WASTED MONEY
In the article, it says the city of Springfield received a matching grant of $25,000 to pay for planting 130 new trees (“Springfield Urban Forestry Commission member resign,” Feb. 27). So I think we can understand why they aren’t getting more money from taxpayers that are already strapped. That is about $190 a tree – you can buy four-foot red oak seedlings for $5 each. I would bet that the city could easily hire a local nursery to go around planting these small seedlings all over the place for $25-$30 without even negotiating much.
Trees are nice, but wasting tax dollars isn’t. Remembering, paying your property taxes is always right around the corner.
Sean Kelley
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
TRY AGAIN
The mayor should reject the Urban Forestry Commission members’ resignations and vow to work with them. It’s an extremely important commission.
Candace Burns
Via Facebook.com/illinoistimes
SERVICE OF CARING
I was pleased to read the Guestwork “USAID is in the Interest of America” by Deborah Grieser (Feb. 27). For 15 years, I lived in various countries in Africa. Five of those years I was in Botswana, where I worked alongside good people serving through USAID. Our efforts were to bring education, medical assistance and community development as we battled the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
Everyone I met from USAID was dedicated to a service of caring. While this was the only time I directly worked with persons from USAID, I was able to closely observe their work helping to alleviate hunger, provide medical care – including vaccinations, give support to women and simply be people of goodwill while representing the United States.
I also observed the encroachment of China on the continent. Its work in communications and infrastructure was always for the direct benefit of the Chinese government. USAID is/was a major humanitarian counterpart to China’s efforts in controlling large parts of Africa. The U.S. will pay a big price in dollars, health care and security for decimating USAID.Â
Larry Colvin
Springfield
NOT IN OUR BEST INTEREST
I, too, have seen the work of USAID in Haiti, where I lived for a time, and in the many developing countries I visited when I was director of the Office for the Missions for the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. It is irresponsible, and not in the best interests of Americans nor our vulnerable partners, to shut down USAID. It is smart and good to evaluate programs and eliminate those that are wasteful or ineffective. But we cannot do so at the expense of people’s lives, nor at the expense of our global reputation.
Please write your legislators to demand greater prudence from our president and his appointed officials.
Victoria Dhabalt ComptonÂ
Springfield
ADVERSE IMPACTS
I am very saddened by the gutting of the USAID agency. The Trump administration says the agency’s goals were not aligned with U.S. values, but don’t our country’s values include feeding starving children, preventing diseases from spreading and helping U.S. farmers prosper by expanding their markets, along with a multitude of others? Mine do.
It was cruel of the Trump administration to shut down this agency so abruptly. With the speed that this was done, one must question how deeply DOGE even explored the benefits that this agency’s programs provided. DOGE is using chainsaws to cut the federal government rather than doing appropriate due diligence to see where warranted cuts can be made. Let’s cut where there is waste but not indiscriminately end programs that may adversely impact the U.S. and the world in the long term.
Lastly, my heart went out to the USAID workers who woke up one day in countries around the world to discover they no longer had jobs and needed to immediately uproot their families. How heartless.
Tammy Walczyk
La Grange Park
This article appears in Spring Guide 2025.
