I am writing in response to recent opinion pieces by Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (“Governor, Illinois deserves a straight answer on AIPAC,” April 9) and U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (“Why Democratic voters reject AIPAC, super PACs and billionaire control of our politics,” April 9). Their arguments are not only misguided — they dangerously blur the line between those who defend freedom and those who seek to destroy it.
Let’s be clear: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime are not misunderstood political actors. They are violent organizations and a violent government rooted in terror, repression and the rejection of basic human rights. These same forces openly call for the destruction of Israel and have long demonstrated hostility toward the United States and everything it stands for.
To downplay these groups while condemning Israel, and by extension, the U.S. support that helps protect it, is to invert reality. Israel and the United States armed forces stand on the side of democratic values — protecting civilians, defending sovereignty and confronting those who use terror as a strategy. That is not “genocide.” It is self-defense.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime’s very recent and brutal crackdown on its own people — imprisoning and killing thousands of citizens for dissent — has not been met with the same outrage by these voices. If we are going to speak about morality, it must be applied consistently.
There is a profound moral difference between those who protect life and those who deliberately target it.
Chicagoans deserve leadership that recognizes the difference between good and evil, and that stands firmly with those who defend freedom.
— Mike Shulman, Milwaukee
US Rep. Ramirez has it right
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez is to be commended for her forthright, frank and no-nonsense response to comments made by Michael J. Sacks in a previous op-ed (“Why I support AIPAC and a big tent Democratic Party,” March 24) concerning the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Ramirez makes clear how AIPAC as well as other billionaire-supported super political action committees have instigated disastrous American military adventurism in ways counterproductive to our national security and standing in the world.
One should not have to be reminded of the roles Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia are currently playing in President Donald Trump’s unwarranted, brutal attack on Iran. But apparently, we do have to be reminded again and again and yet again of the complicity of America’s role in Israel’s killing of Palestinian men, women and children in Gaza and the West Bank and now those in Lebanon.
I can only surmise that Ramirez, to her credit, does not need reminding.
— Leonard Costopoulos, Dallas, Georgia
Neighborhoods’ pollution burden
Chicago likes to think of itself as a city of neighborhoods. But for too many years, some neighborhoods have been asked to carry burdens that others never would: more pollution, more industrial traffic and emissions, more environmental health risks. Thankfully, Chicago’s City Council has an opportunity to take a meaningful step toward correcting these long-standing inequities. All they have to do is pass the Hazel M. Johnson Cumulative Impacts Ordinance.
Hazel Johnson, the great Chicago organizer remembered as the mother of environmental justice, believed that where you live should not determine how much environmental harm your family is expected to bear. She spent a lifetime fighting to expose the unfair reality of environmental impact, how polluting land uses were concentrated overwhelmingly in Black and Latino communities. These communities, underrepresented in and underserved by city government, have too often been treated as an afterthought in decisions that affect their health, safety and quality of life.
Johnson’s legacy calls on us to take meaningful action to correct these profound inequities. This ordinance would help Chicago do exactly that.
The ordinance would require that the city evaluate proposed industrial developments in light of the cumulative environmental and public health burdens neighborhoods already carry, rather than reviewing each project in isolation. It would also strengthen transparency, expand community input and ensure that major industrial proposals receive closer scrutiny before they move forward.
This ordinance is not about impeding economic development, but rather ensuring responsible development. Chicago has already seen the consequences of getting this wrong. The city now has a golden opportunity to learn from past failures by adopting a fairer, more accountable standard.
At its most fundamental level, democracy is about people having a real voice in decisions that shape their lives. This ordinance would give people that voice.
I encourage every member of the City Council to answer the call to make Chicago’s democracy stronger.
— Jane Ruby, president, League of Women Voters of Chicago
Illinois needs housing reform
Local politicians micromanaging who can build what and where have failed, and the biggest winners have been the developers who can navigate the political process. Without enough housing in the places where people most want to live, we’ve been left to play a twisted game of musical chairs: The most vulnerable of our neighbors get displaced, with Chicago losing population and homelessness increasing, while the rest of us pay skyrocketing rents and property taxes.
Housing legislation the Illinois General Assembly is considering includes reforms that Austin, Texas, passed, which led its rents to fall for the first time in years.
— Michael Kaiser-Nyman, Chicago
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