Don’t let a small group of naysayers kill the Obama Presidential Center

People visit Selma, Alabama to walk the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Or they head to Montgomery to see the bus in which Rosa Parks sat. Or maybe they take a trip to Detroit to let the waves of the Motown Sound wash over them.

History doesn’t live just in books. As Americans, we need physical spaces that we can see and touch to fully understand our shared experience and to connect us.

With its plan to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago is poised to cement its place in history as the home of America’s first black president.

Chicago deserves this honor. President Obama launched his career in Chicago, started his family on the South Side, and accepted the nomination to become president in Grant Park. In the community around Jackson Park, he married Michelle and played golf dozens of times.

But all of that history is under threat, thanks to a lawsuit from a small group of people who don’t speak for the rest of Chicago.

When George Lucas decided he’d had enough of a handful of people who do nothing but complain, he moved his $1 billion museum to Los Angeles. Did that help Chicago? We cannot let this happen again. It is imperative that real Chicagoans raise their voice in support of the Obama Presidential Center to keep this important, historic gem in our city.

Dan Shomon, Irving Park

Name-calling a political tradition

In an editorial, the Sun-Times attempted to rap both Gov. Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker on the knuckles for their guttural “ad hominem” campaigns. One would wish, of course, for more civil and issue-directed campaigns, but that has hardly ever been the case in U.S. politics. As Donald Trump proved, there is political currency in name-calling. (Ask “Crooked Hillary” and “little Marco.”)

Avoiding the issues and charging full speed ahead has been, for ages, the modus operandi of our politicians.

William P Gottschalk, Lake forest

All super rich guys are not alike

Laura Washington’s Monday column seems to put Bruce Rauner and J.B. Pritzker in the same billionaire boat. She seems to be saying there’s no difference, that we can’t trust either one. While I agree with about 90 percent of Washinton’s columns, this one does a disservice to the voters. In terms of values, policy positions and making a contribution to the city of Chicago, there is no comparison. Pritzker is the better candidate. And we have experienced the pain of Rauner’s silly budget impasse!

Silvio J. Anichini, Edgewater