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We welcome letters. Please include your full name,
address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters,
Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958;
e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com.
PIECE OF OUR CULTURAL HERITAGE Thanks so much for Bill Janssen’s reminiscences
on his musical life in Springfield [“No regrets,” Nov. 1]. I
totally missed that scene, but only by a few years. Back in the early
1980s, I had to produce a fake ID to get into the Crow’s Mill School
to hear Food and Money play. Springfield otherwise was such a musical backwater
that I only heard bands such as XTC, Talking Heads, and the B-52s by
listening to Jim Muir’s Undercurrents radio program on WSSR on late Sunday nights. Then I
would go to Appletree Records to buy the vinyl albums, where guitar hero
John Novak would patiently, if somewhat disdainfully, guide my selections.
A little later on, as I began my descent into the
local music scene, trying to put across original music where DJs and cover
bands like Cats on Holiday ruled, older peers and bandmates reverently
would recount their frequent encounters with Adrian Belew from a few years
prior. What a marvel it was that Lone Rhinoceros and Twang Bar King
were practically local products, like Mel-O-Cream doughnuts. There was a weekend (or what seemed like that short a
span) in the early ’80s when Food and Money disbanded and a clique of
young skate punks calling themselves the Gargoyles started playing gigs at
Crow’s Mill School. Another young troubadour emerged named Tom Irwin.
Crow’s Mill School was sold and the Gargoyles changed their name to
N.I.L.8. Irwin’s band broke up, and he started playing country/folk
music, hosting open-mic nights around town. The “Times Out”
section of Illinois Times was much, much less populated and vibrant than
today’s “Night & Day” section. Nobody ever told me about such things as the
Tonguesnatcher Revue. Thanks again for finally providing such an important
missing piece of Springfield’s cultural heritage.
Larry Stevens
Springfield
SOMETHING ROTTEN AT ARDC? “Blown away,” the lead article in the
Oct. 25 issue, was factually accurate and well written. However, it did not
include the important fact that U.S. Attorney Rodger Heaton has two
assistants — Bradley W. Murphy and John H. Campbell — in the
Peoria Division who have been censured by the Attorney Registration and
Disciplinary Commission for misconduct in a pending federal criminal case.
Yet they have kept their jobs and are still employed. The ARDC attorney who handled their cases and allowed
them to be only censured was Peter Rotskoff, the same ARDC attorney who
wants to take my law license. Dan Mills Springfield
CORRELATION ISN’T CAUSATION I was disappointed by Janice Shadley’s letter on Nov. 1, which
defended Catholicism by attacking atheism. Janice may mean well, but my own
Catholic upbringing encouraged a spirit of rational inquiry that this
tactic lacks. Just as believers may protest that atrocities
associated with a religion are not representative but are due to flawed
human nature, atheists may protest likewise. Put more simply: Correlation
does not imply causation. None of the many atheists I know would describe
atheism as a social philosophy, let alone equate it with communism.
Atheists simply reject gods. Janice’s accusation and its rebuttal are
established rituals of religious and atheist Internet forums, so rather
than rehash it here I invite her to inform herself. I also recommend she
research the strange role of religion in Nazi Germany and Hitler’s
own odd beliefs. Many would concede my point but argue that with no
divine moral authority atheism inherently leads to depravity and therefore
Stalin, Pol Pot, etc. Again defending my atheist friends, I ask: So what?
Most I know are strongly naturalist and thus reject gods as a hypothesis
that they believe lacks sufficient material evidence. Were it proven that
atheism encouraged mayhem, they would remain atheist, because they consider
truth independent of human desires. Such internal honesty is admirable.
Russell Tanton
Springfield
EXPLAIN STRANGE PRICE FLUCTUATIONS I read your article on the strange oscillations of gas prices in
Springfield with interest, yet found myself in the end sorely disappointed
[R.L. Nave, “The gasoline guessing game,” Oct. 25]. Your
article consists mostly of commonplace capitalist or economic babble, and
the insights of the local representatives totally bypass a truly strange
fact: that the small town of Springfield has more fluctuations and
differences in gas prices than the 50-times-larger city of Chicago. I get
to travel a lot and find that gas prices don’t change as fast in
Bloomington, Decatur, or Champaign, nor do they vary as much from station
to station. Rev. Hans Poetschner Springfield
JUST CHECKING THE FACTS After reading two separate articles, “Minority
report” and “Bend it like Blago,” [R.L. Nave, Rich
Miller, Oct. 4], I was intrigued. “Minority report” talked
about the underrepresentation of African-Americans and Hispanics in state
government. “Bend it like Blago” discussed the importance of
fact-checking. So here are some interesting facts. The African-American
population of the state of Illinois, according to the U.S. Census, is 14.8
percent. The population of African-Americans in state government is 20.76
percent, according to the Illinois Department of Central Management
Services. This translates into a 40.3 percent overrepresentation of
African-Americans in state government. Just checking the facts.
Ginger Wilson Springfield
FATHER DOESN’T KNOW BEST Decades of economic progress have increased the
health and prosperity of a vast majority of people around the globe and
made capitalism the proven successful model for developing nations to rise
out of poverty, suffering, and oppression. Nevertheless, leading clergy of
the religious left depict free-market capitalism as a vast exploitative
force, controlled by an elite cadre of godless power-mongers. Leaders of the religious left blindly ignore
pertinent, cogent facts, sound logic, appropriate consideration of the
alternatives, and reasoned conclusions that acknowledge the considerable
academic and experiential data that shows that free-market capitalism not
only works but works better than all the alternatives and for the greatest
good for the greatest number of the population. Leftist clerics also ignore that an overwhelming
amount of proof points to the fact that much of the poverty in the
prosperous free-market capitalist economies results from dysfunctional
behavior. In other words, from what the religious call “sinful
behavior.” For example, entrenched inner-city poverty follows single
parent children born out of wedlock. Duh! Churchgoers, on the other hands, do not share the
same disdain for the free market’s characteristics, as Pew Research
has confirmed. Looks like Father doesn’t know best. Perhaps the flock
needs to refurbish the rock upon which the church was built. After all,
where the religious left is leading, the flock is abandoning. Just look at
the numbers. Tom Rand Naperville
STUDENTS ARE NOT PORK
I write to express concerns from the Illinois Community College
Trustees Association regarding state funding for community college
districts. Illinois state funding for community colleges is significantly
lower than it was six years ago in fiscal year 2002. In recent years, small increases in the community
college annual appropriation have almost kept up with inflation, but
overall state dollars directed toward community colleges remain well below
fiscal year 2002 state appropriations. Reductions in state support have
directly caused community college students to pay nearly 50 percent more in
tuition. During the fiscal year 2008 budget process, community
college funding was cut to a level $10 million lower than the General
Assembly had approved (and 1 percent below the FY 2007 authorized
appropriation). Our $3 million Student Success Grant, which provides needed
services for disadvantaged students, was eliminated. In addition, $7
million in general formula funding was reduced, placing additional
financial demands upon our students. We recognize that higher education funding is not one
of the governor’s higher priorities. However, we believe that our
students are not “pork.” The Illinois Community College
Trustees Association encourages the governor to view state support for
community colleges as essential to Illinois’ long-term economic
growth.
Kathy Wessel
President, Illinois
Community College Trustees Association, Springfield
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2007.
