Building a hotel on Navy Pier would be another violation of an established policy to not allow commercial ventures on the lakefront. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has an obsession with commercializing park and lake properties. Making matters worse, the taxpayers will pay indirectly for these ventures.
John Culloton, Norwood Park
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GOP forgets they made Trump
Lately, columnist Linda Chavez has been on a tear, rather frantic over the consequences of a Donald Trump candidacy and/or presidency. (“Trump leading Republicans to fortress fringe,” Sun-Times Opinion, May 1.) She rightly compares Trump to other scary right-wing fringe candidates, writing as if the Trump phenomenon is a brand new Republican development. Where’s her grasp of history?
In 1964, GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater got the ball rolling with his infamous line, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!” The Republicans cheered. In ’68, Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” brought the Dixiecrats, Jim Crow reflexes and all, into the Republican tent. Republicans humored them and cheered some more. Succeeding Republican candidates embraced the same ideology, not toward equality and universal acceptance, but toward more of the same hate, blame, fear and exclusion — from Ronald Reagan’s “dog whistle” stump speeches to George W. Bush’s campaign kickoff at symbolically significant, socially-segregated Bob Jones University in 2000. Again, Republicans cheered.
Republicans were mute when Klansman David Duke ran for U.S. Senate from Louisiana on the Republican ticket in 1990. They protested him only after he endorsed Trump, belatedly confirming their hypocrisy. Trump only says aloud what the GOP has quietly fostered all those years. What took Chavez so long to wake up to where all this was leading?
If Trump is the skunk at their lawn party, Chavez’ cohorts created him, with her blessing. Why the feigned or real shock and revulsion now?
Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde ParkBack progressive income taxAs the Sun Time reports, State Rep. Christian Mitchell’s proposed progressive state income tax is much fairer than a flat tax and provides a way to reduce the state’s deficit. Thirty-three states already use a progressive income tax, which requires the wealthy to pay more because they benefit most from an economy loaded with tax loopholes and other advantages. Another way to raise revenue would be a small transaction tax on electronic stock trades. But Gov. Bruce Rauner is interested in eliminating unions and privatizing government jobs while the state slides further in debt. I guess billionaires aren’t concerned about tax fairness.Tom Minnerick, ElginCops go to where the crime is
I hope many viewers had the chance to watch Dean Angelo, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, when he was interviewed on WTTW-TV’s Chicago Tonight recently. He addressed several key points that seem to have gotten lost in the rush to “cure” the perceived ills of law enforcement.
Angelo, in addressing the charge of racism within the Chicago PD, reminded people that police officers don’t go to areas of color, they go to areas of crime. He also stated the mission that every man and woman on the force has when they put on the badge every day, and that is to serve and protect all families, particularly those that can’t protect themselves.
Probably the most important point made by Angelo was that, unlike many members of special commissions, police officers are in neighborhoods every day and night and they know what problems honest, law-abiding residents face in their daily lives.
Being a police officer is a dangerous, demanding and vital job. The Illinois FOP backs President Angelo and Lodge 7 members in striving to do the best we can for the communities we serve.
Chris Southwood, President
Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge
Springfield, Illinois
