Forum: Tired of teacher pay demands
September 7, 2012 8:54PM
Updated: October 10, 2012 6:34AM
Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, does not want to talk about a raise for city teachers, she wants to tell the Chicago Public Schools officials that she demands a raise for teachers.
There are thousands of workers in Chicago who have had no raise in years, while others have had pay cuts and still more have lost their jobs due to the bad economy. There have been many teachers laid off because school districts are getting less state aid. Many college graduates with teaching degrees cannot find a job as a teacher.
I say let the Chicago teachers go on strike and replace them with teachers, both new and those that have been laid off. Give them pay raises on a merit system to weed out the teachers that do not belong in the school system. Let’s start the school year off right with eager and willing teachers.
Norman Lupescu
Oak Lawn
It’s good that Ryan is extreme
Critics say that Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan is extreme. They are correct. He is extremely smart, extremely knowledgeable about the budget, extremely dedicated to fiscal responsibility, extremely capable, extremely honest, extremely reasonable and extremely patriotic.
Critics say he will help to change Social Security and Medicare as we know it. They are correct about that also. Social Security and Medicare as we know it are on a collision course with bankruptcy. They must be changed to salvage them.
This election may be the last chance for our country to take the road to becoming more fiscally responsible. The choice is clear — do we want a government that continues to grow larger and keeps overspending or one reduced in size and that’s much more fiscally responsible? All the rest of the rhetoric is just noise and distraction.
Bill Fischer
Orland Park
Enforce firearms laws
I read your Aug. 30 editorial (“Guns don’t travel far for mayhem”) with great interest. I am a vice president of a shooting and hunting club and am familiar with firearms laws and the way guns are purchased.
Federal and state laws are quite clear on the illegality of straw purchases of firearms, but often the dealer has no way to determine whether a person is a straw buyer for a felon. If a person lies on the application, the dealer has no way to determine this.
Your editorial seems to give the impression that certain Cook County gun dealers are a major problem in selling guns that are later used in crimes in Chicago. If a gun is used in committing the crime, it’s easy to trace it to determine who the original purchaser was and what he did with the gun he bought.
There are adequate laws to address the problems of straw buyers and irresponsible gun dealers, but these laws are not well enforced. Creating new laws in knee-jerk reaction is counterproductive.
As for Chicago’s rising homicide rate, the problem of street gangs must be addressed, but our politicians have no courage to speak openly on these matters.
Krzysztof Wasowicz
Justice
