Regarding student loans: In the past, a high school diploma was sufficient, and one could advance in society and find a meaningful career with one. Thanks to taxpayers, a high school education has been free and accessible to everyone.
Nowadays, a high school diploma doesn’t have the weight it once had, and so a bachelor’s degree or more is becoming necessary for one to advance in society and find a meaningful career. Maybe we should consider expanding that free high school education to free college education, so that we can advance our society as a whole and use taxpayers money toward something meaningful, at the very least up to a bachelor’s degree and trade certification.
Let’s gradually move away from student loans or find a way to ease the burden if we can’t.
Michael Pannaralla, Clearing East
Senators, step up for reproductive rights
Illinois NOW is outraged at the draft Supreme Court decision regarding the gutting of Roe v. Wade. Right-wing legislators and ultraconservative groups have been working for decades to put this nefarious high court together. The goal has always been to force people to give birth regardless of circumstances. State abortion bans already in place are clearly just the tip of the iceberg. These bans, along with the impending overturning of Roe, will disproportionately affect people of color, low-income people and those where access is already incredibly difficult.
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Justice Samuel Alito’s draft is filled with spurious language allowing a slippery slope for bans on birth control, emergency contraception, overturning LGBTQ+ rights including equal marriage and any other issue their ideology supports.
Here in Illinois, abortion remains legal. With the passage of the Reproductive Health Act and HB40, Illinoisans will be able to make these personal decisions about their health and futures regardless of a Roe v. Wade ruling. However, our clinics and abortion funds are being overwhelmed with requests from out-of-state people who cannot get abortions at home. We must work to ensure that access for our own residents is paramount while helping others at the same time.
We are fortunate in Illinois to have two U.S. senators who have supported personal reproductive decisions for years. But that is simply not enough. This is not the time for speeches and collective outrage. This is the time for strong action. Sen. Dick Durbin is in the best leadership position to whip up bipartisan support for reproductive rights.
We call on Durbin and Sen. Tammy Duckworth to immediately push for the removal of the filibuster and passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act Our elected leaders must be loud and clear that we will never return to the back alleys.
Laura R. Welch, President, Illinois National Organization for Women, Naperville
Inequality and mental health
It is encouraging to see mental health recognized recently as a crucial public health concern.
However, we cannot truly confront this issue without also considering the myriad social and environmental stressors — poverty, violence (domestic and otherwise), the pathogenic effects of racism and other forms of bigotry and discrimination, et al. — that contribute to the ongoing mental health crisis in Chicago and elsewhere in the U.S.
Social inequality is a pathogen and needs to be identified and addressed as such.
David G. Whiteis, Humboldt Park
