Illinois services need capital bill

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Updated: August 3, 2011 6:54PM

Isupport the capital bill because I support Chicago. I think it’s crazy that our legislators continue to bicker over this. They passed it just two years ago with broad, bipartisan support.

It funds projects in our community, and it creates jobs throughout the state. It is as simple as that. We can’t fund these projects and create these jobs without the capital bill. We can’t accept any delay. With unemployment on the rise and families continuing to struggle, I hope they take action to support these construction jobs immediately.

It’s important to note that the entire program must be supported. Each funding source represents billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs. For example, legalized video gaming funds more than 30 percent of the program. Without it, or without any of the other funding sources, significantly less will be invested in our state.

We need jobs, and we need better roads, bridges and schools. Don’t let us down.

Jillian Miller, Lincoln Park

It starts in the home

In her June column, Mary Mitchell states that “. . . the black community has long had to deal with roving mobs of black youth” and further states “. . . tourists and residents in the city’s wealthiest ZIP codes are getting a taste of what residents in poorer areas have lived with for years.”

She states this as if it’s about time that everyone shared in this type of thuggish, moronic and violent behavior. My mother and father grew up very poor causing my father to only receive a sixth-grade education. He then worked in a southern Illinois coal mine from the age of 9 until he was 18 years old. The result of this was emphysema and black lung disease. My mother, on the other hand, grew up in Chicago. Her mother made aprons during the Depression, and her two sisters and one brother walked door to door in more affluent neighborhoods trying to sell them and earn a few dollars. At no time did they strong-arm anyone. At no time did they hit someone in the face with a hardball. Violence was not part of their family culture. Tonia Rush, mother of accused “flash mobber” Dvonte Sykes, states that her son’s bail would be lower if the crimes were committed on the South or West sides of the city. I didn’t catch her apology for her son’s inexcusable violent actions.

Perhaps there would be fewer “roving mobs of black youth” if there were more responsible parents involved in the lives of these misguided youths. My father or mother generally knew what I was up to at all times, and had I been involved in activity of this sort, coming home to face up to them would have been worse than the arrest, believe me!

There has also been mention that this type of activity gets no media attention when it occurs on the south or west sides of the city. I seem to remember 2010’s incident on the South Side involving the shooting of a preteen by 68-year-old Margaret Matthews being front page news. I also remember the outrage I personally felt regarding the harassment Ms. Matthews endured at the hands of this mini thug.

I would love to see the black leaders such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson step forward and condemn this sort of behavior and call on the parents of these youths to take responsibility for and get involved with their children. Perhaps a statement regarding this unacceptable behavior would lend credibility to their other causes.

I see this type of behavior from these roving mobs of maniacs as a family problem, not a societal problem. No amount of money or youth programs or parks or pools will fix this. Mothers and fathers certainly can.

Michael McCune, Tinley Park