Letters: St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the Loop demonstrated our togetherness

The St. Patrick’s Day celebration this past weekend in Chicago’s Loop was a genuine coming together of Irish American families, Irish American workers and multiple organizations of the greater Chicagoland community in so many positive ways. So many of us have not experienced this since the arrival of COVID-19.

Fortunately, I had my Nikon camera with me, and I was able to capture several beautiful moments of Chicago togetherness, including the unplanned sharing of the celebration by Irish Chicagoland youths and African American bucket drummers, who regularly enliven visitors to the Loop.

As a Mexican American, I felt it was such a powerful moment, even if a temporary one, of the coming together of our beloved ethnically, racially and culturally diverse Chicagoland. You definitely had to be there to feel the power of community!

Let us never forget about our potential to come together in the city and beyond.

— Alejandro Lugo, Park Forest

I hope that Chicago firefighter Walter Stewart knows that the whole city cries with him. The fire at his home has claimed his entire family. It is hard to imagine a greater tragedy.

Stewart should know that it’s not just his Fire Department colleagues who are mourning and trying to support him as he buries his family. It’s all of us citizens of Chicago.

— Roger Deschner, Chicago

Thank you for the recent article on Chicago’s endangered buildings (“Century-old Loop towers top most-endangered list again,” March 9).

To anyone who doesn’t believe these gems are worth saving, let me share a somber aphorism: Once they’re torn down, they’ll never come back.

— Dennis Allen, Wilmette

A wise person once said that if you look far enough into the past, you will see the future. Adam Selzer’s March 10 op-ed on the 1899 mayoral race in Chicago was excellent and reinforces the point (“During 1899 mayor’s race, a paper fanned flames of sensationalism”).

We need the history reminders more than ever today.

— Mike Shields, Niles

Considering the Tribune Editorial Board endorsed Paul Vallas for mayor, I feel that the Tribune has started publishing one-sided articles negatively portraying Vallas and not taking a similar approach to Brandon Johnson.

This newspaper should publish more balanced reporting when it comes to the mayoral race.

— Mike Swift, Chicago

In 2014 and again in 2016, I signed and passed around petitions supporting Change Illinois’ fair maps campaign, and I attended a Board of Elections hearing that resulted in the matter getting kicked to the Illinois Supreme Court. We know how that went.

Yes, the court issued a decision. The auditor general would have had a role in the plan proposed, but the justices decided the condition could not stand based on interpretation of some abstract nouns in the Illinois Constitution’s wording.

Now, a Jan. 12 article about ComEd and Michael Madigan (“‘Made out like bandits’”) tells me that Madigan backers had targeted the fair maps effort: “A group was seeking to change the process for redrawing legislative districts … arguing that the maps should be fairer and not dominated by political leaders. … (Ex-ComEd lobbyist John Hooker) headed a group that went to court to block the proposal.”

So ComEd, via Hooker, was willing to insert itself into the political activity of Illinois citizens, and ComEd consumers, who hoped to participate in a constitutional process. Not only do I not trust the legislature, but also, move over and make room for the state Supreme Court. I feel disenfranchised.

Might this be a reason why residents leave the state?

— Barbara A. Mendelsohn, Niles

I would like to suggest a solution to moving clocks backward and forward every November and March, respectively. Why not just settle on splitting the difference? Set it at 30 minutes between the two time differences and then just leave it alone. This should be an adequate solution to appease both arguments for and against changing the time.

I’m sure someone else has already thought of this, but I don’t understand why it has never been implemented. Do we really need to exercise these clock gymnastics every year?

— Joseph Pollak, Chicago

As I grow older, I’ve come to hate spring. That is, if you can call those two weeks in May a season. March and April are just a big tease with every week edging precariously closer to the end of all the cold and blustery weather. At least with winter, you know what you’re getting, besides a blizzard of unpaid bills and a depleted bank account following the temporary glow of the holidays.

Even with the promise of warmer weather and longer daylight hours, we can never escape the haunting fear of yet another cold front landing on our doorstep.

And please, don’t tell me the baseball season is only weeks away. I’d rather find out for myself that opening day has been canceled due to blowing and drifting snow!

— Bob Ory, Elgin

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