Online danger
While we parents are often loath to admit it, let s face it, our children do not see us as cool. So I understand the basis of your article, “Awww, Mom! Stay off my Facebook page, would ya?” (News, Aug. 26), which noted the embarrassment young people feel when parents try to appear hip online. The article suggests it is time for parents to back off.
With that point, I must disagree.
Sorry, kids, but Mom and Dad should remain your Facebook friends. It’s for your own good. My office surveyed 4,231 Illinois students in grades 3-12 last year about their Internet usage. The results make a strong case for Mom and Dad playing a part in their children’s cyber world to keep their children both safe and civil: 24 percent had been approached by a stranger online; 18 percent had been threatened online; 24 percent said they received an inappropriate picture online
Our survey found that many children said they had their first social networking profile by age 12. Parents would scoff at the idea of allowing their 12-year-old daughter or son to grab a bike and venture out alone on a trip to a distant city to hand out posters filled with personal information and a photo.
Yet, using a mouse instead of a bicycle, that is a trip millions of kids take each day on the Internet. The Internet is indispensible, yet potentially dangerous. My office has been involved in more than 300 arrests of Internet predators. We have also trained more than 128,000 students, parents and teachers on Internet safety and worked with more than 10,000 law enforcement officers on policing the Internet over the past four years.
Parents also must make sure their children are both civil and treated civilly while online. Forty-three percent of teens report being victims of cyber bullying, yet only 10 percent ever report it to their parents. And sometimes our own little angels lose their halos. Our survey showed 25 percent of young Internet users admit saying something inappropriate online or in a text message — another reason parents must be their children’s friends.
Of course, parents need to abide by some rules too. Making sure your kids are safe and civil online is one thing. Sharing photos of how cute they looked on their first day of kindergarten or espousing the virtues of Justin Bieber is probably going too far. Safety doesn’t have to equal humiliation. Sometimes the best adult Facebook friends keep pretty quiet.
— Lisa Madigan, Illinois attorney general, Chicago
Up and down
It’s pretty simple to analyze President Obama’s approval rating. Unemployment is the most important issue and it hasn’t improved enough since he took power. There are various reasons why and people could go back and forth debating their opinions.
The war in Iraq is over, the Gulf spill has been stopped and is being cleaned up, we’ve gotten many pieces of legislation through. A lot has been accomplished since he took office, the problem is none of it is bringing down unemployment fast enough and everyone has theories ranging from too much spending, not enough spending, the fear of taxes going up, take your pick and it’s really debatable whether it’s his fault.
The bottom line is it’s the thorn in his side. If unemployment goes down enough before 2012, there is no doubt he will be re-elected, and if it doesn’t, a second term for him is a tossup.
—Jason Ryan, Chicago
Roll the dice
Mayor Daley seems to be on a “privatizing” binge. Your article (“Will private fest leave bad Taste?” News, Aug. 29) reminds me of the little guy at the convenience store who is always playing the scratch-off lottery game. Who knows, maybe he’ll hit the jackpot, but that’s certainly not a way to live or govern!
— Jack Hughes, Chicago
Hands off
As I’ve followed news coverage of Washington’s Fiscal Reform Commission it’s become clear to me that many members on this committee are gunning for Social Security cuts even though the program hasn’t added a dime to our deficit.
I paid for these benefits and refuse to let these so-called “fiscal hawks” use Social Security as a piggy bank to pay for a fiscal fiasco caused by astronomical health care costs, the excesses of Wall Street and the recession. Social Security cuts will not fix our deficit problem, yet this seems to be the main objective of this commission.
Social Security’s modest benefit pays retired workers an average of just $14,050 this year. With the stock market meltdown, housing market crash and high level of unemployment, people need Social Security more than ever. We don’t need billionaires like Peter G. Peterson telling us to make tough sacrifices while they reap the benefits of fiscal policies that have made them rich.
It would be a great disservice to our grandchildren if we sat back quietly while these fiscal hawks spread lies about Social Security to sway public opinion against it. We can’t let that happen.
— Carol Stanton, Oak Lawn
Pension attack
The Tribune has been attacking the pensions of Illinois teachers. Why? Teachers who are receiving these pensions have contributed to them for their entire careers, which have a 12-year minimum. It is not like they have not earned the pensions.
Why, also, are you attacking only teachers? Why not attack the pensions of the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police Department, and all of the state’s fire departments? These are major expenses for the state and if teachers’ pensions are attacked, why not theirs? You know exactly why. The unions for those hard working men and women would have their people walk off their jobs in a heartbeat.
And, more important, why are you not attacking the pensions of all the politicians who have accumulated sometimes three and four different pensions just because they served the public for a few years?
Your attacks are putting the blame for Illinois financial difficulties on teachers only which is wrong and totally unfair. Teachers’ pensions would not even be in this conversion if the state of Illinois had not insisted that the funding be put through state government years ago just so Illinois could borrow from the fund. Illinois has now borrowed so much from the fund that it can no longer be expected to pay it back. Is this fair? Of course not.
Start attacking the politicians’ pensions and let us see how fast a true resolution to Illinois’ troubles gets worked on.
— Robert Murphy, New Lenox
Winter of recovery?
With the return of children to the classroom, and Labor Day right around the corner, the unmistakable signs of summer coming to the end are in the air.
With that in mind, I wonder when the question will be asked of the Obama administration concerning when the “Summer of Recovery” will start. It seems to me that with the $812 billion stimulus bill, and the promises that were made when passing it, we should have something positive to show by now. Of course, we do have a larger federal deficit and higher tax bill for all of us, but I don’t think either of those will lower the unemployment rate from its current near-10 percent level.
“Winter of Recovery” anyone?
— Tom Sheridan, Mount Prospect
