LETTERS

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CRIMINALIZING SPEECH

The headline for James Krohe Jr.’s editorial in the Aug. 27 Illinois Times reads “Aggressive behavior.” The subheader reads “Will the high court leave Americans vulnerable to corporate panhandling?” This suggests that the Springfield panhandling case, Norton, et al. v. City of Springfield, is about hectoring, threatening beggars. Nothing could be further from the truth. The case is not about aggressive panhandling. Nobody defends aggressive panhandling, and the Springfield ordinance protects citizens from it. This law is about criminalizing the speech of the poor and powerless. This may make good politics – after all, it is true that panhandlers are a despised minority – but it flies in the face of our society’s commitment to equal justice for all. Barb Olson Springfield

A NEW LOW The

Illinois Times cartoon showing attorney and former Alderman Sam Cahnman working from a stinking garbage can was a new low for its cartoonist, a case of indictment in the court of public opinion. (“This Week”, Chris Britt, Sept. 3) Mr. Cahnman, a capable attorney and incorruptible public servant, has had a target on his chest since he espoused the open primary which is purposed with enabling Illinois citizens to vote in primary elections without declaring any party affiliation. He ran two times, unsuccessfully, for state representative on this issue, and Illinois would be much better off had he been elected.

In Mr. Cahnman’s latest go-round with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), he was charged with a conflict of interest for representing Mr. Calvin Christian in unrelated traffic cases while Mr. Christian was suing the city and Mr. Cahnman was a city alderman. Contradicting itself, the commission found that Mr. Cahnman had no conflict of interest on one count of the charges against him, but then flipped on the second count and found that he did have a conflict. Note that Mr. Cahnman broke no law nor did he violate any specific rule in this regard. Douglas K. Turner Springfield

2014 ELECTION RESULTS

Registered voters in Illinois: 7,483,031. Number who voted in the November 2014 election: 3,680,417. Number who voted for Rauner: 1,823,167 – 50 percent. Number who voted for Quinn: 1,687,343 – 46 percent. Three percent of the total vote went to a third party candidate. This means Rauner won by 142,824 votes. That is about the number of people in Peoria.

The question put to the public about raising the billionaires’ tax by 3 percent got 3,669,000 yes votes – 63 percent of the total votes. What this shows is that Rauner clearly does not have a mandate in Illinois; however, he pretends to want to ask voters about raising taxes. The voters spoke. We elected, by a slim margin, a governor, not a king.

Rauner needs to wake up or go. You can find these results by going to the Illinois State Board of Elections website at elections. il.gov. Nancy Summers-Long Springfield