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
ON THE SIDE OF HOPE
The Arc of Illinois represents over 180,000
individuals with developmental disabilities and their families,
right here in Illinois.
We take exception to your recent story
“Road to Court” [Dusty Rhodes, June 9] regarding the
Hope School and access to its center through the gate at Hazel
Lane.
I have witnessed discrimination against
individuals with disabilities in housing, employment, and community
access many times in Illinois. Important federal laws such as the
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were enacted to ensure
protection of these important rights for individuals with
disabilities.
In my opinion, the Hope School is not trying
to pick a fight with neighbors but is asserting its responsibility
to the people they serve by asking the court to decide whether or
not the gate on Hazel Lane that blocks access to the facility is
lawful. I commend the advocacy of the leadership at the Hope School
and wish that other community leaders had stepped in so that
intervention by the court was not necessary.
Tony Paulauski
Executive Director
Arc of Illinois
Homewood
DO YOUR JOB OR FIND ANOTHER
After reading your article “Right of
refusal” [Joan Villa, June 16], I have to respond to Peggy
Pace and the “gnawing in my stomach” she feels when
faced with the possibility of having to fulfill a prescription for Plan B.
If I have made an informed decision for myself
and decide to use Plan B, that is my decision. I am not asking her
how she feels about it. I am asking her to fill the prescription,
which is her job. My choice to use Plan B has absolutely nothing to
do with her and her beliefs — again, it is my choice, by law.
If it becomes personal to her, maybe she needs to find a new line
of work.
Where would she ever get the notion she has
the right to invoke her opinion and moral beliefs on someone? Are
her beliefs better than mine? Are they right and mine are wrong?
Why would she think, in the first place, she can dispense her
opinion instead of dispensing medication? Her job is to provide
medicine prescribed by a physician — end of story!
I do not believe there is any pharmacology
college that taught her she can force her beliefs on someone just
because of the work she chose to do. The job requires fulfilling
legal prescriptions.
My question to Ms. Pace is this: Do you also
withhold filling a prescription of antibiotics for someone after an
abortion?
Liz Moody
Springfield
ISBE OPERATIONS MISREPRESENTED
The article “Fade to black” [Bud
Bartlett, June 16] forces me to respond. The operations at the
Illinois State Board of Education’s multimedia-production
division were misrepresented in so many ways that it is difficult
to quantify them. The article was generated from interviews with
only three persons, and all were either long since retired, had no
knowledge of ISBE operations, or had a serious bias. The author
himself has not been affiliated for a decade with the state board
or with the very department he wrote about. To my knowledge, no one
in the working division was asked for input or consulted for
accuracy before the article was rushed to publication.
It is true that the state is in fiscal
difficulty. However, the closing of the multimedia division will
actually cost the taxpayer more. First, the ISBE-quoted
spokesperson did not mention management’s failure to cancel
the floor-space-rental agreement for the next fiscal year. They
will be paying considerable rent for a zero-productivity area.
Second, there is no cost savings in employee salaries. One person
has been transferred from one division to another. One, who was
federally funded, has transferred to a state-funded division and
this balances out the salary gained by my retirement. Third, the
ISBE is now forced to budget for outsourcing its media needs.
The article describes the ISBE’s
inability to convert its 16mm film library. These films were never
a serious part of the general media free-loan library. ISBE
provided shelf space for film donated by separate state agencies
that were unable to distribute them. No attempt was ever made to
convert that outdated material.
The article’s author states,
“Until the ’90s, TV programs seemed to promise major
improvements . . . it isn’t clear whether the Internet is
more compelling or better.” This leaves the impression that
Internet delivery of media may not be a valuable tool. ISBE
recognized the value early on and was active in the online delivery
of video media — both classroom instruction and teacher
development and training. Much of that streamed media is captioned
for the hearing-impaired and the English-language-deficient.
I am also distressed by the misleading section
concerning the lack of DVD production. It is ironic that the
article was shown to me as I was preparing to deliver 3,000
interactive multilingual captioned DVDs on three different subjects
to our clients. One DVD concerned identification and assistance to
homeless children in Illinois, a second involved transition
training for special education students entering adulthood, and a
third concerned K-8 students for whom English is a second language.
These were hardly our first DVD products. ISBE-produced DVDs are
the source of two recent major national media awards: one bronze
and one silver Telly. The achievement was noted and applauded by
the state board in open session during its May meeting.
I was disappointed that the author included an
antiquated picture to support the article. He should have requested
something more recent — one showing modern cameras with
modern sets delivering modern training materials on a modern live
interactive Webcast.
To the many people who have called me over the
last few days to offer everything from sympathy to ridicule, please
understand that I was unaware of the article’s publication
until after the ink was already dry. It should have been titled “ISBE Media: A Retrospective.”
J. Mitch Hopper
Rochester
AN APPEAL TO PBS VIEWERS
This is an urgent message to everyone who has
ever enjoyed the treasures of public television, whether you have
grown up to Sesame Street or are now watching your children do the same. It
is a message to those who, along with PBS, discovered Riverdance, André Rieu, the
Three Tenors, and the documentaries of Ken Burns. This is a message
to our volunteers and to our members of viewer-supported public
television station WSEC/PBS Springfield. It is a message to all of
you who make your public-television station possible: There is a
major effort afoot in Congress to eliminate public television.
There have been similar efforts in the past,
and they have failed. This time, the efforts have come to a crucial
point in the legislative process without public notice, and the
legislation is draconian in its impact.
If you wish to continue to have access to the
current range of educational, artistic, cultural, informative, and
enjoyable programming that is carried by WSEC, share your desire
with your representatives. Phone calls make a difference, as do
letters.
Dr. Jerold Gruebel
President and CEO
Network Knowledge
WSEC/PBC Springfield
NOT EVERYONE IS TO BLAME
I’m writing in regard to a letter [by
John D. Kolaz] in the June 16 edition of Illinois Times. [Chelsey
Shores’ death] was very tragic, but not everyone is to blame.
I attended Auburn High School a few years ago, and there were some
of the same problems then, as there will be throughout
everyone’s high-school years. In fact my younger brother was
in Chelsey’s class, and I heard her speech at the graduation.
The ones to blame are the mean-spirited kids
whom she herself referred to in her speech. Without naming names,
those kids know who they are. I just hope the kids that do affect
the lives of others by tormenting them can learn from this awful
experience and maybe for once put themselves in the shoes of the
ones being bullied. Perhaps that’s the last thing that
Chelsey can give any of us; perhaps this is the way in which she
was able to persevere.
Megan Hirstein
Auburn
CORRECTION
Zhavier J. Harris wrote the poem
“Let’s Grow Together in Unity” as a fourth-grader
at Calvary Academy. The wrong grade and school were named in a
recent edition [“Winning, together,” June 16]. Illinois Times regrets
the error.
This article appears in Jun 23-29, 2005.
