Make NASCAR’s street race better, the Chicago way

We need to make the Chicago NASCAR course feel more true to the actual Chicago driving experience. I propose the following additions to the course:

• Have a slalom course where they have to swerve in and out of all the double parked cars and the vehicles making a left turn without their blinkers on.
• Set one of the cars on fire for good measure. Nothing like a good “Car-B-Que” on your commute. Since it’s near July 4th, make sure the vehicle is packed with fireworks smuggled in from Indiana.
• An obstacle course where they have to avoid all the potholes, dibs, bike lane reflectors, jutted-out curb crossings, and pedestrian islands.
• Since the race cars are close to the ground, sprinkle in a few of those sewer grates sticking up from the road.

• Add plenty of speed humps, and those huge metal plates barely covering an open trench, so they flex every time they ride over them.
• A red light camera to make sure no one jumps off the line.
• Put a parking meter box in the pit stop areas.
• Add a speed camera, so the city can make $100 on each lap.
• And finally, at least one of the course segments should be under construction.

Eric J. Kudzin, Belmont Cragin

I’m not happy about riding CTA buses

Wonder why bus ridership is down?

I’m at Foster/Sheridan, outside Mariano’s, on the bus, waiting, waiting for relief driver. Most got off. Relief finally comes. Next stop, typical sight, a bus out of commission. Nearing my my stop, at Hollywood/Sheridan, I call out my usual: “Walker getting off. I need the ramp please.”

Drivers had previously told me to do this so they could stop at a safe place. This driver stopped at a narrow strip of sidewalk and grass. I tried but couldn’t get down, scared of tipping over!

I said, “Drivers always stop further down.” Driver retorted, “All the same, everywhere.” Young guy offered to help, guided my walker but we could barely push it as one side was on the grass. He exclaimed, “Wow, that was tough!” Could not have made it without the Good Samaritan.

I ride buses four to five times a week. Buses out of commission at/near Mariano’s are a common sight. One day last week, three were down.

I have no choice and will continue to ride for shopping and doctor appointments but not happy about it.

Barbara Tomko, Edgewater

The ultimate foolishness: Bible-banning

We know the current idiocy of trying to ban disliked ideas has reached its peak when the Bible, also called The Good Book, has been banned from elementary and middle schools in Salt Lake City for “vulgarity and violence,” a pseudonym for sex.

Forget that the Bible has survived intact for some 5,000 years without a documented case of its content making bad citizens out of good citizens of any age. Would it even be the Bible if it didn’t deal with all aspects of human behavior? Nor, safe to say, is the Bible on teenagers’ reading lists for its prurient content. Never mind that teenagers already know that any aspect of sex is readily available via the internet to anyone in all its graphic permutations. Or, that the mechanics of sex are likely taught in biology class under reproduction.

But don’t despair: It has not been banned from high schools there, which means kids 15 and older can heave a sigh of relief, because soon enough they can catch up on their reading of scripture and see what they had missed earlier, if they hadn’t already secretly done so to see what all the fuss was about.

Either everybody wants to get on the banning bandwagon, or this is just a clever scheme to get teenagers to sneak-read the Bible using reverse psychology.

Ted Z. Manuel, Hyde Park