Hit the reset button in governor’s race with Libertarian Party

With the two major parties more concerned with partisan bickering and scoring points than actually getting together and working for the good of the nation, 2020 could be the year of the Libertarian. The latest fad on social media is the #walkaway movement, where people are expressing their disillusion with the Democratic Party. So where to turn now that your own party has betrayed you? Welcome to the new normal folks, and cross over to the Libertarian Party.

We have two miserable major candidates for governor this upcoming November, both throwing their billions down the Illinois sewer system. But we have an option to start a movement. While more than a quarter of Illinois residents say they would support an unnamed third party candidate, according to a recent poll, most of them don’t know the name Kash Jackson. He is your third party option, a nobody that nobody sent.

Rauner and Pritzker are sniping and name calling, spending and spending, trying to convince you how bad the other one is. They are both awful choices. We need to hit the reset button, not the snooze button. Kash Jackson is the reset. Can we give him a chance to get his message across and let voters decide? Give him a little press. Let him into the debates.

Scot Sinclair, Third Lake

Goodbye Mr. Pruitt, and good riddance

In regard to his disgraced, outgoing EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump had the following to say: “He’s a terrific guy. He’ll go and do great things and have a wonderful life, I hope.”

I think it’s safe to say that Donald Trump is not echoing the thoughts and words of a majority of his fellow citizens. After little more than a year in office, Mr. Pruitt has already done more damage to our environment than all of his predecessors combined. And while I don’t wish anyone any harm, I wouldn’t shed a tear of remorse if Mr. Pruitt suddenly experienced some of the ill effects of his reckless deregulation.

If only he could take his co-conspirator with him. They could ride off into the sunset together — Trump in his expensive pin-striped suit labeled “made in China” and Pruitt in his equally expensive tactical pants.

Goodbye Mr. Pruitt, don’t let the door of your $43,000 phone booth hit you on the way out.

Robert Ory, Elgin

Who are the real “criminals”?

We know how horrid and threatening the countries are that our border-crossers are fleeing. For the most part, they are asylum-seekers, and our proper procedure is to detain them and then arrange an asylum hearing. Calling them criminals would be akin to calling everyone who enters a bank, a bank robber.

We now know Trump’s motivations for his administration’s policy toward these people: Call them criminals to inflame the base, and then treat them cruelly to discourage others thinking of applying for asylum. It is not surprising to realize the Trump administration includes the very people operating outside the law — they are the actual “criminals.”

Lee Knohl, Evanston

Crimes against children

How dare U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) lecture us about war crimes in Syria against children when the United States is committing crimes against children in our very own country!

Kinzinger is turning a blind eye to the Trump administration’s brutal treatment of vulnerable families. Who gave him the right to tell us who to have more compassion for?

All the children in this world deserve our compassion and help, whether they come from Syria, Mexico, Guatemala or the United States. It is our moral responsibility to improve their lives.

Debra Doyle, Morris

Sickening hot-dog spectacle

Those annual hot dog-eating contests are always nationally televised, even though they are so disgusting and stupid that they shouldn’t be dignified by the media or even staged in the first place. To hear ESPN’s national morning hosts applaud this year’s repeat winner as a true champion and an American hero was almost as nauseating as the sickening spectacle itself.

Ed Stone, Northbrook