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. YOU MADE ME LOOK FOOLISH Congratulations to Dusty Rhodes on her recent
column “A taste of his own medicine” [Feb. 23]. With a
little more effort, she could have left out the few facts
(apparently mistakenly incorporated into the article) and made it a
totally self-serving, subjective story. It seems to me that she
spent more time trying to find a way to discredit me than in
checking the facts that prove I’m right. So what if she didn’t find any evidence
that the Drug Investigation Response Team had been taken off drug
duties to prove I made a phone call that I did not make? Just
because she didn’t find the evidence doesn’t mean it
isn’t there. She just doesn’t know where to look, who
to talk to, or what questions to ask. But maybe she does and just
chose not to. If she is such a professional reporter and
she really thought there was something to the story —
apparently she did, or she would not have spent the time to do what
little she did do — why didn’t she ask someone else to
do the investigation so it would be objective? She said she found no evidence to support my
story but did not name anyone she talked to but [Sangamon County
Chief Deputy] Tony Sacco. Why didn’t she report what the
state’s attorney or the judge that issued a subpoena said?
She said there was zero evidence that DIRT had been involved, but
she didn’t say who signed the reports. I may not have had all of the facts because I
had several people telling me different stories, but they all were the same basic
story, and that tells me that there was a lot of truth to what I was
hearing. I talked to her and gave her what I had — names,
positions, the timelines, what to look for, and the right questions to
ask — and it was her job to sort it out and get the whole story.
But she did not do that; she did everything possible to slant this her
way to make me appear foolish. But I can do something that she
can’t screw up or twist around to fit her needs. I will take a
lie-detector test to show that I am telling the truth. Will Tony Sacco? Dusty Rhodes couldn’t find enough facts
to prove Osama bin Laden is linked to al-Qaeda, so I’m not
surprised she couldn’t figure this case out. I just wish a
real reporter could have had the chance to prove how Tony Sacco
abused his position again. Don E. Jackson Springfield YOUR COLUMNIST SURE IS STRANGE . . . What a strange one this Dusty Rhodes is!
Lady, if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
It’s hard to believe that she has nothing better to report
than this! What a wasteful old story, full of revenge and lacking
facts [Dusty Rhodes, “A taste of his own medicine,”
Feb. 23]. Perhaps Richard Norton Smith was right when he compared Illinois Times to
a pungent, aromatic pigsty! Mark H. Martinie Springfield . . . AND YOUR EDITOR IS INCOMPETENT After reading Dusty Rhodes’ column, I
have to wonder which is more deficient: Rhodes’ journalistic
integrity and capabilities or those of the Illinois Times editorial
staff. Knowing her persona, void of responsibility, I can expect
her diatribes. However, why would a competent editor allow it to pass review? Clearly the article is a personal attack,
perhaps motivated by revenge, on Don Jackson. The veil of truth,
presumably the single most required criterion for any story to
contain, was obviously transparent throughout the entire article.
Any presumptions of objective reporting were obliterated in the
first paragraph, when Rhodes (obviously) assailed Jackson by
evaluating his reputation as being “a taco short of a combo
plate.” Actually, the reference to Third World food is
consistent with Rhodes’ Third World reporting skills. But to get a real grasp of Rhodes’
deep-seated vengeance, one only has to recall her rambling and
ludicrous comments in her previous hack-job entitled “Full
disclosure: How One-Eyed Jack wrecked my life” [Feb. 13,
2003]. She uses the platform of free press to rail against Jackson
because she didn’t think her kid was going to be able to sell
[school] cookies in her neighborhood. Then, lacking any logical
nexus, Rhodes holds Jackson accountable — no, directly blames
him — for the way her neighbors treat her. Duh? Maybe they just don’t like her, I
can think of 52 times a year why people may find a reason to view
her with a jaded eye. Personally, I don’t care for Ann
Coulter because of the manner in which she uses her access to the
press to convey her intrinsic biases against Democrats, liberals,
and others. This has alienated her from many people and even been
responsible for people canceling subscriptions for papers that
publish her column. That, in retrospect, may be the one thing that Illinois Times has
in common with larger publications: an incompetent, self-serving
journalist holding readers hostage to personal views and
prejudices. John Peart Springfield KNICK’S NAME IS BRADLEY NOT BRADY Perhaps we should assume that Illinois Times reporter
R.L. Nave was simply too clever by half and not that he/she does
not know the difference between the former New York Knick and
Democratic candidate Bill Bradley and Bill Brady, the current
Republican candidate for Illinois governor? It would be easy to
mistake
Bill Brady with the Brady Bill, but gee whiz . . . Keith Housewright St. Jacob Editor’s note: Candidate Bill Brady
often quips about his lack of name recognition, pointing out that
he’s been introduced at Republican functions as Bill Bradley,
the name of the former Knick and U.S. senator from New Jersey. CLEAN UP THE BIRD DROPPINGS DOWNTOWN Lately, I have noticed there are a lot of
bird droppings on the sidewalks and benches of downtown
Springfield. We have lots of visitors come to see the historical sites and shop
downtown. Can you imagine what they think when they see all this
“dirt” all over everything? Let’s clean up! Take your
brooms and sweep your sidewalks. When it rains, walking on this can become
very slippery. People could fall and be injured, not to mention
that this dirt can be tracked into your businesses. The air in
these infested areas can also be contaminated — the heck with
cigarette smoke! I live and work downtown and I keep the
sidewalk swept almost every day. Please join me in keeping downtown
Springfield cleaner. Shirley Fitzgerald Springfield DEAR RICHARD NORTON SMITH Dear Mr. Smith, Last week I made a business trip to Los
Angeles. Imagine my surprise when I opened the Feb. 17 edition of USA Today and
found 10 great places to visit with presidential connections
besides George Washington’s Mount Vernon as selected by
Richard Norton Smith! Well, that surprise was nothing compared to
being stunned that the article had no mention of Abraham Lincoln,
Lincoln’s Home National Park, the Lincoln Tomb, Springfield
or New Salem. Instead, the list was (1) Adams National
Historical Park, (2) Rutherford B. Hayes’ Spiegel Grove, (3)
Woodrow Wilson’s retirement house, (4) the President Calvin
Coolidge State Historic Site, (5) Air Force One at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library, (6) the James Garfield monument in
[Cleveland’s] Lakeview Cemetery, (7) the Herbert Hoover
National Historic Site, (8) the Harry S. Truman Home, (9) the
President Benjamin Harrison Home, and (10) James Buchanan’s
Wheatland. While I can’t imagine a presidential
top 10 list without Abe or any circumstance that would put James
Buchanan and Rutherford B. Hayes ahead of Lincoln, perhaps there
was a reason for the omission that I have overlooked. Were Lincoln
and Springfield edited out of the piece? Did the newspaper refuse
to mention where you currently worked, even though it dutifully
reported that you will be a scholar in residence at George Mason
University starting next month? I thought you were leaving Springfield and
the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library by your own choice, so
I’m sure you didn’t fail to mention them as tourist
destinations intentionally. So, please, enlighten the community as
to how this golden opportunity for attracting tourists to
Springfield was missed. Please assure us that you aren’t
going away mad, just moving away. Connie Frankenfeld Springfield
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 1, 2006.
