I get it. A bicycle is the last thing to try to squeeze onto a packed train while folks are trying to get to work. The CTA has allowed bikes on trains for years with limitations on the number of bikes per car and no bikes at all between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
But there is no rush hour anymore. There are only people who have had to go into work throughout the past year and a half. I haven’t seen more than three people in the same train car since early 2020. Can we go ahead and drop the rush hour restrictions? At least until there’s a rush hour again?
We’ve been able to make quick changes to liquor sale rules. It’s good for business and good for workers to allow for carryout cocktails, and it’s good for workers to actually have a hybrid commute on the train with a bicycle during the times that people are actually commuting.
Dropping the rush hour restrictions won’t require a vote by the City Council or billions in federal pandemic aid. Just stop enforcing it.
— Charley Nelson, Chicago
End the air show
Last Saturday, I sat in my church office with a grieving widow. We had to stop praying because the Blue Angels were so loud.
It could have been worse.
When the Blue Angels fly for shows, we hear the roar, then see the planes. But when fighter jets are actually deployed, they hit Mach speed and arrive before their own noise. The sound comes afterward. The only ones who hear it are traumatized survivors. The dead don’t hear the roar.
This year’s version of the Air and Water Show wasn’t just loud; it was tone-deaf. Chicago is grief-stricken by nonstop gun deaths. Our national leaders are flailing in the aftermath of a failed war. And our city is home to many refugees, some of whom are surely haunted by the sound of war.
Meanwhile, each year in late August, we’re asked to regard killing machines as something like floats in a Fourth of July parade. In fact, the Blue Angels have more in common with North Korea and Nazi Germany than American entertainment or American patriotism.
Here in Chicago, it is time to end this annual “show.”
— The Rev. Matt Fitzgerald, Chicago
The size of outrage
The tragedy of the death of Chicago police Officer Ella French was heartbreaking. The size and media coverage of her funeral was inspiring.
Imagine a time when every violent death is met with the same sense of community outrage and sadness.
— Rick Vogt, Chicago
Lockers in parks
If the Chicago Park District contracts with Amazon to place hundreds of lockers in the city’s parks — a terrible idea — the matter should be called what it is — advertising — and billed as such.
— Nelson Borelli, Chicago
Bush’s culpability
Mike Luckovich’s cartoon in last Saturday’s Tribune gets right to the point. It’s time that George W. Bush is held accountable for both the Afghanistan and Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” wars. He started something he could not finish, then got out of Washington and let others deal with his mess.
By contrast, his father, George H.W. Bush, conducted Operation Desert Storm in less than two months. The son is nowhere close to the level of his father, despite all his privileges.
If the Democrats are to hold hearings on the Afghanistan withdrawal, they should start with George W. Bush, who started the U.S. on the mission.
— Jim Halas, Norridge
Send hospital ship
If we can wage two wars at once, can anyone explain why we haven’t sent one of our hospital ships to Haiti, in desperate need, while evacuating Kabul?
— Ted Z. Manuel, Chicago
Editorial is on point
The editorial “Alas, no time for celebration. The delta variant has made sure of that.” (Aug. 24) is the best opinion piece I’ve read on COVID-19 during the entire pandemic.
It begins with a real event, smiles wryly at the situational irony and draws some common-sense conclusions, namely that with the COVID-19 pandemic, “Surety is for suckers.” Best COVID-19 statement ever!
— Julia Eberlin, Golden Eagle, Illinois
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