Speak Out for Sept. 18, 2012
September 17, 2012 5:46PM
Tinley Park High School's Alex Laphen, a freshman, carries the hose up the stairs on the National Firefighter Combat Course in Oak Forest, Illinois, Friday, September 14, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Updated: October 19, 2012 6:15AM
I loved seeing Bremen Community High School District 228 students taking part in the Firefighter Combat Challenge in Oak Forest. What a great way to give back to the community!
I think the National School Lunch Program is wasting an appalling amount of food. I work in a local school district in the program. We are adjusting to new requirements. There is so much food on the tray. Ninety-nine percent of the fresh vegetables and fruit are going in the garbage. Kids don’t even try most of it. When the government tells you kids are losing weight, it’s because they’re not eating the food. Also, the prices of veggies and fruit are getting expensive, so the 6 cents extra per child from the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act is a joke.
The theory of evolution is the best explanation for the diversity of life ever thought of. It’s logical, rational and not falsifiable. Never once has the explanation failed a test, not once. What it doesn’t do, however, is explain how life originated on the planet. So to those who are questioning evolution because it doesn’t explain how life formed, it never did, for that was not its purpose. Four billion years of evolution have resulted in your brain. Do a little reading and a little thinking before you comment in Speak Out.
A small child keeps calling me looking for her friend. I nicely say, “Wrong number,” and I get rude texts. I bet parents do that.
It’s obvious that some people don’t believe U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has a mental disorder. What he has is probably much worse than chronic mood swings, so consider yourself lucky. I doubt he’s looking for sympathy. He didn’t reveal his illness until people demanded to know what it was. I was curious so I educated myself about the disorder. Maybe you should too. As a result of your ignorance, you’re making unkind comments about a man with a disorder you know nothing about. Unless you’re a doctor who’s examined him, maybe you should keep your cruel comments to yourself.
Did the Democratic National Convention require some form of identification to get into the convention? I’m just curious.
Wayne from Matteson
More about a commenter who said a new Chicago police superintendent would deter crime more than current Supt. Garry McCarthy:
Willow Springs
I recently counted 16 pages of Judicial Sales of foreclosed properties in my Southtown Star.
I would prefer calling this listing Property Obituaries. People who lived on these properties now read their homes are being sold publicly to satisfy lien-holders such as banks and mortgage companies. These listings indicate how bad our economy has plunged, causing this property plague. The property wakes are now being held at the Cook County Circuit Courts.
CT from South Chicago Heights
Please terminate Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith. Smith is a nice guy and I’m sure he has many good character traits, but him coaching the Bears is not a good match. Watching him coach is like watching paint dry. It’s like he is in a perpetual coma. The Bears need a dynamic and fire-breathing coach, not a comatose coach. The rest of the teams in the NFL have animated and dynamic coaches. The Bears deserve one too.
Alsip Joe
I think it’s clear that young people having children out of wedlock is a one-way ticket into poverty. But strangely, it seems that if you don’t get married you are eligible for free day care, free school lunches, free Link cards and free cellular phones. If you get married you lose all of those benefits because the father has to help pay for the children. One thing that young people understand quickly is to not get married.
More to those who are tired of all the atheist comments: My friends and I are not hateful or negative. We are not wanting or needing to be saved or prayed for. We just want to be free to live our lives fairly and openly without fear of being ridiculed and feared. We are not scary, amoral people. We’re just like you. We just have different views on the world. Watch out! I might be your neighbor.
Why did Gov. Pat Quinn veto the casino bill? It’s very simple. I think the governor worried that the mob was going to get in and take all of the money from the politicians.
John from Bridgeport
I’m so tired of listening to Ann Romney. She lives a privileged life. I would have more respect for her if she admitted her life was easier than most. At least recognize all the other women who are struggling, raising kids, working outside the home, cleaning, cooking, paying bills. Admit it is easier raising five boys when you have the constant help of nannies and maids. Admit you have had the privilege to stay home and raise your kids unlike most women. Tell us what your husband, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is going to do to help struggling families.
I read in your paper the comment of a striking Chicago teacher. She was worried about public opinion of the strikers. I watched them march and disrupt traffic in Chicago’s Loop recently. I support teachers, but that was going too far. I think they are acting like spoiled children. They could have had a rally in Grant Park, but no, that wouldn’t be dramatic enough.
Pat from Midlothian
