Thank you for publishing Mona Charen’s column, ”Jimmy Carter’s strength and weakness.” Charen mentioned some of the obvious high and low points of his time in office.
She did not mention that he was probably the nicest man to ever sit in the White House. The very nature of his empathetic personality and his outsider status got him elected. Unfortunately, these same qualities hurt his chances to govern and make deals with insiders.
The biggest disappointment to me was the trashing of his energy policy by members of his own party. He had detailed plans for how to cool our planet way before “global warming” and “climate change” were even in our vocabulary. His taxes on “gas guzzling” cars were laughed out of Congress. His advocacy for solar power was thought to be too expensive and inefficient. His thermostat advice was jeered at. I still keep my AC at 78 and my heat at 68.
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He did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing Egypt and Israel together, although the leaders of those two nations did. (He did receive it for his post-presidential work). He is definitely the most successful post-president we have ever had. His Habitat for Humanity, providing housing for those in need, is just one example.
I hope Americans will realize what a great man he was. How much better off would we be today if his programs were passed by Congress?
Jan Goldberg, Riverside
Shelter of last resort?
The article about the unhoused population sheltering at O’Hare Airport highlighted an important problem. The contempt for people who rely on the CTA and especially the Blue Line, however, is truly astonishing.
The unnamed source states “... those [of the unhoused population encamping at O’Hare] who don’t accept the support are being brought to the CTA.”
Before reading your article, I wondered what might have caused the increase of obviously troubled people using the Blue Line during the night, many with visible health issues. Your article answers this question.
We CTA users must conclude these people who are too troubled to accept the help offered at O’Hare and are, therefore, deemed too dangerous for the moneyed clientele the airport attracts, are just the company the city deems suitable for us.
After a long deterioration process, CTA will become absolutely unusable. The city’s only hope is that our next mayor will at least attempt to stop this decline.
Charles Schwab, Logan Square
