FORUM Sheriff working in the hot sun
To the Editor: On Thursday, July 30, while traveling on Ill. Route 71 approaching the Kendall County Fairgrounds in Yorkville, I witnessed our own Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird in the hot sun directing traffic at the main entrance to the fairgrounds. It is truly refreshing to see a public servant such as Dwight willing to do the not-so-glamorous duties instead of sitting behind a desk in the air-conditioned public safety center. We all should be proud to have a leader such as Sheriff Baird in charge of our county law enforcement. R. Budd Wormley
Village of Millbrook trustee Millbrook
Proposed bridge wasteful spending
To the Editor: To Kendall County Engineer Fran Klaas and the Kendall County Board: the proposed Eldamain bridge and roads that will eventually dump traffic onto Route 71 is a typical government nightmare, wasteful spending and more wasteful spending. Since Eldamain Road will be four lanes from Jericho Road to Route 34 and, per Mr. Klaas, the remaining two lanes on Route 34 from Eldamain to Route 47 will be four lanes, with four lanes already being configured from Morris heading north. Finish this project allowing traffic to be able to get off at Routes 71, 52 and Route 80 if so desired. If the concern is about truck traffic, after going through a few blocks of Yorkville it’s wide open country to Morris. Michael T. Svanovick Plano
School supply drive was big success
To the Editor: Our annual school supply drive this year was a big success. Thank you to the Kendall County Record/ Ledger-Sentinel for running our lists to get the word out. Thank you to all of you who donated supplies and money toward our drive. Your generosity makes a huge difference in the success of the program. Many of our county children will start school on the right foot thanks to your support. Thank you. Jan Sticka
Volunteer School Supply Coordinator, Yorkville
Thursday, August 13, 2015 Kendall County Record • Page 5
Letters to newspaper entertaining
To the Editor: I truly find Ed Warshak’s letters to the Ledger-Sentinel Forum every week quite entertaining. He is totally anti-Bruce Rauner despite the fact that our new governor is not even being given an opportunity to fail. Ed would love to just maintain the Madigan/Cullerton status quo that has produced a state bankrupt and unable to fulfill basic obligations. Ed also said last week that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is the “love child,” to use Ed’s words, of the Koch brothers. I guess that the hundreds of millions of dollars that George Soros has donated to countless Democrat candidates doesn’t really amount to anything that resembles political support for left-wing office pursuers. Ed, things work both ways. Donations to political PACs come from both sides of the aisle but I guess when a Democrat is given millions it is a wise investment and when a Republican gets a donation it is undue influence-peddling in Ed’s narrow mind. Don Lass Oswego
No to funding for Kennedy Road trail
To the Editor: The Aug. 6 Record headline, “Kennedy Road trail gets support” means six of eight Yorkville aldermen can count on votes from bicycle types for re-election by spending most of the $1.7 million cost using state grants. This money from a bankrupt state’s highway funds should be spent for vehicular, not recreation, needs. Two principles of public finance are violated by this funding of bicycle paths: user fees and urgency. Those benefiting from public investment should pay the cost. Urgency is the necessity measure which justifies taxing even the poor (the widow’s mite) to provide a public good. My round trip on Kennedy Road about 11:30 a.m. Aug. 7 encountered significant traffic. Much of the road is twolane and only 22 feet wide and paved. Any 10-foot-wide bicycle path would require telephone pole displacement onto private property, eminent domain appropriation of much of the front lawns of a dozen or more homes and removal of maybe a half mile or so of big shade trees. The
maintenance of the railroad crossing in perpetuity must call for joyous Yorkville taxpayer celebrations. A trip to Grande Reserve School along Grande Trail, which parallels Kennedy Road to the south, permits viewing a number of upscale developments, many bike and sidewalk trails and no one using them. No railroad crossings. No traffic. Plenty of unencumbered space for more trails. Why is not this advocacy group willing to raise money for these trails? The grant system allocates money to legislative members’ constituencies essentially to help them get re-elected and usually is the misallocation of scarce capital, as is painfully evident in this instance. Alphonse I. Johnson Newark
Examine where fetal tissue ends up
To the Editor: Over the last several weeks the national news cycle has been saturated by Planned Parenthood and the secretly recorded tapes. Whether you believe or disbelieve the factual nature of the tapes, you might want to wonder where the tissue they talk about ends up. Human fetal tissue has been used since the 1930s. The first polio vaccine was grown using DNA from aborted fetal tissue. A Nobel Prize was awarded for this discovery in 1954. Vaccines have been grown using fetal tissue ever since. The manufacturers do not identify it as such on their websites but use medical terminology such as diploid tissue or fibroblasts. Fetal lung and kidney cells are identified with names like RA 27/3 for rubella vaccines or WI-38 and MRC-5 used for MMR vaccines. These vaccines have been around since 1961. Manufacturers like Merck, GlaxoSmithKlein and Sonafi produce vaccines under names like Poliovax, Zostavax (chickenpox), MMR-V and Imovax (rabies). The National Network for Immunization explains on their website the need for human fetal cells. An organization called Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute lists over 24 current vaccinations that use human fetal tissue. The National Institute of Health spent over $76 million on tissue research in 2012. They financed projects using tissue for diseases
like Parkinson’s, AIDS, MS, Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injuries. Human fetal tissue, unlike stem cells, can provide researchers better material to develop medicines and therapies that may save millions from the devastation of these diseases. Animal tissue are too unpredictable for good research. While the main character in the undercover films, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, was vilified for talking about money and tissues in the same sentence, you would be just as disturbed to listen to medical people talking about organ transplants. It costs money to properly handle, transport and store human tissue. Does not matter if it’s a heart from a 30-year-old man or lung tissue from a nine-week-old fetus, it has to be handled properly and that costs money to do so. Lastly, rather than scream about shutting down Planned Parenthood, how about protesting against companies who use the fetal tissue for non-medical uses. One such company, Senomyx, used a cell line called HEK 293 to enhance flavors for low-calorie foods used by food manufacturers. They use a protein to establish taste in low-sugared products. Multinational food manufacturers, whose products grace the shelves of grocery stores and which you purchase daily, use Senomyx to help develop food products for consumption. Or the company called Neocutis and BioRestorative Cream to make old skin look younger. Those companies and that market is where the protest should be directed, not Planned Parenthood. If you allow right-wing politicians to carry out their threats of closing Planned Parenthood and discontinue the use of fetal tissue they may handle, you may one day wonder why medicine is not doing anything to help defeat a disease you or a family member may suffer from but could be helped using fetal tissue research. Ed Washak Yorkville
Iran deal, townships
To the Editor: Finally key Democrats, Sen. Charles Schumer and ranking House Foreign Affairs member Eliot Engle, have taken a stand to oppose Obama’s Iran deal realizing that it is not in the best interest for
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the future defense of the United States. Meanwhile, President Obama resorts to scare tactics, saying the only alternative for not agreeing to his deal is war with Iran in the near future, which is not the only option. The embargo on Iran was working by putting Iran in a dire economic state and the embargo should be continued. Obama and Kerry’s deal of releasing $150 billion to Iran will solve their economic problem and will undoubtedly be used to send more munitions to the terrorists that have killed and are killing our soldiers in the Mid-East. The deal allows Iran to continue its nuclear development without adequate inspections. Inspections are allowed only after a 24-day advance notice and inspections of military installations are not allowed. No U.S. personnel are allowed on the inspection teams; therefore, the inspections are virtually worthless. The whole deal is based on trusting Iran, which we know cannot be trusted. After 10 years the deal ends and will allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon and they are currently developing an inter-continental missile capable of delivering a weapon. Iran has vowed to eliminate Israel and destroy America. There are alternatives to war with Iran; however, if necessary which would be best, a conventional war in the near future or a nuclear war with Iran when they get a nuclear weapon? Obama’s
deal only serves a short-term solution based on trusting Iran with a probability of a nuclear war later. Would any sane person give ammunition to someone who has threatened to kill you? Contact our senators and encourage a no vote on this terrible deal and a vote to override Obama’s veto. On a local issue, I believe that any elected, taxpayer-paid official should live in and pay taxes in the electoral district where they are elected. Regarding the current Oswego Township road commissioner issue, a solution that would solve the problem now and in the future would be to abolish township government. Townships were necessary years ago when there were large areas with sparse population and not many towns to provide a meeting place and services. That is no longer the case. When service functions continue, without the top administrator even being present, it proves that at the very least that position could be eliminated saving taxpayers’ money. Townships are an unnecessary layer of government because counties now could provide all services. Eliminating townships would cause significant taxpayer savings because all township administrative positions would be eliminated. Leland H. Hoffer Oswego