Recently I sat in construction traffic from a few miles intoIllinois to nearly Barrington Road on eastbound Interstate 90. Theconstruction added one hour to my commute, and it is not even theheavy summer traffic yet. With all that time to ponder why commutersdespise construction season, it came to me: Commuters are not fed upwith the amount of road construction that needs to be done everyyear, they are fed up with the delays.
While in traffic, I noticed that just short of every mile was astretch of road that had been torn up by the construction company.Other areas had only a few miles of road ready to resurface, andothers were blocked off for no visible reason.
Why would a construction company need to block off or tear up 50miles of road at a time? Someone needs to manage the constructioncompanies and force them to finish one area before starting another.
Commuters may be more tolerant of road construction if they wereinconvenienced for shorter amounts of time_thus people may respectthe speed limit and safety precautions. It is an inconvenience to alldrivers to be stuck in endless traffic and construction delays.
Why do states such as Wisconsin or Indiana build majorthoroughfares with solid concrete, and Illinois uses a concrete/asphalt mix? Other states do not rebuild their roads as often as wedo. What are the government and our elected officials doing about ourroad construction woes? Who is managing the construction companies?And when will things get better?
If less time was spent on investigating the secretary of state'soffice, the media could be looking into how our toll money is spent.Does anyone care how often a specific stretch of road is resurfaced?The Elgin stretch of I-90 seems to need constant work.
Please help the taxpayers of Illinois, the commuters and_most ofall_the road construction workers, whom we endanger daily by puttingthem on roads with frustrated drivers.
Cathryn E. Harmon,
Schaumburg
Silence can be deadly
The recent, and very public, wrangling over the BP Amocosettlements has resulted in the release of the amounts paid to thevictims of brain cancer. What's still missing, though, is thescientific evidence of what might have caused the cancers. Thousandsof workers could be exposed to similar risks, and the fact that thispart of the settlement remains sealed may doom countless workers topainful and early deaths.
Consider that 11 workers sued the Johns Manville Co. in 1933 forcausing their lung diseases by exposing them to asbestos. Their suitswere settled and sealed_and the scientific evidence of the harms ofasbestos did not see the light of day for 40 years. By then, a wholegeneration of workers had suffered asbestosis and mesothelioma, andan entire industry faced bankruptcy paying for those injuries.
If the hazards of asbestos had become public during the GreatDepression, hundreds of thousands of deaths could have been avoided.I hope society is not making the same mistake with the BP Amocosettlement.
Nancy A. Cowles,
executive director,
Coalition for Consumer Rights
Be only who you are
Concerning Richard Roeper's open letter to the Rev. Jesse Jackson(column, April 10): Why must white men dictate to blacks not onlywho our leaders should be, but also what their causes should be? IfRoeper feels that the alleged hate crime on the South Side didn't getenough attention, then why didn't he take up the cause?
Jackson is only one man. He can't be all things to all people.
Deborah Riddle,
Auburn Gresham
Recalcitrance is ugly
How much longer will we taxpayers have to subsidize the silly,vindictive troublemaking and propagandizing of the GOP? We are aboutto pay for yet another politically motivated investigation_the mainpurpose of which is to create bad press for the Clintonadministration. If they need to know why government agents raided theGonzalez home to free Elian, I can tell them without spending stillmore millions of tax dollars. The child was being held illegally. Wecall that kidnapping and/or hostage-taking. The Gonzalez family werecriminals and were dealt with as such.
When did the GOP become soft on crime and sympathetic towardcriminals? Perhaps there should be an investigation of the prominentRepublicans who gave their support and encouragement to these peoplewho so openly and arrogantly violated the law.
Joan Norman, Naperville
Meek acquiescence
The picture of a masked policeman with a machinegun in the face ofa child: Was this taken in Russia, a KGB operation? Could it be fromcommunist China or Cuba? No, it was here, in our country.
Many people are defending the action, and many others aresilent_silent as we change from being the beacon of freedom aroundthe world to becoming a banana republic. The government now takesclose to half of the average family's income; we are tax slaves.Stifling regulations, mandates and increasing government control ofland are denying us the foundations of freedom. Legal businesses arebeing sued and regulated out of this country (tobacco, guns, oil; now"fatty foods" and sport-utility vehicles are in their sights).Government selectively ignores the rule of law, and the majorAmerican media have become a propaganda arm of this administration.
The lack of action or outrage on the part of so many leaves onlyone conclusion: This government now can do anything to us, and wewill not resist.
Christine Boreland, Barrington
A quest for answers
An exile is someone who is not living in his or her own country.Are the Cubans in the United States exiles or immigrants? If they areexiles, how is it that they are holding so much sway overpoliticians? Congressional hearings and the appointment of anindependent counsel are in order.
And what's this that a 6-year-old can tell his parents where he'sgoing to live? Many of you have had children. Did you let themdictate when they were going to bed, what they were going to eat?What about when they didn't want to go to school? If 6-year-olds aresmart enough to make that choice, why not let them vote, drinkalcohol, drive, etc.?
While watching the coverage on television, I noticed a lot ofpeople waving the American flag upside-down. Where's all the outragefrom the people who wanted a flag-burning amendment? Isn't this alsoshowing disrespect for our flag?
George P. Schill III,
Albany Park
Happy days are here
Bravo, Attorney General Janet Reno! Bravo, President Clinton! Idid not vote for Clinton in either election, but I would vote for himnow if he could run for a third term, based on Easter weekend'scourageous decisions.
The "raid" was justified, legal and clearly the right decision byReno. The Miami family defied a legal order to transfer custody ofthe child to his father and forced the situation by insisting thatElian would have to be taken by force.
The Miami family played to the media circus to the end, andcontinued it on Sunday with a ridiculous news conference inWashington, D.C. They should go back to Miami_or better yet, back toCuba, since they fly that flag so proudly from their home.
Michael Staunton, Oak Forest
Life under the big top
From almost Day One of the Elian Gonzalez story, the whole sorryspectacle has been a showcase for hypocrisy. Politicians whopontificated so earnestly about "the rule of law" when impeaching thepresident wholeheartedly support the folks who repeatedly flouted thelaw, including immigration laws those very same politicians passed afew years ago. Other politicians suddenly find that the right ofparents to raise their own child as they see fit is not a "familyvalue" they can support.
The kidnappers wail about the psychological harm inflicted by theraid, as if five months as the star attraction in a three-ring circuswill have no long-term harmful repercussions on the boy.
But the worst hypocrisy is that of the "peaceful" protestersburning tires and threatening "another Waco." None of them would havecared if Elian had been from Haiti or Serbia or Angola_or from anyother country demonstrably worse off than Cuba under Fidel Castro.
John Lester, Vernon Hills
Positions of honor
I think I know why those twin sisters are always with Hugh Hefner:They are holding him up.
Perhaps we should put an honorary street sign for the Everleighsisters. I understand they had the finest brothel in old Chicago, andalso left town with a fistful of money.
George Sims Jr., Ashburn
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