LETTERS

We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to [email protected].

HOLD ON TO DREAMS After the women’s movement marches earlier this year, new and emerging leaders organized the recent Springfield Women’s March, held April 25. I’ve been watching and admiring these brave women as they find their collective voices and inner power over the past few months. When I heard about this march, I was enticed to attend the local event to listen to the viewpoints of those on the podium throughout the day. I meandered over periodically, wondering what lessons the suffragettes would offer this time. Around 11:50 a.m., the end of Jesse Jackson’s speech led to an array of other soapbox speakers touting how far the movement had come in improving women’s rights since the late 1800s. One speaker started the chant, “We won’t go back!” As I raised my voice in solidarity with the crowd, a woman passed by wearing a t-shirt that read “nevertheless she persisted.” As we are lulled awake by the current political climate, I was reminded of the possible diminishing advances made by the women who could.

Participating and observing that day, I was once again energized by the hope that democracy and sanity will allow us to hold on tight to the original collective dreams of our constitution that stated “all men (and women) are created equal, that ‘we’ are endowed by ‘our’ creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Kathryn Dauksza Springfield

FEAR OF NUCLEAR WAR I take issue with Fletcher Farrar’s belief that there is no sense of alarm over the North Korean situation (“Editor’s note,” April 27). I wake up every morning wondering if I’ll read that the U.S. has attacked North Korea and that they have retaliated with a nuclear or conventional weapons strike against the South. I’m old enough to remember “duck and cover” drills in elementary school, and my father had a fallout shelter constructed in the basement of our house. We “practiced drills,” stored cots, food and water, and had an air purifier.

I’ve lived in fear of a nuclear confrontation since those days; never more so than now. Most people I talk to are worried about the situation and do not believe the current administration has a coherent strategy for dealing with it. Richard Herndon Springfield

RAUNER WALKS AT MIDNIGHT Bruce Rauner walks at midnight Looking for a fight Dressed in a Carhartt jacket That just doesn’t look right He wants to be your everyman It’s part of his agenda and plan Throwing around the glad hand With millions in the other hand Looking residential Talking preferential But only to those who agree with him A consecrated millionaire Maybe even a billionaire With that certain savior faire

That vacant stare Spouting the phrase I think I can I think I can Let the billionaires lead Let everyone else bleed Stephen Leonard Springfield

DUCT TAPE COMMERICALS Rich Miller mentioned Governor Rauner’s duct tape commercials in his April 20 column (‘Tuning up the band’), but there’s actually one of them I find amusing. The amusing one is where the screen starts out covered in duct tape while Rauner explains that Illinois’ politicians only cover up Illinois’ problems, as he strips off the tape to reveal the problem: Rauner himself.

I retired from the state three years ago, having first started under James Thompson. The state was well-run back then, run only slightly better than the next governor, Governor Edgar.

The state fell apart under the crooked James Ryan, and got worse under the even more crooked Rod Blagojevich. There was no improvement under the incompetent Quinn.

In all but two years of my service, Michael Madigan was speaker of the House, having held that position since 1983, with the exception of 1998 and 1999.

The speaker of the House is clearly not the cause of the state’s problems; the governor is, and has been all this century. Would one of the parties please nominate an honest, competent person for that position next year? I don’t care about his or her party, as long as they’re competent and honest. Steve McGrew Springfield