LETTERS
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SPRINGFIELD’S FUTURE
Your article on Sen. Bill Brady [see “The cost of Brady’s plan,” by Patrick Yeagle, Oct. 28] hammers at budget cuts Springfield might suffer if he is elected. The budget is out of control, period. Illinois, including Springfield, needs to cut its budget like families and businesses do when money is scarce.
I sense an underlying emotional plea in your article that maybe Springfield could escape the pain while Gov. Pat Quinn fixes the state via a tax increase. I disagree.
We’ve seen Quinn waste money he doesn’t have to buy loyalty and votes. What are the chances he’ll spend his tax windfall more wisely? What kind of shape will Springfield be in after Illinois government becomes an even more wastefully inept dysfunctional business disaster?
Quinn’s campaign convinced me Brady accepts tax breaks legally. Brady convinced me he wants to turn toward a proactive business environment with accountable efficiency in government. That’s an easy win for Brady in my voting booth.
Now, here’s how I’d offset those cuts. Let’s all pick a day to fill the rotunda and remind Gov. Brady the capital of Illinois is Springfield, not Chicago. We’ll ask him to close far-flung offices that were opened for political reasons against good business sense. If I have him sized up correctly, I think he’ll agree.
John Levalley Springfield
GIVE LIBRARIES MORE
I am glad you’ve opened up a dialogue about what our libraries should be and could be [see “What good are public libraries?” by James Krohe Jr., Oct. 14]. While I don’t think having a contractor run the libraries for the city actually saves any money or improves service, I would be very interested in reading more stories and expert opinions in IT about the concept of the library breaking away from the city and becoming its own self-managed, self-funded district. I don’t know if this is practical, but I really hate to see branches closed and services curtailed over politics. I would be willing to pay a little more every year just to know the library had stable funding and control of its own destiny.
They do a great job with what they’re given; I think we should give them a little more, and do it in a way that is conducive to longterm planning. Libraries are at the very heart of a thriving community, and still very relevant.
Mark Suszko Springfield
BACK IN CIRCULATION
Regarding the article on libraries [see “What good are public libraries?” Oct. 14]: I think they are very necessary. I had lived away from here for about 23 years. When I came back I found that so many of my friends had left the area and until I could get back in circulation, the library was a lifesaver for me. When they
closed the branches it was very hard for me. It is very inconvenient to go downtown. You have to pay for parking and the area and inhabitants make it very uncomfortable.
The Rochester library has been a lifesaver for my husband and myself. It is an excellent facility. Very clean, well maintained and the staff is more than helpful and most gracious! Please, do all that is necessary to keep what libraries we have left open for people like us. And, there are many who can’t afford to buy books and need the other help and contacts the library affords us.
Eleanor G. Wombwell Springfield
GIVE IT BACK
Words are cheap, Attorney Dodge! [See “Ponzi scheme benefited Senate Dems’ lawyer,” Oct. 14.] If your “heart goes out to everyone who has been hurt by this,” then simply give back the ill-gotten money. Unless you do that, your words carry no more weight than those used by your father when he scammed all those victims. Is the reputation of you and your family really worth $160,000?
People are complaining about what was done to them because what was done to them was illegal. Are you “sooo tired” of hearing about burglary victims complaining about their houses being broken into? Are you tired of hearing about people whose cars have been stolen? If you’re so tired of all these things, my advice to you is to stop reading the newspaper and go take a nap.
Frank McGill Glenarm
Autumn Poem by Damaris
Jackson written when she was 24, on the death of a friend’s father An afternoon, it is an
autumn When the osage and the apple part.
The fruit drops, settles, mingles with the
earth, While, rising up, a winging bird instinctively turns south.
One apple, one bird, one
afternoon and it is autumn when we stand amid the branches, yet not
winged nor free to travel, listening, waiting to hear the joining of the
flock.
