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
A SIMPLE APOLOGY WOULD DO
Kudos to Dusty Rhodes for an outstanding piece
of investigative journalism [“Precious medals,” March
31]. Your story was done out of concern for the truth.
If he is to have any real future, Joe Wilkins
must apologize publicly rather than continuing to put up a smoke
screen and acting indignant. Anything less is an insult to the
country he claims to love.
Dawn Boyer
Auburn
IT JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE
Regarding Joe Wilkins’ filing a Freedom
of Information Act request to find his records of medals: Every
generation of my family served in every war and conflict since
World War II. The top of the DD Form 214 [issued to veterans]
clearly states, “This is an important record —
safeguard it.” Section 24 of the form lists all decorations,
medals, badges, commendations, citations, and campaign ribbons
awarded or authorized.
My husband served in Vietnam. The government
gave him a nice ribbon case for safekeeping all his awards and a
special one for the large Purple Heart. No way he would ever
misplace or not know where these items were. Nor would 99.9 percent
of all veterans.
Carol A. Jones
Springfield
GOVERNOR TRUMPS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
We are outraged by Gov. Rod
Blagojevich’s decision to issue an emergency rule that strips
pharmacists of their God-given liberty to live out their faith and
belief system.
This executive rule requires pharmacies in
Illinois to fill prescriptions for contraceptives even if the
pharmacist on duty has moral or religious objections to dispensing
that drug. This order will effectively force many Illinois
pharmacists to violate the tenets of their faith.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. In
February, we witnessed the governor sign SB 3186, a bill that
effectively takes away the freedom of churches and people of faith
to disagree — and to make hiring decisions based on their
beliefs. Now the governor is again requiring Illinois citizens to
ignore or even breach their conscience, and forcing a segment of
the population to accept the values and ideals of the irreligious
left. Public servants have no right to interpret sacred religious
teachings for the rest of us — nor do they have the right to
demand that we violate them.
The governor and his liberal friends have
again revealed how little they care about the liberties and moral
freedoms of people of faith; otherwise, they would not compel
pro-life pharmacists to dispense poisonous drugs that cause the
death of a human being.
David E. Smith
Senior Policy Analyst
Illinois Family Institute
Chicago
THE CONDOM CONUNDRUM
After reading Kathy Valente’s letter
[March 31], I could not help wonder if her interpretation of the
“Be Proud! Be Responsible” sex-ed program might be an
overreaction. Furthermore, I also questioned why some of our
senators, per SB 457, were supporting its use in our schools if it
indeed deserved the negative evaluation described in her article.
Research on the text of the sex-ed program
suggests that its message is targeted to both ethnic and
age-appropriate groups and has had successful outcomes. The curriculum,
in fact, does promote experiential activities to build skills in
assertion, refusal, problem-solving, risk recognition, and, yes,
correct condom use. Although some may say that addressing the last
subject may not be necessary and certainly shouldn’t be
considered a “life skill,” maybe it could make a big
difference in the lives of some students if ignorance in this area is
allowed to persist. Perhaps one could say that this may indeed be a
“condom conundrum.”
Conversely, a recent report by Columbia
University and Yale yielded information that teens who pledged
abstinence are just as likely to have sexually transmitted diseases
as their peers. I find this much more disturbing.
In addition, President George W. Bush has more
than doubled funding for abstinence-only programs and plans are to
increase this funding even more. However, critics say there is no
evidence that these programs have any effect on reducing teenage
sexual activity.
Furthermore, one recent study in Bush’s
home state of Texas found that teenagers in several high schools
became increasingly sexually active after taking such courses,
mirroring overall state trends.
If the abstinence-only program, with all the
money being spent on it, has no supportive evidence to show its
effectiveness, why not introduce this comprehensive sex education
for students? Why can’t we protect students against STDs and
unplanned pregnancies in today’s society?
Lori Farrington
Springfield
DEMOCRATS NEED TO ENGAGE THE PUBLIC
This is in response to the article written
about one of the most effective and ethical senators we have left
in Congress: U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the “Bush
fighter.”
No matter how skilled Sen. Durbin is at
“picking apart judicial nominees” and voicing his
positions [see John Nichols, “Bush fighter,” Feb. 3],
he needs to find a way to engage the public in issues that directly
affect their most basic human rights, because the Democrats are
significantly outnumbered in Congress.
The Social Security legislation that Democrats
presented recently to force the president and Congress to maintain
current benefits and not increase the deficit when reforming the
system was commendable, but why weren’t we asked to support
them in this special battle? If we were, it wasn’t obvious
— and to the busy working class, it is hard to notice
anything these days.
Unless you engage the public in a dramatic way
that is both clear and informative, Democrats in Congress will
continue to falter against suffocating corporate interests that
have eaten away anything good that remains in Congress.
We need a way to get through to the public and
engage them in the issues in the midst of their desperate struggles
so that, 20 years from now, we all are not sitting around with that
stupid look on our face, wondering, “What happened?”
Anne Logue
Springfield
NRC: “NEVER REALLY CONCERNED”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers
airline crashes into reactors “unrealistic scenarios”
and reportedly is concerned that allowing the public to reach informed decisions
might “cause confusion among the public and other
stakeholders.” Yet interviews of captured al-Qaeda operatives
revealed that reactors are indeed potential terrorist targets.
O’Hare Field, the world’s busiest airport, is less than
27 minutes’ flight time away from every Illinois reactor, and
the Airbus A380 aircraft — 500-plus tons, carrying nearly
300,000 liters of fuel — begins flights there in 2006.
Illinois cannot afford to disregard the potential for serious crash
and burn events, accidental or otherwise [see Fletcher Farrar,
“Time to speak out against Clinton II,” April 7].
The NRC’s glib disregard of these facts
and condescending refusal to release information the public
considers important demonstrates that “NRC” surely
means “never really concerned” about public safety. Yet
this agency will decide whether Exelon’s proposed second
nuclear plant in Clinton is “safe enough.”
Exelon’s myopic decision to continue
operating six reactors with severe vulnerability to such airplane
crashes, with no intention to provide safer, more suitable storage
for its radioactive wastes, demonstrates the level of concern
Exelon really has for the people living near reactors. Allowing
Exelon to build more reactors in Illinois with this kind of safety
attitude is unacceptable.
David A. Kraft
Nuclear Energy Information Service
Evanston
Editor’s note: The NRC is holding a
hearing on the proposed new Clinton nuclear plant at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, April 19, at the Vespasian Warner Public Library in
Clinton.
SHORT AND TO THE POINT
The terrorists will find it difficult to be
better at destroying our economy than our lobbyists are.
Donald E. Palmer
Springfield
CORRECTION
Because of an editing error, Larry
Kramp’s name was incorrect in a photo caption that
accompanied last week’s “History Talk” column. We
regret the error.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2005.
