These days, many of us dread reading the news. Each day brings new fears about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, voter suppression, the environment, health care, higher costs and more. We are all realizing how our lives are being rapidly changed against our will, and many people feel helpless.
The greatest risk to our country and democracy would be if we just accept what is happening. There is something you can and should do: Vote!
More than ever before, our elections are incredibly important. We must make sure that our local, state and national representatives will work for us.
This year, in Illinois, we have the opportunity to identify and vote for candidates who will fight for us and our country. Voting isn’t just a right; it’s a duty. It’s essential that we use our power as citizens to elect the candidates who will best represent us in our hometowns, in Springfield and in Washington.
Start by voting in the Illinois primary election on March 17. Early voting has already started. Your primary vote is needed to help select the strongest candidates for November. County clerk websites publish sample ballots so you can research the best candidates for you.
It is even more important to vote in the Nov. 3 general election. As Thomas Jefferson said, “We do not have government by the majority. We have a government by the majority who participate.”
You can support our democracy. Participate. Speak up. Attend rallies. Vote. Bring a friend. Our future depends on it.
— Kathy Winterhalter, St. Charles
Advice for voting by mail
The U.S. Postal Service taking one to three days to postmark or just process mail is not new. We’ve heard anecdotal evidence this has been going on with vote-by-mail ballots since at least 2024. What appears to be “new” is that this procedure was finally codified in December and made public.
Our advice to voters is to focus on what they should do to protect their vote-by-mail ballots:
- Use a secure drop box where available or return your vote-by-mail ballot directly to the election authority’s office.
- Use a drop box for this purpose at early voting sites.
- Go inside the post office or postal retail site and request your ballot be postmarked.
- Request and return vote-by-mail ballots as early as possible to avoid possible delays in processing.
- Consider the last day as March 10 to put your ballot in the U.S. mail.
— Becky Simon, president, League of Women Voters of Illinois
Tinley Park police’s failure
The 2008 massacre inside a Tinley Park Lane Bryant remains unsolved. It’s about time the nearly 56,000 residents of that village call out their police department for its lack of guts, communication, transparency and results. When is enough, enough?
Despite a $100,000 reward, a sketch and evidence left at the scene, the case has never seen an arrest or a suspect. Tinley Park police have failed their community, the people and most importantly the victims’ families. Shame on them.
— Charlie Minn, Chicago
Eisenhower’s intervention
Regarding the excellent op-ed by Michael Peregrine highlighting the legacy of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (“President Eisenhower deserves our gratitude, not indifference,” Feb. 16), he states that Eisenhower’s “support for the Civil Rights Movement was generally passive.”
I take issue with that statement. In what I believe is an injustice to Eisenhower’s legacy, the author fails to recognize the significance and historical perspective that Eisenhower brought to that era. He had the courage to mobilize the National Guard to enforce federal law so that nine Black students could be admitted to Little Rock Central High School after they were denied entry by Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus and an angry mob that opposed desegregation.
The story of the Little Rock Nine, I believe, was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement and is well documented in a series of books, and it is highlighted at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum in Abilene, Kansas.
That moment in time deserves recognition.
— Don Olynyk, Glen Ellyn
Supporting Little Rock Nine
Michael Peregrine observes that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was passive in his support for civil rights. How can he forget one of the great defining moments of the Civil Rights Movement, when Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to support the Little Rock Nine?
— Jane Thomas, Arlington Heights
Rename airport for Jackson
Coverage of the Rev. Jesse Jackson brought home what an iconic national figure he was. His memory should be forever preserved in Chicago in a meaningful way. I would suggest renaming Midway International Airport as Jessie Jackson Memorial Chicago Airport.
— Joseph Kimmell, Chicago
Homeschooling question
Regarding the Feb. 11 article on homeschooling (“‘Free the kids'”): While education is compulsory in Illinois for children up to age 17 and homeschooling is a legal option for parents, the article leaves out one very important question parents opting for homeschooling should consider. That question is: “Am I capable of teaching even the fundamentals of academic subjects such as reading, writing, math and science?”
A significant portion of the skills involved in learning these subjects is developmental, meaning that these skills can only be acquired and internalized over a period of years. As a public school language arts teacher, I once had a student whose parents opted for homeschooling when the child was in an early grade, then reenrolled the student in the eighth grade. As a pupil in my average-ability language arts class, the student was ill prepared, being several years below grade level in his ability to read and write in a manner typical of a 13-year-old. The parents wanted us to “catch him up” for high school, which is not only impossible but places a very unreasonable expectation on the classroom teacher.
When a child is allowed to fall significantly behind where they should be academically, there is no magic formula for solving a problem that was years in the making. The bottom line here is that not all parents have the skills requisite for taking a young child and, over time, transforming that child into a young adult with some semblance of age-appropriate literacy.
— Sean C. Nettle, Homewood
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
