Daily Chronicle / Daily-Chronicle.com • Friday, January 6, 2017
| OPINIONS
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We are not the enemy regardless of what Trump tweets On the last day of December, this was Donald Trump’s greeting for America – via Twitter, of course: “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!” My immediate response to this infantile tweet from the future president of the United States was to donate to a diaper charity. See? I do know what to do. Let’s talk about those diapers for a moment. I first wrote about this issue in 2015, after learning that parents – particularly single mothers – who cannot afford enough diapers for their babies are likelier to struggle with depression. The need is great, so please consider donating to one of the diaper charities in your community. They’re growing in number, including at some food banks. Now, let’s address this unparalleled dysfunction about to take over the White House. It’s a remarkable thing, really, for our future president to identify as an enemy to anyone who didn’t vote for him or who dares to challenge him now. Let’s all sit with that for a moment. Once again, I am reminded of the late
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Don’t blame those working to protect children
To the Editor: All too often we hear of individuals in our community committing horrendous crimes against our children. It is infuriating, frightening and sickening. We become even more enraged when these criminals walk away with what we feel (and often know) is all too lenient of a sentence. In those moments, it is very easy to start blaming the state’s attorney’s office, the investigators and special interviewers for not “doing enough” or not “doing it right.” It is time to stop blaming those helping and advocating for our children. It is time to start keeping all the blame on the criminals and looking at how we can revise our court system so these professionals have the avenues to help families get the justice they deserve. I have had the privilege of witnessing a multi-disciplinary team (state’s attorney’s office, law enforcement, Children’s Advocacy Center and Department of Children & Family Services) work tirelessly at all
became part of her daily life for the rest of the campaign. You are that guy. We are not the enemy. We are the people of color who wanted a president not prone to trafficking in racist stereotypes about immigrants and black Rev. William Sloane Coffin’s definition and Latino Americans, someone who of true patriotism: doesn’t relish working supporters into “There are three kinds of patriots, mobs with coded language that goads two bad, one good. The bad ones are them into seeing anyone who isn’t the uncritical lovers and the loveless white as the “other.” critics. Good patriots carry on a lover’s We are not the enemy. We are the quarrel with their country, a reflection people with disabilities, which makes of God’s lover’s quarrel with all the us different, not discardable. We are world.” also their loved ones. We all saw the vidMr. Trump, we are not the enemy. eo of you mocking a New York Times reWe are the popular majority of porter with a congenital joint condition. voters – Democrats, Republicans and After the newspaper defended him, you independents – who wanted a leader, didn’t apologize. someone who understands that there’s Instead, you said, “He should stop no such thing as a whisper when one using his disability to grandstand and is president-elect and that airing one’s get back to reporting for a paper that is many insecurities through petty, thinrapidly going down the tubes.” skinned tweets and hashtags is as danIf you were our child, you would be gerous for this country as it is pathetic. grounded. We are not the enemy. We are the We are not the enemy. We are the women who wanted someone other than media – the real ones, the journalists, an admitted sexual predator to be our not the propagandists and Russian president, a person who doesn’t celebrate misogyny. Your attacks against an hackers who helped to make you president. We are the reporters and anchorwoman inspired so many death threats against her that security guards editors demanding accountability. We
are the fact-checkers chronicling your disregard for truth. We are the opinion writers you cannot silence. In recent weeks, your brigade and too many citizens who are worn-out from the presidential campaign insist it’s time to move on. We should accept that you will be our president, they say. We should give you a chance. As one reader told me earlier this week, it is time to give up the grudge. Calling out a continued pattern and practice of lies and propaganda is not a grudge match. Resentment does not drive our vigilance in continuing to oppose what we rejected in you as a candidate. We are patriots, in all our forms. We are committed to championing what already made America great, which includes our First Amendment rights to pursue the truth and say what’s on our minds. We will challenge you as president, as true patriots often do. We are moving on. This is where we land.
“innocent until proven guilty” which means the burden of proof is on those that are often helpless. Instead of whining and complaining about these professionals, it is time to demand more punishment for criminals and revise what proof means in court. Let’s create an environment where they are able to accomplish all they hope to.
that has enjoyed a history of success, but has been cordoned off even though it is licensed by the Illinois Medical Practice Act: Chiropractic. As a chiropractor, I strongly recommend a couple of changes to allow a drug-free option: • Change the informed consent to require notification of the addictive attributes of opioid medication and require a trial of conservative chiropractic treatment before prescribing opioids. • Remove closed insurance networks and any restrictive guidelines preventing patients from receiving chiropractic care. Our Health and Human Services (www. HHS.gov) says opioid abuse is a serious public health issue and a leading cause of death and injury. There is an option available before taking that first highly addictive opioid. Besides, who would give that stuff or prescribe it knowing its capability to harm or kill? Hand wringing may be only a fake concern.
VIEWS Connie Schultz
hours of the day to ensure the safety of our children as much as possible. Specialized interviewers with extensive training and experience work diligently to interview potential child victims in a way that is less traumatic than traditional interviews, but still produces evidence that will stand up in our judicial system. The state’s attorney’s office works to make sure criminals serve time in prison, even when they know they won’t get the full sentence these families deserve. A loophole in this law, a slight error in phrasing of evidence, or even just a really good defense attorney can help a criminal and leave us feeling hopeless. We feel as if those who are supposed to be dedicated to protecting our children have failed us. The truth of the matter is, although they make mistakes (because they are human like the rest of us), they work incredibly hard with a great deal of passion to stop abusers in our community. When we feel justice isn’t served, it is because one of our neighbors has broken our trust. It is because we have all agreed that it is
Gretchen Sprinkle Cortland
Chiropractic care an alternative to opioids
To the Editor: Folks have finally awakened to the impact of prescriptive opioids’ highly addictive quality. That includes the use of opioids’ cheaper brother, heroin. The Center for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Institute of Medicine are now calling for a shift away from yesterday’s standard of care for chronic pain, opioids. Now, they are recommending a drug-free approach to address pain. There is a drug-free health care option
• Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and professional in residence at Kent State University’s school of journalism.
James W. McCoy, DC Sycamore
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