Home sweet homely
Dear editor:
I can help answer the question, “Whatever happened to Scenic Springfield?”
[August 21] The article covered a number of events that can help explain it.
I wish to add to the list.
The first is an expansion of the trash issue. Even though the city replaced
trashcans downtown with recycle/trash receptacles, most people don’t bother
to read the print on them before dumping their garbage. Some people don’t use
them at all, leaving their refuse on the sidewalk and streets.
Secondly, Springfield is supposed to be a tourist attraction, but places of
historical interest have decreased over the years, due to demolition mostly,
despite public objections. If this continues, there will be few reasons for
people to visit Springfield or even live here.
I’d like to see people take pride in Springfield; if they don’t, there are
plenty of other cities they can live in.
Joseph E. Perkinton
Springfield
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Good pitch
On behalf of the many horseshoe pitchers in and around Springfield,
the Marvin Taylor Tavern League, the Earl Bomke Horseshoe Club, the Wednesday
night doubles league, and the Lake league, we would like to thank the Illinois
Times, reporter Imran Siddiquee, and photographer Ginny Lee for the fine
article on August 7 [“The other horseshoes”].
We think you captured the enthusiasm we feel playing the game. It has no limits
on age. If you can throw 40 feet, you can play.
The man in the sequential pictures, Ivan Glasscock, just captured first place
at the world tourney in his class. Also in their classes: Al Jones got a first,
Mark Hylton a first, Lee Wadkins a second, and Jim Kramp a second.
Bob Erickson
Bob Sponsler
Gary Nation
Robbie Nation
Nelson Blakely
John Brown
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Hate mail
The drivel spouted in a letter in the August 21 issue of Illinois
Times was both inflammatory and just plain wrong. Conservatives have been
lambasted for years as a group of intolerant homophobic racists who worship
fascism and rape the environment in order to fill their bank accounts. I would
like to thank the letter writer from Rochester for proving the liberals are
much worse.
The venom-dripping letter–which insulted the president, the pentagon, our
military forces, the citizenry of the United States, and lest we all forget
conservative Republicans–illustrated who the real hate-mongers in the country
are. Anyone who refers to the President of the United States as a “two-bit,
tinhorn, self-righteous, war-mongering madman” and refers to any conservative
Republican as an “enemy of the planet” who should be “hanged” is ill-equipped
to debate anything, much less politics.
No evidence of the letter-writer’s claims were offered up, just venomous attacks.
No examples of the “will of the world’s peoples” being damned were given. The
strongest factual evidence offered concerned the president mispronouncing words!
No evidence given of “nature-hating thugs defiantly imposing their will on the
planet” were given. All in all, the letter did nothing to prove the case being
made by the letter-writer. What it did do (much to my delight and that of my
goose-stepping comrades) was to provide a perfectly executed example of “hate-speak.”
Bravo and thank you, sir, for proving whom the real “enemies of the planet,”
as well as the country, our armed forces, the pentagon, and our president, really
are.
Carl P. Long
Springfield
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An unpatriotic act
John Ashcroft has got some nerve flying across the country
in a last-ditch attempt to sell the merits of the “Patriot Act” to the American
people. The act is already curbing free speech, allowing the government to spy
on whoever it wants whenever it wants with no warrant or justifiable cause,
and it gives the government the right to read your e-mail and monitor your Internet
usage without your knowledge or consent. In short, it is turning America into
a police state. The home of democracy will not take this affront to freedom
lightly, and John Ashcroft and George W. Bush should quickly become aware of
this nation’s distaste for tyranny.
Bryan Thompson
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2003.
