President Joe Biden is eyeing a tighter border? Seriously? After blaming the GOP for three years and allowing millions of people into the country, all of a sudden, five months before the election, Biden’s eyeing the border? Now he can do something about the southern border without the GOP? Wow, what a turnaround!
Biden’s administration has lied to us for three years while it made this mess, and now we’re stuck with it.
— Pat Feulner, St. Charles
A dignified commander in chief
I watched President Joe Biden in a Memorial Day ceremony lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As our commander in chief, Biden was dignified, as should be expected. I felt proud to have served four years in the Air Force. Fortunately, I was not killed or even injured.
If Donald Trump becomes president and commander in chief again, will he continue to malign American military members who are killed in action as “suckers” and “losers”? We remember how he disparaged the Khans, who were a Gold Star family that lost a son. Those killed in action make the ultimate sacrifice to protect all Americans, including Trump.
If I am killed in action, would I be a “sucker” or “loser”? I think America can do better.
— Larry Johnson, Naperville
We need another Ronald Reagan
As the past couple of months have shown with a felony conviction, losses in a couple of multimillion-dollar civil cases, three other outstanding cases and a tax audit against him, Donald Trump needs a well-paying, stable job (president) to pay his legal and tax bills. This is what Trump needs, not what the country needs.
We need a Ronald Reagan to control inflation and bring us leadership, a strong foreign policy that the free world will look up to and a domestic policy that works to unite Americans and foster respect for our government. Nowhere does “retribution” fall in the needs of our nation. Republican President Abraham Lincoln did not call for it during the Civil War, in which many lives were lost and property destroyed.
I am not a fan of President Joe Biden. He should follow in the way of Lyndon B. Johnson and not seek reelection with inflation and an unpopular war. Even Bill Clinton had budget surpluses, a peaceful world and a growing economy to hand off to the next president.
America needs a new president to lead us in these perilous times. We can do better than the two major parties’ presumed candidates.
— John Kasner, LaPorte, Indiana
Biden averted the draft, too
I want to thank Bill Burns for his letter (“What our military deserves,” June 6) and thank him for his military service! His words, however, prompted me to look up the service record of Joe Biden. It turns out our current president was exempted from the military draft because of a college deferment and, after graduating, because of asthma as a teenager. Not much different from Donald Trump’s situation.
I do not fault either president for avoiding the military during the Vietnam War, but I do fault voters who use facts and/or omission of facts to draw false comparisons. This insidious practice is rampant in our country, and it has spread to every information outlet.
I am all for debating; it is at the core of an inclusive society and government. Debating using omissions, however, is counterproductive and harms all involved.
— Randy Boitz, Lemont
Will police vote for Trump?
In his June 6 column (“Will police endorse a convicted felon for president?”), Steve Chapman asks two very different questions. Will the police support Donald Trump this November? And should the police support Trump this November? The answer to the second question is easy: Nobody should support Trump.
The answer to the first question is less clear. Police are, in general, very comfortable with authoritarians, and Trump is very much an authoritarian. In addition, since the police supported him in 2016 and 2020 and the crimes he was recently convicted of were not really police matters, they may see no reason to withdraw their support.
— Vic Presutti, Dayton, Ohio
Who are the VP candidates?
Just wondering. If a president is serving prison time, are those presidential responsibilities then transferred to the vice president?
If so, Americans are left wondering who that might be at this point.
— Linda Bosy, Orland Park
My faith in fairness restored
Thank you to the Tribune and several contributors whose letters were published on June 3 in Voice of the People. It restored my faith in fairness regarding dissenting opinions on former President Donald Trump’s trial.
I found the editorial cartoon on Trump inappropriate. Unfortunately, I do not have cartoons or articles from the Bill Clinton era. I wonder how the Tribune, the editorial cartoonists and the opinions of readers reacted to the Monica Lewinsky scandal?
— Myrna Silver, Coral Gables, Florida
U. of I. flagship campus policies
In January, my sister called to say our mother was in the intensive care unit. I set up Zoom classrooms and drove from Illinois to Oklahoma, unsure of what the coming days would mean for my family and my students. If I were specialized faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I would not have had this additional worry.
I spent the next few weeks with my sisters making multiple life-or-death decisions for our mother. Between these, I was emailing our human resources representative. By the time my family was meeting with the palliative care specialist, I was marking the date I would exhaust my sick days and wondering if our mother would live beyond it.
If I taught at UIC, I could have used the “modified teaching duties for a faculty member with a life-changing event” policy. However, because I teach at the flagship campus, I was forced to navigate complex, high-risk systems while so tired I could not recite my own address to the hospice nurse.
Currently, the union representing specialized faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NTFC Local No. 6546, is bargaining to gain the same life-changing event policies that UIC has. In the administration’s current offer, it is willing to provide only a benefit to select faculty members having a child. While I am thrilled it has agreed to this, I am also frustrated. Is my time with my dying mother less meaningful because I teach at the flagship campus?
I guess I should consider myself lucky. I had banked enough sick leave over my seven years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to spend my mother’s final days with her. I heard her thank us for getting her home. I heard her last jokes. I was able to hold her hand when no more words would ever come. But what of specialized faculty members who just started? With a salary floor of $47,500, I doubt any of them could afford to use the Family and Medical Leave Act. And what if the final days last beyond FMLA’s 12 weeks?
All specialized faculty in the University of Illinois system deserve the same family benefits as those teaching in Chicago. The administration has the opportunity to remedy this now, and I know from experience the mental and emotional cost of its refusal.
— Amanda Bales, teaching assistant professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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