers, which are already limited by tax-capped budgets and
underfunded state and federal mandates. When I went into teaching from
the communications industry, no one told me I would have to give up 60
percent of the Social Security benefits that I had already earned, mostly
through military service, because I now would have a teacher’s
pension. No one told my wife that she would lose her claim to any of my
Social Security spousal-survivor benefits because I was now a teacher.
When a school district credits long-serving
teachers with unused sick time or bonuses to entice them to retire
early, the local district saves money, which can be returned to
local taxpayers or reallocated to improve our students’
education. Some of those pension costs are shifted to the
Teachers’ Retirement System and the state. But that is the
same state that for decades has failed to fully fund its required
share — while our teachers and local school districts have
dutifully paid their full share and more.
It has been estimated that the number of
teachers who will take the early-retirement option this spring will
double if these ill-conceived plans go forward and the
early-retirement option ends June 30. How do legislators suggest
that local districts and the state pension system absorb the cost
of thousands of unexpected retirements?
Teachers and school-support employees are the
most important part of the public-education system — not just
an additional cost to be trimmed. The people of Illinois made a
promise to our teachers and school-support staff. Don’t break
that promise.
Jim Grimes
28-year master teacher
Capital Area Career Center
Springfield
NOISE YOU HEAR IS FDR SPINNING
Holy smoke and holy cow! The Social Security
bogeyman is trying to scare me with the fear that Social Security
is broke! For more than 25 years, I have worked and paid my Social
Security taxes. I want the money I put in for my retirement.
It’s my money! During all those years that the government
invested my money and got interest off it, I didn’t receive
one dime. FDR would turn over in his grave today if he could see
how they are gambling our Social Security money away.
George Culley
Pinckneyville
CORRECTION
Doug Anderson was incorrectly identified in a
photograph that accompanied last week’s Appetite column
[Penny Zimmerman-Wills, “Cooking with class,” Feb. 24].
Anderson was the man on the right; Gary Seitz was in the
background. Illinois Times regrets the error.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2005.
