Admiring tenacity, but ignoring cuts
I was simply distraught with your editorial on Sunday applauding the governor for his upbeat confidence, convincing presentation and infectious command in promoting his Illinois Turnaround agenda.
There was no mention on the proposed cuts, cuts like never before, in Human Services and in the Department of Public Health.
I read one small paragraph, that you agree that "his ideas are staunchly conservative and some to an extreme beyond the bounds of our support."
Your editorial listed no details about the human service. Included in his proposal are $1.6 million cut in addiction prevention, a compulsive gambling cut of $406,000, Assistance for homeless cut by $300,000, Children's Health Program cut by $231,600, Funeral and burial for poor cut by $6.9 million and there are more and more.
Yes corruption and special interest groups are worth fighting. Yes, working to change legislation for pension reform is plausible. However, how can anyone look at the confident, successful Gov. Rauner and give him editorial space marveling at his style without sharing reservations about the proposed cuts?
I was distraught because the editorial appeared to admire the tenacity of Gov. Rauner. Seems to me you were saying here is man of courage valiantly challenging the system. He is not my Role Model for Change. He is not who I aspire my children and grandchildren to look at and say, this is what success looks like.
I urge everyone to write their legislators to vote against the cuts in Human Services and Department of Public Health.
Sandra Janowski
Des Plaines
Where to draw line is a good question
I heard the president on the radio questioning the legalization of pot saying, "If you legalize pot, aah, where do you draw the line?"
Mr. President, I would ask you the same question about your flip-flop on marriage being between men and women, and now for political expediency, you believe it should be men/women, men/men, women/women and so on.
Mr. President, as the most brilliant Supreme Court jurist by far posited, if you allow same sex marriage, where do you draw the line?
Michael O'Brien
Prospect Heights
Is expediency key to religious freedom?
Recently there have been letters bemoaning the "fact" religious freedoms are being destroyed because a pizza joint was attacked for refusing to deliver pizzas to a gay wedding in order to adhere to their religious principles.
These letters rant about businesses being punished for following the principles of the Bible.
Woman's role is clearly spelled out in the Bible. In Genesis, we are told she was made to be man's helper and throughout the Bible, we are told man is to rule over her. But yet a business is punished for hiring or promoting on the basis of gender.
Are these laws an attack on religious freedom? Or are religious freedoms only important when they fit a political agenda?
Rich Smith
Schaumburg