Support your local cinema
To the editor,
I was a bit surprised to see that Illinois Times “Night & Day: What’s
Happening In The Capital City” section [January 9] was encouraging your readers
to drive to Bloomington-Normal to see the movie Frida, a film that is
scheduled to open at the White Oaks in Springfield on January 31st.
There was a time when Springfield moviegoers had to travel to other cities if they wanted to see something other than Hollywood blockbusters, but that is no longer the case. Eighteen months ago the White Oaks began serving the area with a steady supply of art, alternative, and other specialized films. Nearly every week the White Oaks is presenting one, two, and sometimes three of these upscale films.
The White Oaks is currently showing Adaptation (nominated for six Golden Globe awards) and About Schmidt (nominated for five Golden Globe awards). Far From Heaven (nominated for four Golden Globe awards) opens on Friday, January 17.
Upcoming films include Igby Goes Down, Evelyn, The Pianist, Real Women Have Curves, Talk To Her, and Rabbit-Proof Fence.
In addition, the “Film Festival at the Esquire” will begin next week with Pauline and Paulette playing January 19 and 21 at the Esquire in Springfield. Other films in this series include Lagaan, Standing In The Shadows of Motown, Spirited Away, Bloody Sunday, and Read My Lips.
Each week I send out a newsletter via e-mail advising area movie fans about the art, alternative, and specialized films playing in Springfield. Readers should contact me at scott@kerasotes.com if they want to receive the free newsletter.
I’m delighted that your paper wants to highlight “art films,” but it would be nice if you let your readers know what’s happening locally. I doubt that the Bloomington-Normal papers are encouraging their readers to drive here.
Kindest regards,
Scott Cottingham
Kerasotes Theatres
Editor’s note:
A story on Pauline and Paulette appears on page
16.
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Rally to stop police brutality
To the Editor:
On Wednesday, January 22nd, from 11:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M., the Illinois Citizens
Against Abuse and Brutality (ICAAB) along with members of Unity for the Community,
Sojourn House, Heartland Peace Center, the Springfield Green Party, the Springfield
Independent Media Center, Alderman Frank McNeil, Alderman Judy Yeager, Alderman
Frank Kunz, the Springfield mayoral candidates, aldermanic candidates from Springfield
Ward 6, and most importantly the families of victims of abuse and brutality
are converging on City Hall (the “bridge” at Monroe and 7th streets) to hold
a mock “arrest” and remembrance ceremony calling for a Civil Review Ordinance
in order to stop police brutality and excessive force, stop racial profiling,
and to monitor police conduct.
Join the movement and help ICAAB make a difference in Springfield.
Peaceful assembly is your constitutional right, so come out to show the city government that people must stop suffering at the hands of the officials elected to protect them.
ICAAB meets at Abundant Faith Christian Center every Monday 7:00 P.M. to 8:00
P.M.
Ted Keylon
Event coordinator
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Let’s hear it for the bureaucrats!
Dear Editor:
With all of the negative news swirling around the end of the Ryan administration,
it would be well to recognize some positive things that have come about in the
last four years. For example, I think we can all well remember the days when
the Department of Children and Family Services was in the news almost daily
and all of the news was bad. Has anyone noticed that since Jess McDonald took
the helm there, we hear very little about DCFS? Also, the Illinois Department
of Public Aid, for a long while, the leadership there could not seem to get
anything right, they were in the papers all of the time too, and we all felt
that it would always be thus. Then along came Jackie Garner to take over as
director. As if by magic, they too dropped out of the headlines and quietly
and efficiently went about their business. And finally, last but certainly not
least, we come to Linda Renee Baker at the Illinois Department of Human Services.
DHS is a department with over 20,000 employees and a budget of over $9 billion.
Secretary Baker has run this behemoth of an agency for three years without one
scandal, or even a hint of impropriety. These are very good people and these
are very good administrators, and fortunately they are not the only good, solid,
honest, and hardworking staff in the Ryan administration.
Things were, without a doubt, a bit shaky at the top, but there certainly
has been a solid foundation under it.
Dave Dierks
Springfield
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“Celibacy itself is an issue within the church”
To the editor:
Thank you for including my letter in your January 9th edition. As you noted
in introducing the letter from Mr. Joseph Sheppard, there is “a true conflict
within the Catholic church.” It seems that conflict was highlighted by Pete
Sherman’s original article “Higher Calling” [December 12] and the follow-up
to it–several letters to the editor and Sherman’s subsequent piece [January
2].
I did a bit of research and found the following, which may be of interest
to your readers and highlights the fact that celibacy itself is an issue within
the church. The information is from a March 3, 2002, Boston Globe story
about a group called Celibacy Is the Issue (CITI). The article was entitled:
“Marriage of faith: These Catholic priests are honoring vows to God and family”:
Surprisingly, the Framingham-based group (CITI) was founded not by a priest but by a woman. Ten years ago, Louise Haggett’s mother was dying in rural Maine, and the grieving daughter could not find a priest to visit. “This was a woman who had gone to Mass every single Sunday,” says Haggett. “It was devastating. I didn’t know there was such a shortage of priests.”
When she returned home from her mother’s funeral, Haggett read a magazine story about a pedophile priest. “The district attorney had covered it up because he was a priest,” she recalls. Curiosity led her to the library, where she discovered a slew of stories about the Catholic Church’s ordaining married priests from other faiths. Today it is estimated that about 100 such priests “came in through the back door,” as Haggett puts it.
“For me, that was the last straw,” says Haggett, who is 61. “I saw a terrible injustice to the celibate priests and a terrible injustice to those Catholic priests who had married and been kicked out.” In some cases, she says, Catholic priests who married have been replaced by married Protestant-turned-Catholic priests and their families.
Haggett took $10,000 from a bonus at work and in February 1992 started
CITI at her dining room table. A former advertising executive, she ran a small
ad in the National Catholic Reporter: “If the Berlin Wall Can Come Down,
Why Can’t Celibacy Be Abolished?” She was surprised at the number of priests
who responded.
Thank you.
Joe Coffey
Springfield
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2003.
