LETTERS
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FIERY DISGUST I am thoroughly disgusted with Bruce Rushton’s article about the Springfield Fire Department (“Money to burn,” Dec. 10). It was incredibly one-sided and seriously lacking in important facts that I am sure is no accident. It used to be that a reporter’s job was to report the news; now it’s just a reporter’s job to sell more newspapers.
The ISO rating affects every homeowner and business owner in this city. That was not mentioned once in the article. Springfield has dropped from a Class 1 to a Class 3 in fewer than 13 years.
Mr. Rushton reported that the fire department has not taken furlough days. That is false. The “Kelly Day” is a furlough day. It is an unpaid day off and lowers the total number of hours worked in a pay cycle, and, since the 1990s, every firefighter takes 12 or 13 of those a year.
I have enjoyed Illinois Times for many years but if you need to resort to sensationalized and misleading stories to distribute your paper, I will no longer be the avid and faithful reader I have been for so long.
Mr. Rushton obviously has a bias against firefighters and the Springfield Fire Department. His yellow journalism brings shame to Illinois Times. Steven Johnson Springfield
A REAL TURNAROUND It’s my understanding the governor donates his salary to charity and lives off his $1 million per week investment income. If he were to donate his investment income to charity and live off his governor’s salary, that would be a real turnaround. He wouldn’t be able to maintain his political slush fund anymore, but the Koch Klan has caused about as much damage as it can in Wisconsin. Bob Zoch Springfield
GUN ACQUISITION In response to Sarah Thomas’ Dec. 10 letter to the editor:
We aren’t the safest country in the world because our courts don’t enforce the existing gun laws. They turn loose violent criminals every day that have done minimal time.
Now that everyone in Chicago can carry, why haven’t the shootings diminished? Chicago has made it so difficult and expensive that the average person can’t or won’t jump through all the hoops. Furthermore, look at who does the shootings… not the legalcarry permit people.
On the Second Amendment… don’t get into anything you can’t understand. That issue was decided by the Supreme Court.
Bearing arms has worked out well for all the law-abiding people except those who were shot by illegal gun owners. Less than 1 percent of the shootings are done by law-abiding legal gun owners, and most of them are not charged with a crime.
In closing, you said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” On that, you are 100 percent right – as long as the us is you and your kind. What kind is that, you ask? The ones who choose to ignore the facts like the media does.
In response to Nancy Long’s Dec. 10 letter:
You say that terrorists can buy a gun easily and they can buy ammunition without anyone caring. I want you to go to Scheels and see how many guns and how much ammunition you can buy without ID. Terrorists cannot buy guns legally. Crazy people buy guns and do crazy things. You must first enforce the current laws, get repeat offenders off the street, then go after the people that do it sometimes. When people act like they are thinking about killing others, lock them up. Most of the mass killings were done by people who gave plenty of warnings before acting. David Barnett New Berlin
