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Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois
62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com
DOWNTOWN SHOULD OPEN SUNDAYS
This is response to an article written by
Dusty Rhodes about downtown and the “zombies” on Sunday
mornings [“Sunday morning coming down,” July 7]. I live
and work downtown, and I see what is going on. Business, for the
most part, has increased because of the success of the Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Some businesses have
extended their hours to accommodate the visitors — this is
what happens when businesses “work together as a team.”
I also know what it’s like to work
downtown on Sundays and have customers come in and say, “Is
this all there is?” They see shops and restaurants of
interest to them but can’t do business with them because
they’re closed. What a shame! Our business is open between 12:
30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to accommodate those employees who wish to
attend church services. Even if businesses were to be open just for
the afternoon hours, it could be profitable. Restaurants could be
open from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and offer a limited menu so as not to have
any waste.
I would really love to be able to tell people
when they come in, “Yes, there is more to downtown.” I would rather
direct them to an establishment downtown than to other places
outside the downtown area. We should all try and keep businesses
downtown as much as possible.
I’m not complaining but offering
suggestions on how to revitalize the down town area. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “I
say try. If we never try, we shall never succeed!”
Shirley Fitzgerald
Springfield
IS LAURA THE REAL SUE ELLEN?
Who knew when we sat in our living rooms,
watching the television show Dallas in the ’70s, that we would be living it 30
years later? That rascal J.R. Ewing now occupies the White House
after lying to us and snookering the religious right twice.
The attacks on American merely gave George W.
Bush and Dick Cheney the opportunity to do what was planned long
before they ever took office — invade Iraq. Because this
Middle East mess is about oil, especially for China, the fear of
terrorist attacks will always be used as an excuse for attacking
someone or taking away more of our rights. Is the threat of a
terrorist attack real — of course it is, and we’re
going to be living with it the rest of our live and some of us will
die because of it.
Rest assured, Osama bin Ladin is of much more
value to this administration on the run than he ever will be if
caught. One thing that has held true in my lifetime: When American
elect oil people to the White House, they always brings us war!
David Magee
Springfield
LET’S BRING THEM HOME, TOO!
The world waited anxiously, then rejoiced
when seven sailors were brought up from the ocean and also when
seven astronauts returned from space safely. Now, if we could just
get our troops back from Iraq!
Lola L. Lucas
Springfield
HAIL TO THE CHIEF
Nearly 2,000 Americans killed in Iraq [and]
George W. Bush is still a liar.
Steve Denton
Leland Grove
ROE MAY GO,
ABORTIONS WON’T
To my daughter’s generation: Sometimes
I feel that I must be the last woman alive who participated in
fighting to have abortions made legal so women could have them
performed by doctors instead of the butchers who were performing
them. It is hard for my daughter’s generation to realize that
abortion did not come into being with the court ruling in Roe v. Wade. I am
appalled when I hear or read that women are arguing about whether
it is a baby or a fetus, when life begins, or whether someone is
pro-choice or pro-life when that was never the issue.
Today, there are some women naïve enough
to believe that if Roe v. Wade is struck down, there will not be any more
abortions. I hate the phrase “choice.” In the
“old days,” women, especially poor women faced with an
unwanted pregnancy, really had choices — and no choice was
good.
The real choices began once the woman, having
evaluated the options available to her, decided to have an
abortion. She could cause the abortion herself by one of three
methods — throw herself down a flight of stairs,
precipitating an abortion; take some medication that caused severe
cramping, thereby triggering an abortion; or inserting a metal coat
hanger into her uterus.
The last one always worked, and many of these
women ended up in the hospital with a perforated uterus. Cook
County Hospital in Chicago had an entire ward devoted to
complications from self-help abortions. The other choice was to
find an abortionist (who was never a doctor) who performed the
abortion in her home on the kitchen table or basement floor without
any medication for pain, a towel in the woman’s mouth to mask
her screams, questionable sanitary conditions, and for a fee. There
existed a cottage industry, one that is springing up again in
states where access to abortion has been severely curtailed. The
last choice was “where the politicians took the
girlfriends,” as my mother’s generation referred to
them. This was available to those who could afford to pay for an
abortion by a doctor in a sterile setting. These were actual
clinics staffed by a doctor who paid the police on a daily basis to
keep the office open.
My guess is that if Roe is struck down, doctors
won’t be arrested under the old rule because doctors
won’t be performing the abortions — they have too much
to lose. The cottage industry will take over. The exception will be
to have one doctor available so the politicians will have a place
to take their girlfriends.
Annamarie Elger
Springfield
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank has called for
Congress to begin impeachment proceedings against President George
W. Bush. In light of this, it is interesting to note some of the
hallmarks of the Bush presidency: (1) Waging an illegal war and
lying to the American public about it, (2) trying to destroy the
social safety net that protects the poor, the disabled, the sick,
the elderly, and the middle classes, (3) trying to destroy the
separation between church and state, a bedrock of the Constitution,
(4) building a gulag archipelago of torture prisons throughout the
world that deny basic rights and due process to detainees, and
ignore the Geneva Conventions, (5) giving tax cuts to the rich,
which, along with hundreds of billions of dollars for an illegal
war, has recklessly put our country intro serious financial debt,
and (6) fudging the figures on global warming.
Bush has used diversionary tactics to warn
the public and the press away from focusing on officials in his
administration, such as Karl Rove, who are under suspicion for
committing acts of treason or, at the very least, committing
perjury and the obstruction of justice. The first diversionary
tactic was to vilify Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. The
second was to preempt the news with stories about his nominee to
the U.S. Supreme Court.
If any of this bothers you, contact your
congressman. I already have.
Beni Kitching
Springfield
SEEING LINCOLN WITH NEW EYES
After visiting the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Museum for the first time, I am moved to extend my
heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to everyone involved in its
creation and operation.
I had very high expectations before our
visit, yet my actual experience of the museum far exceeded even
those great expectations. I found it to be much more than a visit:
For me, it was a grand experience.
The museum’s chronological
organization, multitude of actual quotes, amazing artifacts, and
clearly and creatively presented information resulted in a sense of
actually being right there with Lincoln from the time he was a
small boy until the time of his death. During the walk-through
“journeys,” I felt a depth of emotion unlike anything
I’ve ever previously experienced. And while viewing the
hologram shows, I forgot I wasn’t at a theme park!
Since experiencing the museum, I plan on
revisiting the other Lincoln sites with different
“eyes.”
No wonder this museum has broken the record
for the most attendance of any presidential museum to date. For me,
it was a monumental experience of Abraham Lincoln that I plan on
repeating time and again.
Michelle Sullivan
Chatham
This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2005.
