“Do we care?” This was the query my highschool American History instructor used to ask on the finish of a lesson.
It was not meant to be rhetorical — he wished to spark a dialogue on not solely when these occasions unfolded, but additionally how and why.
As we enter an election cycle, it’s extra necessary than ever to care. Yet this may be tough with a lot division and chaos in our nation’s politics. Add to that all the occasions taking place on the worldwide stage — a commerce conflict with China, anti-government protests in Hong Kong, navy turmoil in Syria — and it’s comprehensible to really feel anger, confusion, frustration, concern and, frankly, hopelessness.
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But ignoring an issue doesn’t merely make it go away. We need to care. Whether or not you’re somebody who pays consideration to politics, you’re a part of a political society. Taxes, training, healthcare — all are influenced by politics and play a job in day-to-day life. And we have to go a step additional, from caring to doing, from emotion to motion. Your pursuits, time, abilities, and cash can all contribute to alter. Contact your elected representatives, begin or signal a petition, attend a city corridor or rally, donate to or volunteer with a political marketing campaign, canvass, make cellphone calls, maintain a voter registration drive, keep up-to-date and knowledgeable on the information. Perhaps most significantly, you may forged your poll on the polls.
I consider within the energy of civic engagement. It is our duty as American residents to make use of our votes and our voices to spark change, to uphold the values of the Constitution and democracy.
To borrow a quote from certainly one of my favourite films, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” A single vote may not be sufficient to determine the result of an election. But collectively, many votes can flip the tide.
So rise up and present up. The way forward for our nation depends upon it.
Eleanore Dykes, Lakeview
On sick days, lecturers aren’t any totally different from different staff
I have to say that I’m dissatisfied in your editorial criticizing Chicago Public Schools lecturers for utilizing their sick days, which led to a big enhance in absent lecturers and a corresponding elevated want for substitutes, which has been tough to fill. Until the latest strike and tentative settlement, lecturers had been in a position to “bank” 40 sick days, at which level they began to “use them or lose them”. With the settlement, that bankable determine has been elevated to 244 days and it’s anticipated that the demand for subs shall be diminished as lecturers save up these days.
I believe you’ve gotten missed an necessary level. Having talked with many individuals about this over time, I have no idea of any household or buddies who work in non-public trade who don’t do the very same factor. It appears most enterprise don’t enable workers to financial institution their sick days in any respect, or have a lot smaller caps on the variety of days that may be banked. So what do they do? They use them in order to not lose them. I’m shocked that you simply singled out public faculty lecturers when it seems to be a widespread and customary observe.
George Milkowski, West Ridge