Public servants should listen to the citizens
Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton, a Bronzeville resident standing near President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday, said when she saw Obama’s tears, “it was humbling.”
“I think its got to be an eyeopening and humbling experience to be in charge of all of us and meet so many of us that have become survivors of gun violence,” she said.
Obama met privately with the families before his remarks in the East Room. “He gets to interact with us and see what the effects are on our own families and reflect, ‘Wow, what would I do if that were me?’ ” she said. That says it all!
If every public servant from our governor to our aldermen would take a page from our president’s notebook, we would be living in a much better, different state and city. And if we did the same in Washington, D.C., our country would be changed for the much better. Go to the citizens to find out what they need to live a decent life.
Northa Johnson, Loop
Disappointed citizens
I just finished reading Mark Brown’s column about how Gov. Bruce Rauner is disappointed in Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Really? Let’s take out the “disappointment meter” and see how both individuals rate. Perhaps if our governor knew what he was doing, the state would not be in such dire straits and its people so desperate. Maybe if our services were not held hostage, citizens would not feel helpless.
I have lived in Illinois my entire life and have never seen a poorer excuse for a state leader. As a retired special education teacher and a human being, I cannot believe that Rauner would actually say that he is going to hold CPS students’ educations hostage unless he gets his way. Is this a second-grade playground? Is the bully going to hold onto our jump rope until we scream “uncle”?
Let’s get together as voters, parents, seniors, Illinois citizens and humans and scream ENOUGH! If anyone should be crying tears of disappointment it is the citizens of Illinois.
Rae Anne Norlock, Darien
Zero tolerance
A senior city attorney resigns in disgrace. O.K. Going forward? We will make sure that the city attorneys REALLY understand that willfully concealing evidence in shooting cases is not upholding the high standards that the citizens of Chicago have come to expect from the city’s legal representatives.
Just to make sure everyone understands that he is serious about reform, Mayor Rahm Emanuel employed one of the more hackneyed expressions of our times: zero tolerance. That will take care of it! Zero tolerance for missing files or doctored eyewitness testimony or shooting unarmed suspects or fraudulent educational leaders or treasury embezzlement or whatever. That takes care of it.
John Bourke, Huntley
Tone deaf
Maybe Rick Morrissey is the one who is tone deaf, not the Blackhawks [“Were Blackhawks tone deaf with ceremony honoring Patrick Kane?”]. He states that no charges were filed against Kane and the evidence was found not to support the accusation. How long should Kane have to pay for being falsely accused? Not one minute longer than he did. What a ridiculous column.
Chris Michalik, Glenview