Monday Letters: Redesigning U.S. currency isn’t necessary

It has been reported that the secretary of the Treasury has been spending his time and our money redesigning the U.S. currency. One might have thought that he would have had more important things to do, such as trying to deal with a shaky economy, but perhaps his role in government has been so trivialized by his boss that he has been driven to think that a change in art work somehow will revitalize his office.

It is also curious that Jacob Lew thinks he is doing good by mandating these changes. Does he not realize that increasingly more people are using charge/debit cards instead of cash? And, to the extent that some still use the currency of the realm, does he really think they will look at and learn from the art work thereon? It reminds one of the fatuousness of debating who and/or what appears on a postage stamp … few look or care.

William P. Gottschalk,

Lake Forest

Immense damage

CTU President Karen Lewis might have gone a bit overboard calling Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner “a new ISIS recruit,” but her comment “the things he’s doing look like acts of terror on poor and working-class people” is spot on. Ensconced every night amid billionaire splendor in one of his palatial homes, Rauner is oblivious to the immense damage he does daily to the needy, dependent on state services to barely get by; the students struggling to stay in schools being decimated by his willful educational destruction; and state vendors trying to stay afloat while Rauner floats their receivables on sea of red ink.

Practicing “smash capitalism” on businesses unlucky enough to be gobbled up by Rauner is bad enough. Practicing “smash capitalism” on the 13 million residents of Illinois is a form of public service terrorism. Rauner wasn’t trained by ISIS. He’s a product of the new oligarchical ruling elite of obscenely rich, nurtured right here in the Good ‘ol U.S.A.

Walt Zlotow, Glen Ellyn

Fight global warming

It’s great that many nations are committed to fighting global warming but they will have to reduce harmful human activities to accomplish this. They must reduce air, water and land pollution and logging, drilling and mining. Meat, pork and poultry production must be reduced and waning water supplies and imperiled land and marine ecosystems need to be dramatically protected from exploitation. Many scientists assert that humans have caused the global warming crisis and now it’s our responsibility to ultimately defeat it.

Brien Comerford, Glenview

Veto power?

How did The Friends of the Parks get veto power over the Chicago Park District and the Lucas Museum? Who voted for these people anyway? I thought the State of Illinois, Cook County and the City of Chicago through eminent domain had the ultimate authority.

Thomas Cechner, Lockport