Letters to the Editor

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Untitled Document We welcome letters. Please include your full name, 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 [email protected].

“MORAL DIPSTICK” ALMOST DRY Renatta Frazier. The Black Guardians. Quality of service at Insight Communications. Trash pickup. Homelessness. The smoking ban. Veils of secrecy in municipal government. Lack of oversight in the police department. Larry Washington. Just how many more ways can this city drive itself into the ground? I, for one, wish Mr. Washington every success in reaping satisfaction to compensate for one-and-a-half years of life lost [Dusty Rhodes, “Springfield’s worst nightmare,” Feb. 15]. His inevitable victory in court will not only go far in redressing the grievous wrong committed against him and his family but will also compel drastic, much-needed change in a town whose collective moral dipstick is two clicks short of bone dry. And the only reason I feel completely comfortable in saying so is that I’m one of the many here who don’t have too much left to lose. Tell me: Am I exercising a basic, fundamental right of speech? Or does this make me dangerous as well, in some weird, unpredictable way?
Thomas W. Yale Springfield
HIGHLIGHT POSITIVE ROLE MODELS Your Feb. 15 cover story, “Springfield’s worst nightmare,” was very offensive to me and should have been to a great many black Americans in Springfield and wherever your paper is circulated. In case you did not realize it, February is Black History Month. It is a time to educate the communities of the contributions blacks have made to America (where they are still not treated equally) and the world. You were totally out of line, glorifying [Larry Washington]. Black children and others should have been introduced to blacks of culture, alive or dead, and shown the struggle they have yet to face, even here in Springfield. Diana Hutchinson Springfield
ASK AN IRAQI: “WHO IS PRO-LIFE?”
Danny Faulkner left God out of the process when deciding that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was not a Christian because he supports a woman’s right to choose [“Letters,” Feb. 22]. Last time I checked the Bible, Christians do not have the right to judge whether someone else is a Christian — that is God’s job. In regards to the words “pro-life candidate,” George W. Bush did an excellent job of demonstrating how easy it is for a politician to mouth the words “pro-life” and then turn around and recklessly send thousands of innocent children to their graves with his invasion of an entire country. Just think about how Obama showed incredible thoughtfulness and intelligence when he voted against the invasion of Iraq. He respected life in that vote, and, if America had had that kind of courage, thousands of lives would have been saved. The words “pro-life” mean many things, and they don’t belong to one group of people. They belong to us all.
Anne Logue
Springfield

HAVE YOU CHECKED THE MEMO? Danny Faulkner makes the statement: U.S. Sen. Barack Obama can’t call himself a Christian and be pro-choice. Oh really? Did God send out a memo? Are you a new guardian for who can and cannot call himself a Christian? When did the “sin” of abortion become a greater sin than all the others? Tell the Iraqis how “pro-life” George W. Bush is — I don’t think they’ll understand. Troy Gorda Springfield
LIMITED ALTERNATIVES TO CABLE
In regards to Kevin Johnson’s letter in the Feb. 22 issue of Illinois Times, I am about to do something that, say, President George W. Bush would never do: I am issuing an apology, and a clarification, for my recent remarks about Insight Communications. Mr. Johnson, you are totally right in saying that no one is required to have cable television. You are also totally correct in saying that satellite television and even outdoor antennas are available as alternatives. Your comments are completely justified, provided you own the property where you reside. To clarify my own comments, what I should have written is that, in rental property, including low-income property, the landlord dictates what tenants can and cannot have. To my knowledge, none of the high-rises or multi-unit properties in Springfield allows tenants to have antennas or satellite dishes. Personally, I am happy to hear that Insight Communications treats at least a few of its customers much better than it has treated me and others.
Norman Hinderliter
Springfield
OBAMA NEEDS NO EXCUSE “I was wrong,” said former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of his vote that ultimately led to our unnecessary invasion of Iraq. “I was misled,” echoes U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton when speaking on the same subject. Nearly all presidential hopefuls, whether out of blind patriotism or misjudgment, voted in favor of the blank check for war handed to the blundering Bush administration. Their votes do not disqualify them from consideration but add tarnish to their credentials. Four-and-a-half years ago, as some were casting a vote they would regret, one of our current presidential candidates took a position he would not. In a little-publicized speech at Federal Plaza in Chicago in October of 2002, Barack Obama took his stand on the war and has never wavered. Whether his speech is long remembered or soon forgotten is largely dependent on Obama’s political fate. That fate is in our hands.
John Lambert
Springfield

STICKING HIS NOSE IN OUR BUSINESS The media and the talking heads jumped on Australian Prime Minister John Howard because he made public comments about U.S. Sen. Barack Obama’s views on Iraq. I suspect that many Americans kind of winced at the notion of the Australian prime minister sticking his nose into purely American politics. It may or may not be considered by some as acceptable, but I find it most disagreeable. Still, while Howard may be wrong for attempting to interfere in American politics, he need look no further than the Oval Office for such inspiration. In the summer of 2004, our own president, George W. Bush, not only intervened in Australian politics, he actually was almost verbally abusive in speaking to Australian Labor Party leader Mark Lathan, clearly attempting to give Prime Minister Howard a boost with Australian voters. The question being debated between Lathan and Howard centered on the time that Australian soldiers would continue to serve in Iraq. Obviously, we all know on which side of that question Bush would come down, but, again, this was an Australian debate about matters vital to Australia. I wonder if, as our own Congress debates this proposed escalation in Iraq, a leader of another country interjected himself into the debate, Mr. Bush would welcome his input. Ed Lazarus Springfield
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS I left my heart in my beloved West Frankfort, Ill. I lived 45 years in the holy city of West Frankfort. For more than 90 years, there were four generations of Culleys who lived in West Frankfort, Ill. For 22 years, the God of Israel and Jesus has showed me the future through dreams! I do my best work when I am asleep. When my eyes are closed, my mouth is shut and my ears are opened. Then the Lord shows me dreams. I just had a third dream in the last seven years about an apocalypse earthquake. The dream was about me riding a bike in West Frankfort, Ill., to warn my daughter about the doom-and-gloom earthquake that is erupting in West Frankfort. The roads are damaged beyond repair. The ground is opening wide with cracks that would swallow you up. I am coming close to death, with fire around me coming up from the ground, deep down from the plates shifting like a volcano erupting! I finally get to my daughter to rescue her. West Frankfort, Ill., sits on top of the New Madrid Fault, a trap door that is about to open! This is not the end of the world — only the beginning! George Culley Pinckneyville
TIME FOR A CIVICS LESSON I have been reading Lewis Lapham’s essays on impeaching the president in Harper’s. I’ve got to say, they’re pretty good. Among other things, he says, we need a useful civics lesson, and there’s no better way than “holding up to the light the malfeasance, nonfeasance, and ‘all the rot’ embedded in the character and conduct of the Bush administration.” Congress, he says, must rise to its constitutional task “of correcting the imbalances of power that sometimes can foul the machinery of a fair and honorable government.”
Beni Kitching Springfield

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