Additional honors for Jean Baptiste Point du Sable seem unnecessary

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable is an interesting figure in Chicago history, and he is appropriately recognized by having a bust of his likeness just north of the Michigan Avenue Bridge, near where he made his home in the 1780s. Also named in his honor is the bridge itself, a park and a museum, among other places. The Chicago River Walk might be a worthy addition to that list, since it was along the river that he lived.

DuSable may have been the first non-indigenous settler in the area now known as Chicago, but he didn’t stay all that long. According to Encyclopedia Chicago, he abandoned the area as early as 1800, when he “moved to near present-day St. Charles, Missouri,” where he died in 1818. Thus, he never saw Fort Dearborn, which wasn’t built until 1803, nor was he around during the attack that decimated the settlement in 1812.

Considering that Chicago had fewer than 4,500 residents as late as three years after its incorporation as a city in 1837, DuSable’s departure over a generation earlier leaves his role in its growth and prosperity open to question. Additional honors seem unnecessary.

J.L. Stern, Highland Park

Alderman’s statements lack knowledge

Ald. George Cardenas was interviewed by the Sun-Times about the fatal Chicago Police Department shooting of Anthony Alvarez ,who was armed with a handgun at the time. He said “the guy didn’t look like he was a threat to the officer,” and he also mentioned that Illinois law allows you to carry a gun, so a lot of people are gonna have guns in their hands.

Those statements alone are stunning in their lack of knowledge and information, and clearly common sense here is not part of the equation. So a guy running down the street with a gun in his hand is not a threat? By the way, yes, you can own a gun legally in Illinois, but we are not an open carry state. The gun has to be concealed, not carried around in your hand.

Comments like those from Cardenas are irresponsible and inflammatory. The media should challenge them.

Richard Barber, Mount Greenwood

Vaccine divisiveness

One of your letterwriters spouts the same divisiveness that has spread throughout our country with her suggestion that anyone who doesn’t get the vaccine “should be banished to some island.”

Why stop there? Smokers should be included on that island because second-hand smoke causes cancer in nonsmokers. There are very valid reasons for not getting the vaccine and everyone’s opinion matters and should be respected. Before long, Sox fans will banish Cub fans to an island, and vice versa.

Mike Kirchberg, Little Italy