Guest Opinion

 As a physician, I support clean energy alternatives that decrease our reliance on coal-powered electricity plants that produce air pollution impacting respiratory ailments and toxic coal ash that has been associated with cancers and nervous system damage. Suppose you decide to cut your energy costs from City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) and help the […]

Four decades ago, we began to create a new problem: mass incarceration. In 1974, Illinois had 6,000 people in prison. Now, Illinois has more than 40,000 people in prison. In the same period, other states and the federal government also grew their prisons at similar rates, so that our country now has more people imprisoned, […]

 When the most admired woman in America last week compared Donald Trump’s presidency to spending the weekend with a fun-loving irresponsible divorced dad, she probably didn’t intend to disparage divorced and single dads.  Unfortunately, she did. Former First Lady Michelle Obama, speaking in London to promote her new book, Becoming, said, “Sometimes you spend weekends […]

I became active in politics in the late 1950s, got elected to Congress in 1964, and have remained engaged in one way or another every year since then. I’ve had a ringside seat for a long time. So I suppose I should not be surprised that I get asked a lot these days how American […]

 In a series of articles, I’m looking at questions about criminal justice: “Are we safe?” “Are we smart?” “Are we fair?” “What is the best way forward?” I’ve discussed Peoria’s police-plus-community effort, similar to the effort beginning now in Springfield and Champaign-Urbana, to deter people who appear likely to commit gun violence. Let’s look at […]

Let’s contrast two trips. Over Thanksgiving we visited relatives in Australia. We were struck by the lack of garbage along roads and near towns.  We rarely saw a plastic shopping bag or a plastic straw. Two weeks ago we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The park was in good shape but within 3-4 miles of […]

 Since leaving the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011, I’ve dedicated my professional life to fighting for full implementation and enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 – a law I had the honor of authoring with congressional colleagues in true bipartisan spirit. The law requires most insurers to cover […]

I believe, based on experience, that we can reduce gun violence. When faced with a surge in gun violence, Peoria adopted “focused deterrence,” and this seems to reduce the problem. David Kennedy, in his book, Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America, describes his years of experience […]

 “I’ve got a funny feeling they got plastic in the afterlife…” – Beck Bruce Rushton’s article (“The blue badge of shame,” March 6) highlights a critical need for future-thinking. We present-day humans produce an unbelievable volume of waste – recyclable, compostable and otherwise. We have some halfhearted measures to handle this output, but sadly, the […]

I offered to write some articles for Illinois Times about criminal justice, because I have some concerns, and because I suspect that many readers also have concerns. I plan to look at a series of questions, including “What causes violence?” “Can we reduce violence?” “Are we safe?” “Are we smart?” “Are we fair?” And the […]

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. -Edmund BurkeMichael Leathers is a good man who did something. And it cost him his job. Back in 2002, he was the editor of Illinois Baptist, a newspaper covering Southern Baptist congregations across the Land of Lincoln. When he […]

One of the more striking political developments of the last few years has been the partisan sorting of American voters. It used to be that both the Republican and Democratic parties covered some ideological ground. Now, it’s so habitual for conservatives to make their home in the GOP and liberals in the Democratic Party that […]