Sunday letters: Save Venetian Night by moving it to Monroe Harbor

SHARE Sunday letters: Save Venetian Night by moving it to Monroe Harbor
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Lakefront Festival Queen Diedre Lee Litt waves from her float at beginning of the Venetian Nights water parade in 1975. / Photo by M. Leon Lopez

Venetian Night has been canceled this year! When Venetian Night was at the south end of the Monroe Street Harbor, families could set up blankets, chairs and coolers and really enjoy the night — by the shore and on the grass. And the event was packed with people! Moving it to Navy Pier was a mistake. People had to stand; there was no good way to gather with your friends and family. Was it put there so all the business on the Pier could make extra money? Bring Venetian Night back to the south end of the Monroe Street harbor! The boaters would then participate.

Buzzy Cafarelli, Beverly

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Trump damage will last decades

The more we see of Donald Trump, the less I believe he wants to win. But even when he loses, Trump will have done significant damage to America society. The process of delegitimizing the political opposition really took off as Newt Gingrich’s influence increased in Congress in the 1980s and 1990s. And that became the primary tactic for the GOP as soon as Barack Obama was elected. If the president agreed with them, they changed their minds and backed off their own positions.

Trump does not expect to win. Trump does not want to win. And yet he is fanning racial, religious and ethnic fear and hatred in a way that we haven’t seen since George Wallace in 1968. His rhetoric is widening divisions in our society that we have been trying to heal. He is threatening our bedrock democratic process by claiming that if he loses the election, that means it was stolen. He is poisoning the well before the next president is even elected.

Michael Hart, West Ridge

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