We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com.
CURRENT SYSTEM IS DYSFUNCTIONAL
After reading Lawrence Hunter’s letter [Aug. 24], I had to write. It appears that Hunter thinks that any minimum wage is too much for the average worker. Heck, even in Illinois the low-skilled worker makes a whopping $6.50 an hour. I don’t see how any business can make a profit here in our state. He apparently believes that businesses themselves should be allowed to determine just what is fair for the hardworking families to earn. It’s his philosophy to say that if more people made less, then we would all be better off. Why not drop hourly earnings to the same level that illegal aliens earn so we can all be rich?
I have to ask, just when is a good time to raise the minimum wage? If not now, when? Currently businesses are reaping record profits, but they continue to refuse to give their workers a break. Company CEOs are earning millions while paying no taxes. There is only one word to explain why they fight any effort to raise the minimum wage: greed.
Corporations get tax breaks from our government and send jobs overseas. They hire illegal aliens at subpar incomes to maximize profits. Businesses slash operating costs by cutting pensions, lowering health coverage, and closing plants that pay decent wages.
It’s clear that our current system is dysfunctional. The rich get richer while the poor continue to suffer. I have no doubt that our country’s founding fathers are rolling over in their graves. If they were here to see what is happening to our people today, they would call for a revolution.
Don Miller
Jacksonville
LEARN TO REALLY LOVE CHICKEN
September is National Chicken Month, but instead of running to KFC for some legs, wings, breasts, or other battered body parts, why not appreciate the best part of chickens: their personalities?
In their natural surroundings, chickens spend their day foraging for food, making nests, roosting in trees, and taking sun and dust baths. They exist in stable social groups and can recognize each other by their facial features. They can feel love, happiness, fear, and pain, just the same as dogs, cats, and humans.
Like us, chickens form strong family ties and mourn when they lose a loved one. A mother hen will turn her eggs as many as five times an hour and cluck to her unborn chicks, who will chirp back to her and to one another. The PBS documentary The Natural History of the Chicken revealed that chickens like to watch television and have vision similar to that of humans. A recent study by the Biophysics Group at Silsoe Research Institute in England found that chickens can anticipate the future and demonstrate self-control.
Chickens are social, intelligent animals who deserve to be treated with compassion and respect. This year, why not commemorate National Chicken Month by adopting a chicken-free diet? Great-tasting recipes and information on fabulous faux-chicken products can be found at VegCooking.com.
Heather Moore
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, Va.
A KEY TRANSPORTATION PROJECT
Good surface transportation in the form of modern highways is the basic building block of economic development. Since the 1980s, Corridor 67 Inc. has been working with our local, state, and federal officials to ensure the development of a modern highway system serving this area.
In today’s highly competitive society, in which we are hard pressed to protect the jobs we have and must compete against others for new jobs, a modern limited-access four-lane highway like that being developed along Corridor 67 is even more critical to our economic future than ever before.
As the organization pursuing this goal for our area, we are happy to report to you that state Sen. Deanna Demuzio has been absolutely unwavering in her support for Corridor 67 and area-wide economic development. Without Demuzio’s support, funding for Corridor 67 would have been cut substantially from its current level. And with Demuzio’s future support, we hope to accelerate future funding for this key project.
Don Miller
Executive director
Corridor 67 Inc.
Jacksonville
THROW THE BUMS OUT
The American people should remind President George W. Bush in November that he is not FDR, that Donald Rumsfeld is not Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and that forcing our excellent armed forces to be target practice for crazed Sunnis and Shiites, putting those guys in the middle of a civil war, is not the same thing as the battle my father fought against the Nazis. Bush’s statement that the Iraq debacle he got us into is the same thing as World War II insults my father’s memory.
During World War II, my dad was an electrician on a ship that was sent to intercept a Japanese torpedo headed for an aircraft carrier. My dad was stationed right underneath all the boiling water for the ship, and, had the torpedo not been a dud, he would have been boiled alive like a lobster and I would not be here today. He still had nightmares about this years later. Shame on you, Bush! You owe my dad and me a big apology.
I consider it my civic duty to vote for every Democrat this fall I can find, from dogcatcher on up. Somebody needs to mind the store in Congress, and it’s very obvious that it’s not the Republicans. It’s time to celebrate the great American tradition of “Throw the bums out!”
Frank Ross
Springfield
WHY I’M SUPPORTING WHITNEY
I’ve often been told that the conflict in Iraq is a federal issue, so why bother to pose a question to Springfieldians on the November ballot? The answer: the foreign and local are inextricably linked.
According to the National Priorities Project, the Iraq war has cost taxpayers more than $310 billion! Of that astronomical amount, the citizens of Illinois have shelled out more than $16 billion for the failed adventure in Iraq. Statewide, that $16 billion would provide more than 802,000 four-year scholarships to students attending public universities. Where, oh Land of Lincoln, are our priorities?
Thus I support Rich Whitney, the Green candidate for governor. I belong to no party, but Whitney is the only candidate proposing an Illinois Iraq plan, and the news media should give him fair coverage. He argues that a state executive may legally veto the presidential use of the National Guard if the federal purpose is illegal, immoral, and a violation of international law, including the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, which states that even seemingly responsible-acting officials are still complicit in crimes against humanity if they stand in ignorant silence or indifferently grease the wheels. The war meets the criteria.
I urge all Illinoisans fed up with business as usual and silent complicity to vote for Rich Whitney, the candidate with guts, and punch “yes” on the Troops Home advisory referendum. Let our troops know we support them!
Michael P. Ziri
New York City
A MATTER OF RESPECT
I attended the funeral of a friend who died Friday [Aug. 25]. The services were in Havana, Ill. The gentleman was an outstanding individual and dedicated public official. Much can be written about his life. However, that is not what this letter is about.
The funeral procession to the cemetery was led by the Havana police. The lead patrol car had its lights flashing, and a few additional vehicles directed traffic ahead of the procession. What I saw was heartwarming and a tribute to the citizens of the area. As we progressed to the cemetery, a few miles outside of Havana, approaching traffic pulled off to the side of the road. There was no need for them to do so. It was done out of respect for the deceased.
In years past, such action was accepted practice. Today, rarely is it seen, most certainly not in Springfield. In fact recent months there have been complaints of motorists’ slipping into the line of a funeral procession, showing disrespectful impatience with obscene gestures and just general disregard for the deceased and his or her family and friends.
How sad.
John D. Kolaz
Springfield
CORRECTIONS
The cover image in the Aug. 31 edition was photographed by Donna E. Natale and distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. The credit for the photo was omitted. Also in last week’s issue, the horoscope for Virgo incorrectly was labeled Leo. Illinois Times regrets the errors.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 6, 2006.
