What’s more dangerous: Smoking pot, or running stop signs?
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR June 18, 2012 9:32PM
Updated: July 20, 2012 6:10AM
I can’t believe Ald. Roberto Maldonado claims that running a stop sign has “minimal” consequences. More than 9,000 fatal accidents occur every year in the United States due to running stop signs. Compare that to the annual zero Americans dead from smoking marijuana and we clearly can see which action indeed has “minimal” consequences.
Joel Martinez, Garfield Park
Plea to Sen. Durbin
People’s Resource Center urges Sen. Richard Durbin to support an important amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill being debated in Congress. We support the Gillibrand amendment to restore $4.5 million in cuts to SNAP (food stamp) benefits that have been proposed by the Senate Agriculture Committee. The proposed cuts would impact low-income families who currently benefit from state “Heat and Eat” programs that make both utility bills and food bills more affordable. The cuts would eliminate meals and cause real harm for families, particularly households with older adults and people living with disabilities. Every winter at People’s Resource Center, we see hundreds of DuPage families who are facing the impossible choice of paying for heat or for food. The proposed cut to SNAP would worsen this hardship and cause more families to depend increasingly on food pantries like ours to make ends meet.
We ask our DuPage County neighbors to join us in asking Sen. Durbin to support this important amendment. We must protect the food and nutrition safety net for the nearly 2 million food-insecure residents of Illinois.
Kimberley C. Perez, Executive Director People’s Resource Center, Wheaton
In her Sunday column, Michael Sneed asks whether “Rahm (would) take a page out of former President Ronald Reagan’s handbook and issue orders to fire striking teachers . . . and immediately hire their replacements?” In short, no. The air traffic controllers are federal employees, and though they have a union, they are not allowed to strike. Chicago teachers were kept from striking only by the 75 percent vote necessary for authorization. If Chicago teachers strike, it would be legal. A mass firing, however, would be an unfair labor practice.
Edward Dziedzic, Rogers Park
