Extend helping hand to community in pain
To Our Community.
In the days to come we will all try to fathom why. Why did the gunman do what he did? Why didn't someone do something to stop it?
Why? Why? Why?
There is also another question: How?
The most important question we will face today -- and for many tomorrows to come -- is how our community can respond to this tragedy.
Northern Illinois University President John Peters said he has received expressions of sympathy and offers to help from throughout the community and that he intends to take us up on the offer. That's good for the university and good for the community.
Demanding answers, especially to questions that may well never have one, can take us only so far. Blame is a void that can never be filled.
Offering to help, reaching out to others, being part of a solution -- these are all things that will benefit students at NIU and begin our own slow healing process.
We all want to help; we all want to do what we can to make things better. Let's pledge to do all we can to help our hurting community come together.
Death penalty
It's not often that proponents and opponents of the death penalty agree on anything, but both sides are calling for an end to Illinois' moratorium on capital punishment.
It has been eight years since former Gov. George Ryan imposed the moratorium, and there are no signs of it being lifted.
The Illinois State's Attorneys Association just called for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to lift the moratorium and agree to enforce the law. State Rep. Dennis Reboletti has introduced a similar resolution.
The Abolition in Illinois Movement also wants the moratorium lifted and the law repealed. They see no purpose in what's happening now -- spending millions of tax dollars on death penalty cases when such sentences may never be carried out. The group said Illinois has spent $148 million on death penalty cases from a special fund set up eight years ago…
This issue needs to be decided, so Illinois can get out of this legal limbo. If we're going to have a capital punishment law on the books, we need to be ready and willing to enforce it. And if we don't want it, Blagojevich and lawmakers should repeal the law and quit hiding behind the moratorium.