Letters: The arts help us understand ourselves and each other

SHARE Letters: The arts help us understand ourselves and each other
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Chicago Shakespeare Theater is among the local arts groups that have received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. | PHOTO BY LIZ LAUREN

Jacob Sullum isn’t reasonable [“Arts in America will do just fine without subsidies,” column, Friday]. It isn’t that the funding for the arts is minuscule or small potatoes. The point is the arts are underfunded. The creative aspect of our nature is fundamental to our well-being and survival. When we lose it, we lose ourselves, and inevitably, lost is the connection with life around us. It is a very important investment.

SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. Please include your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes.

The arts fuel inspiration, curiosity, and discovery. They help us foster understanding across cultures, if not also help us develop empathy with each other. Nurturing the arts gives us insight into who we are. That opens doors to change, preservation, exploration and innovation.

We seek many ways to reconnect with ourselves and our community. The arts consistently bring people together with a shared empowerment and new economic opportunities.

What we do will speak for what we value.

Alex Kovacs, Andersonville

Misdirection

President Donald Trump speaks Friday in the Oval Office. | AP

President Donald Trump speaks Friday in the Oval Office. | AP

Donald Trump is running the White House the same way he ran his campaign. Every time he wants to change the subject, he uses misdirection like a magician, doing something utterly outrageous to distract our attention. Like exiling CNN and the New York Times from a press briefing. So, the question is: What is it he doesn’t want us to see?

Michael Hart, West Ridge

Police have rights

In response to the Sun-Times editorial [“Rid contracts of loopholes that protect misdeeds,” Sunday] on changes to the Chicago police contract that would call for the elimination of the name and address of someone making a complaint against a police officer: In other words investigators should be allowed to pursue anonymous complaints. This action is being pursued by the City Council Black Caucus, which I find some what ironic coming from a Council that has consistently voted against anyone investigating them.

After spending 33 years on the Chicago Police Department, I can tell you that most certainty cops are not above the law. On the other hand they are not below the law either. The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution gives every American the right to be confronted by his or her accuser and that the evidence against him be presented. Should every murderer, rapist and child molester be afforded a right that a police officer should be denied?

Bad cops should be weeded out and sent packing, no question, just as we would desperately like to wipe out the violence that has plagued our city. But to do that by taking rights away that are afforded to all Americans is not only unconstitutional but also a dangerous way to set an example of what a free society is all about.

Bob Angone, Miramar Beach, Florida

Make it harder to drive

Kudos to state Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove,  for trying to catch Illinois up with the rest of the country in regard to our speed limits [“Speed-limit plan needs speed bump,” Editorial, Monday]. Higher speeds are not the reason for higher rates of accidents. It is our lackadaisical approach to handing out drivers licenses like a Pez dispenser. We need to make it harder to get that privilege, not a right, to drive a car. One person’s stupidity can ruin it for the rest of us, be it ridiculous restrictions or a fatal accidents, and the number on a speed limit sign isn’t going to change that.

Scot Sinclair, Third Lake

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