As I sit on one side of the living room reading the morning paper, my wife is sitting on the other side knitting an afghan blanket for our granddaughter. The afghan is not all one color. A band of blue is followed by a band of pink, followed by a band of green, and very soon these colors will be repeated.
Looking at the afghan from across the room, it suddenly occurs to me that our country is made up of people of many different colors and ethnic backgrounds, and that together we are all part of a great tapestry called America.
Each of these groups is special and has given something special to America. Indigenous Americans, our First People, contributed corn. Lt. Edward “Butch” O’Hare, our nation’s first top gun, added his name to an airport. Maya Lin, an architect from Ohio, designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Irving Berlin gave us “God Bess America,” a song to sing during the dark days of 9/11.
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. We want to hear from our readers. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of 375 words. Check out our guidelines.
Our recent days have also been dark, with contention during political debates. This is normal; political debates are always contentious. But there has also been hatred. A man is hit in the head and sent to the hospital. Then he is hit again with a nasty, vicious rumor that he is having an affair while his wife is away from home. Why? Is it because Paul Pelosi is the husband of the Speaker of the U.S. House and belongs to a different political party?
The midterm elections are over. What we need now is healing and a search for unity. Could one of our national leaders go on national television and suggest that all of us join together in singing “God Bess America?”
Think of it. Busloads of schoolchildren, crabby old men on street corners, people jammed together on airplanes, politicians on both sides of the aisle from state houses across the land and the halls of Congress, and even the Proud Boys — all joining together to sing “God Bless America.”
It would be a beautiful thing to see — and hear.
William Dodd Brown, Lincoln Square
Don’t make homeowners shoulder tax burden
If adjustments to commercial property assessments result in a governmental budget shortfall, raising homeowners’ assessments to close the gap shouldn’t be an available solution. The only solution available is to reduce the budget.
To prevent circumventing county budget reductions, homeowner assessment increases should be limited, then capped at the 100-year average rate of inflation.
Warren Rodgers Jr., Matteson
