I must express my disappointment in the article titled “Winning Numbers” [April 7]. First of all, Earhart School is not in an “impoverished neighborhood.” I have lived down the street from the school for 36 years. Surely your writer gave the neighborhood a once-over before printing such a description, I found very little to admire in his description of the day’s activities at the school. The teacher “draws the shades to block out the traffic near 93rd Street and Stony Island Avenue.” Come on!
The most noise and congestion occurs about 3 in the afternoon when buses vie for parking space to pick up the students who are brought in from some other neighborhood, and the parents honk as they park their cars and SUVs.
You report that children must sit in their seats for six hours a day, have gym only once a week and have no library. Is this what it takes to raise test scores? Your writer had few if any positive things to say that would make another school want to emulate Earhart. Having only 300 students from kindergarten through 8th grade is ideal, but how many schools can do that?
Anita D. Seaberry / Chicago
On gay parenthood
I was most distressed to open the usually excellent Magazine section of the Chicago Tribune on March 24 [” ‘A Typical Suburban Family’ “]. Instead of recognition of Holy Week, I was greeted with four smiling faces and a color six-page spread on the joys of homosexual relationships in regard to adoption of children.
I am not in a position to judge these men and women nor do I intend to, but I do not believe the usually conservative Chicago Tribune is the place to praise and highlight such a lifestyle. It is a deep problem that only God can answer. I also cannot begin to answer the plight of the children who do not have parents, but I do not believe that placing them in a homosexual atmosphere is the solution to the problem.
Marilyn L. Sigler / Chicago Heights
A rough ride
My children are teenagers and know that there are lesbian and homosexual relationships, but your photo on the cover sparked a whole new set of questions and interesting discussions on gay people who decide to raise children. I explained to them that their mother and I believe in the support and guidance good parents can provide and that it makes little difference what sex either of them are. However, they asked us if the children would be made fun of in school because their parents are the same sex, and we answered yes. If society has accepted this practice and newspapers are willing to run articles about it, then those children better put their helmets on. There may be a bumpy road ahead.
Kurt Paulson / Woodridge
Love is the issue
Thank you so much for your article on gay parents. It is high time that people realize that this issue is not about sex, but about love! (Yes, there is a difference between sex and love!) Gay parents are just as capable of loving a child as straight parents are. When it comes right down to it, isn’t love the only important thing as far as a child is concerned?
Bill Otten/ Madison, Wis.
What would he think?
I absolutely loved your piece on Soldier Field [“The Last Stand,” Feb. 17]. My great-great-grandfather, John Bain, was a South Park commissioner during the building of the arena and partially funded the building of Soldier Field. I know that a plaque was bolted to one of the south entryways with his name on it along with other board members during the dedication ceremony all those years ago. I’d love to know what he would think of the current renovation project!
Dawn Young / Orland Hills
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