In Marlen Garcia’s Friday column, I read with interest that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s refusal to fund the Chicago Public Schools elicited a brilliant response from Janice Jackson, CPS’ chief education officer. Jackson had the courage to say exactly what others are thinking, namely that this financial crisis “would not be allowed to happen” if the children were not black and brown … and poor.
The governor talks as though southern and Illinois, places such as Moline, Rockford and Danville, are the only places you will find “hard-working families who pay taxes.” This is an outrage. As an adjunct professor at John Marshall Law School, we have taught hard-working law students from Englewood, Back of the Yards and other areas whose families work every day. And the law students do too. They work hard and study hard and have become wonderful young lawyers.
Chicago Public Schools would be as good or better than other schools in Illinois if we took the money that we spent to send our young African Americans and Latinos to prison (about $34,000 per inmate a year) and gave it to the schools. Instead of the governor belittling those who have little, he should find solutions to an imbalance of funding based on property taxes. The result is that the Chicago Public Schools are even more segregated than they were in 1954. If the communities had the money for their children that Illinois taxpayers pay to imprison them when they grow up, those communities would be safer and our people would be more content. Let the governor sit down with the Legislature and stop this racism and classism. Hurray for Janice Jackson, who has the presence and courage to stand up for Chicago Public School children and tell the truth!
Sheila M. Murphy
Retired presiding judge of the Markham Branch of the Cook County Courts
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Ban assault weapons now
In light of the Orlando tragedy, Democrats in the United States Congress should do their duty to protect the future of the American people. Legislation should be put forth to ban assault weapons and to prevent those on the “no fly list” from buying firearms.
Any legislator who will not protect Americans from the indiscriminate possession of guns doesn’t deserve to hold office. The National Rifle Association, a pawn of the gun manufacturers, should not dictate policy. It’s time for our Congress to stand up for the American people and turn their backs on the pressure and dollars from those who would put a gun into the hands of anyone able to pay for it.
Those who oppose this legislation should have to come forward and defend their views. The deaths of more than 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School apparently was not enough. Will they now ignore the deaths of 50 adults and the severe injuries to many more?
Karen Wagner, Rolling Meadows
How many Americans need to be slaughtered before Republican politicians stand up to the NRA and pass sensible gun legislation that includes banning assault rifles like the AR-15 used to murder 49 people in Orlando? Do NRA political contributions outweigh the value of the lives lost in the repeated acts of violence enabled by high powered weapons? Is the Second Amendment more important than the safety of our citizens? And is there no limit to the Supreme Court’s expansive view of right to bear arms? Why not a bazooka or grenade launcher next?
Tom Minnerick, Elgin
Cowering elected officials
My condolences to all the families of the Orlando shooting victims, and my renewed scorn and hatred to all elected officials who continually prostitute themselves to the gun lobby and cower under the sway of the NRA, including each and every one of the voters who put them in office. How can you look yourselves in the mirror? You obviously seem not to care, but the blood is once again on your hands. No, you did not pull the trigger, but you are ALL culpable.
I do hope we can all agree the NRA, its paid politicians, and all its minions, do hereby forfeit their right to push their hackneyed propagandist tripe that “the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
There WAS a “good guy with a gun” (a uniformed, fully-trained, fully armed police officer) stationed right there at the door of the Pulse nightclub. That “good guy with the gun” was powerless to do anything to stop the “bad guy with the gun” until dozens of SWAT personnel descended on the scene.
This has everything to do with easy access to military weaponry funded by political bribery.
If the “bad guy” started shooting in a dark, crowded club, and then one or more armed patrons returned fire, nobody would have possibly been able to tell who the shooter was and who was returning fire, leading to even more chaos and more bloodshed. That’s the whole farce of this argument.
Justin Pripusich, Lisle
NRA got what it wanted
I hope the NRA is very pleased with itself. With weak background checks and legal assault rifles. they got what they wanted: Over 100 lives turned upside down forever.
Ray Lemieux, Hometown
