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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.
PUBLIC DISCOURSE ALIVE AND WELL In Fletcher Farrar’s May 31 column, “The
‘assault on reason’ in Illinois,” he takes up the banner
of Al Gore and his supporters by claiming that America is experiencing a
failure in the art of public discourse. Mr. Gore sells the American public
short, and Mr. Farrar sells his own publication short. The American public’s ability to
sift through information, formulate intelligent opinions, and articulate
those opinions in open forums is as strong as it has ever been.The
explosion of information technology has given us far more methods and
opportunities for meaningful discourse than previous generations dreamed
of. Furthermore, we as a society are only beginning to learn how to
use them effectively. For a wonderful example of reasoned discourse, Mr.
Farrar needs to look no further than his own desktop. Illinois Times provides a very
effective forum for the exchange of ideas on critical issues. I must
admit that I disagree with many of the views expressed, but I read them and
reflect upon them every week.
Al Gore likes to introduce his arguments with
“Today, America is waking up to find (insert your favorite rant on
the failure of discourse),” as if America has been asleep at the
switch. America may have been up very late watching some TiVo’d
O’Reilly, but we haven’t been asleep. The fact that Al
Gore has marginalized himself is not a sign of the apocalypse. Public
discourse is alive and well. But, as Mr. Gore is discovering,
it’s not just the medium, it’s the message. His message
does evoke a meaningful response. It’s just not the response he has
been hoping for.
Rich Allen
Cantrall
THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED To respond to Fletcher Farrar’s implied
question “How did democracy get broken?” I would say that
democracy has always been broken; we are just seeing the flaws clearly for
the very first time [“The ‘assault on reason’ in
Illinois,” May 31]. We give one person, our president, incredible
power. That is our first flaw.
The second flaw that has come to light is the
American people. A democracy can only be effective as the citizens within
it. A litmus test for conscience and reason was given to this country and
we failed, miserably. We saw the unfolding of an illegal and immoral
invasion of an entire country and did not stop it. Al Gore is generous in
saying that Americans might have objected more strongly if only we had the
Internet news as it is today. I would not be that generous. People simply
chose not to think or care about the Iraqi people. The cost has been and
continues to be staggering to our country. Ironically, this damage can work for us (if we learn
from it), because we know now that the price is high when you don’t
pay attention and speak out.
Anne
Logue
Springfield
ENJOYED BOURDAIN INTERVIEW Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the
article on Anthony Bourdain [Julianne Glatz, “Hanging with a bad
boy,” May 31]. Bourdain is really quite a talented author, and my
husband and I both laughed out loud when reading Kitchen Confidential and Cook’s Tour. We just
ordered Nasty Bits. Thank you for highlighting one of our favorite people and
composing such a fun, accurate article. My husband is a chef here, and I
often read the “RealCuisine” column to him. Thanks for the
great work.
Karen Perrin Springfield
TOM IRWIN KEEPS ME IN TOUCH I am a Springfield native but now reside in San
Diego. I moved out here three years ago to play in a large West Coast band
called Spoken Gun. I just wanted to write and tell you how I have enjoyed
Tom Irwin’s articles in Illinois Times over the years. They have kept me informed on the
music scene in my hometown. After playing in so many different cities all over
the county the past few years of my life, I just wanted to say that I think
Springfield still has a pretty unique little music scene. Although I would
like to see more diversity, people are still interested in hometown
musicians. That can’t be said for many other cities across the
country.
Ryan Daley San Diego, Calif.
WHY MY EARS ARE HURTING Interesting article on the use of words [Dusty
Rhodes, “Capital offenses,” May 24]. It dredged up frustrating
memories. It’s bewildering, to say the least, that a
company would use the word “Capitol” to describe its business
without researching the word. More curious is the use of “further” for
“farther” on a regular basis by our TV personalities (as well
as national media giants). For example, they tell us that today’s
Springfield weather will be clear while “further” west there
will be rain, or whatever. As a kid in grade school I was corrected by my
teacher in front of the class. I’ve never forgotten that scolding.
Nowadays it hurts my ears whenever I hear the word “further”
used in place of “farther.”
Stan Zielinski Springfield
A CAPITAL IDEA FOR A COLUMN
I read your
“capital”-versus-“capitol” article today with
interest but take minor exception to the notion that “Capitol
City” is necessarily incorrect. After all, “Capitol City”
could refer to any city with a capitol in it, just as “River
City” could refer to any city with a river in it. Granted, a
“Capitol City” is going to be a capital by definition. But a
city that is a capital could lack a capitol — it may have burned
down, or it may have another name, such as “Governmental
Center” or “Reichstag” or whatever. My high-school physics teacher, trying to instruct
his charges in elementary logic, was fond of saying, “All horses are
animals, but not all animals are horses.” Just so: All capitol cities
are capital cities, but not all capital cities are capitol cities. Anyway, the use of “capitol” as part of a
trade name isn’t restricted to Springfield. What about Capitol
Records? Capitol College? And check out this Web site: www.capcitybrew.com.
I have a capitol, er, capital, idea for a future
column: Write one on all the knuckleheads in the world who habitually
confuse “its” and “it’s” or think an
apostrophe is part of a plural noun. They drive me crazy!
John M. Myers
Springfield
WHENKILLINGISNECESSARY . . . Once again the nuts are trying to run the nuthouse.
Anne Logue of Springfield has all the answers but knows none of the
questions [“Letters,” May 31]. Her letter titled “Too many idiots with
guns” couldn’t have been farther from the truth. First, it is
possible that a law-abiding gun owner could become trapped in an emotional
dispute and end up shooting someone, but the statistics, probabilities, and
likelihood are much greater with an unlawful owner of a firearm. It only
takes a check of the records to show that the facts do not support her
paranoia. The Second Amendment was not created by anyone. The Bill of
Rights identified the right to defend one’s self as being a right
that existed before our nation was formed. The Bill of Rights only
identified this as an inalienable right.
Do we see the people rising up to overthrow the
government? We have. In the past we prevented our government from becoming
excessively abusive simply because we have the capability to defend our
freedoms “from enemies both foreign and domestic.” The
police force does not, nor can it, protect us from those who would chose to
harm us. They are there to fill out forms and catch the bad guys.
As a law-abiding gun owner, if I am awakened in my
sleep by an intruder seeking to do me or my family harm, am I going to
respond by shouting, “Stop or I’ll call the police,” or
am I going to slide the pump action on my shotgun, causing the perpetrator
to wet his britches as he flees my home? Am I prepared and trained to use that firearm
if need arise? You can bet your bullets I am. I am glad to note that Ms. Logue is comfortable with
the notion that multiple restrictions will place her in her home as a
willing victim of someone even less concerned about her safety than she is.
The likelihood that that person, breaking into her home, will be a
law-abiding gun owner is slim to none. But rest assured, the odds are that
the obituary listings will have misspelled her last name and we can only
pray that the police officers will be able to apprehend her killer.
However, a jury of liberals like herself will be glad to sentence her
killer to life in prison, with parole in 15 to 20 years for good behavior,
because they don’t believe in the Second Amendment or the death
penalty. Ms. Logue is correct about one thing: “Killing
people isn’t a good thing.” But sometimes it is a necessary
thing. Jay Gaydosh Lincoln
FIGHTING FOR EVERYBODY’S RIGHTS As a U.S. soldier defending the country on my second
tour overseas, I feel that my purpose here is being destroyed. I joined the
Army to help defend each person’s rights. But large portions of our
country seem to have a problem with the GLBT community. Hating someone for
being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender is no different than hating
them because they’re female, black, Hispanic, or Jewish. Hate is hate
and a crime is a crime. [That’s why] the Matthew Shepard Act should
pass with no problem.
Everyone is free to have their own opinions but not
free to violate someone’s rights for being different. Seeing
something like this going on, with so many closed-minded people, destroys
my pride in doing what I do. We are over here, constantly in fear of enemy
attack, so that U.S. citizens don’t have to be worried about that
kind of thing. Spc. Michael Bounds Springfield U.S. Army, Iraq
MY EARLIER LETTER HAD A MISTAKE I mentioned that the microwave was a space-program
project. I was wrong [“Letters,” May 31]. The microwave was
discovered by an operator who noticed that his candy bar melted when near
the set. What the space program did was develop the shielding and safety
procedures that made it safer for home use. I am sorry. Patrick Johnopolos Springfield
WHERE WAS BISHOP LUCAS? I am a proud parent of an Ursuline junior who has
been forced to alter her immediate life plans as a result of the decision
to close the high school by the Benedictine board of directors.
I can accept that the decision was made as this is an
ever-changing business environment that we live in and many times while we
do not like the decisions we can understand them and accept them. I also
can accept that nothing in life is guaranteed except death and that changes
come about that, while not popular, must be made. What I am not proud of is the fact that through this
ordeal our Catholic diocese sat in the background and offered no provision
for aid to keep the 150-year-old institution open. When the question was raised as to financial support
from the Catholic diocese, the answer that was given was that Bishop George Lucas felt he could not offer
aid to Ursuline as there are seven high schools in the diocese and it
wouldn’t be fair to help one without helping the others. The bottom
line is that the others do not currently need the aid that Ursuline needed.
Using the philosophy of our bishop, we would not have
services like the St. John’s Breadline because it wouldn’t be
fair to help the small percentage of Springfield residents who use the
services there for fear that we could not offer those services to the
entire population of the city. Likewise, we would not have any services
that serve only a small percentage of the city for fear that we
couldn’t offer those services to the entire city population.
It is rather hard to accept the lack of support from
the diocese while since 2003 the same diocese has managed to find more $6
million in their coffers to settle litigation claims brought against them. All I can say is shame on you, Bishop Lucas, for
allowing this travesty to occur under your watch!
Terry Young
Springfield
IMPORTANTQUESTIONSONABORTION After reading the letter describing how the
Democratic Party should consult the pope and Catholic Church on abortion
teachings, I felt there were a few inaccuracies and misleading statements
that needed to be cleared up [“Letters,” May 31]. First is the use of the term
“conservative clergy.” That term would imply that there is both
a conservative and a liberal clergy in the church. That’s not true.
Catholic leaders take only one position: the Catholic position. There is no
“conservative” and “liberal.”
Is it a sin to vote for a
politician who supports abortion on demand? That depends. I was taught that
a sin is when you perform an action that is wrong, you know is wrong, and
yet you do it anyway. If you vote for a politician when you know that
politician’s actions will definitely contradict your own moral
upbringing and beliefs, then you may be committing a sin. As to saying that the pope and
other church leaders don’t want this teaching to be clear: That is
completely false. The pope and other leaders will be perfectly willing to
clarify. The problem is that most won’t like the answer. You really
don’t even have to consult the pope. The teachings are written down
in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is readily available in most
bookstores and on the Internet. Democrats don’t need to
consult the pope; they need to consult their own leaders. They need to ask
questions such as “Why is it so important to support abortion on
demand when so many others are against it?”“Why is it
important for us to alientate those who vote based on their own moral and
religious upbringings?” “Why does abortion even have to be a
political issue?” If Democrats want to understand voters, those are
very important questions to ask. Steve Marley Springfield
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 6, 2007.
