LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Posted July 8, 2020

Dear Editor:

Compassion fatigue is when we tire of hearing about people who are suffering. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey saw millions of dollars in aid sent to Houston before Hurricane Irma struck Florida. Like popular trends, disasters acquire a “flavor of the week” status until the next one arrives.

This doesn’t make us an uncaring society. Sometimes there’s more tragedy than we can process.

We overload on more than just compassion. My generation’s (baby boomer) first taste of war news coverage was Vietnam. Our only connection to both World Wars and Korea was through text books, movies and older family members. The nightly American combat death count introduced us to bad news fatigue.

When Governor Pritzker announced our lockdown in March, his tone turned solemn when he announced Illinois’ first COVID-19 death. Now, more than 7,000 deaths later, how do we comprehend such loss? My best answer is that we feel bad for those directly affected, be thankful it wasn’t us, and move on.

While Pritzker spoke, I wondered what the reaction would be if/when the U.S. approached a million COVID-19 deaths. I’m guessing we’ll react the same way we did to the Vietnam casualties report: we will have conditioned ourselves to receive bad news.

On the popular 1960s “Dragnet” TV series, with detectives Friday and Gannon at a murder scene, a fellow policeman would remark, “I guess you guys get used to this.” Friday’s grim response was “You never get USED to it.”

Except, we do.

Jim Newton

Itasca, Illinois

STATION EDITORIAL

Posted July 3, 2020

This is a station editorial, I'm Randal J. Miller, station president.

The title of this editorial is:  What were you thinking?

The Illinois General Assembly in late May, passed and Governor J-B Pritzker signed, a 42-billion dollar budget that has a shortfall of some 7-point-4 billion dollars.  The Illinois Constitution says they are to collectively pass a balanced budget.  What were you thinking?

Legislators and the Governor have relied on several lines they've used with the media for weeks.  Line # 1 is "well, it's due to the coronavirus so we'll just borrow it from the Federal Reserve."  Well, borrowed money DOES have to be paid back...doesn't it?

What were you thinking?

Line # 2 is when reporters have asked Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, why they didn't cut state spending, which is also what Republicans were asking.  Their response has been to hide behind first responders and school kids by saying what we're calling Line # 2:  "Well, Republicans are for cutting funding to first responders and our schools, and we're not about to do that."

My response to line # 2 is:  You mean to tell me that in a 42-billion dollar budget, it all goes to fund first responders and school kids?  I don't think so.  They don't want to cut ANYTHING that might affect their re-election.

What were you thinking?

And, Democrats are also touting that we need to, quote, "make the rich pay for their fair share", unquote, by passing the progessive income tax.  The problem with that, which we'll call Line # 3, is that they know better. There aren't enough fat cats left in the state, to make up a 7-point-4 billion dollar budget shortfall.  Many high income earners have left Illinois for states with little or no state income tax. And, in the end, you know the progressive tax will end up being paid by all of us.

What were you thinking?

That's our opinion...we welcome yours.  Our e-mail address is:  editorial@randyradio.com.