I was so pleased to read Sun-Times reporter Robert Herguth’s recent story about the growing presence of raptors in the Chicago area, which you can easily see for yourself while driving down the road. We have an enormous responsibility to watch out for our wild brethren and do better than our country did before when the law allowed people to poison these magnificent birds with chemicals and destroy habitat and food sources at an unimpeded rate. Too much harm is still happening, but federal law curtails many toxins, and there is a widespread effort by hundreds of agencies and organizations across the country to restore much-needed natural lands, including here. Alerting the public to these beings’ presence builds important support for their protection.
Another way to assist osprey, owls, eagles and everybody else in nature is to join the growing ranks of scientists and advocates who recommend providing animals with their proper pronouns. In 2021, In Defense of Animals and Animals & Media partnered to urge the Associated Press to update its style guide to use personal pronouns. They were joined by over 80 animal advocate leaders from across the globe, including Jane Goodall and the Center for Biological Diversity. According to the news release, “The scientific consensus is that nonhuman animals are conscious beings — someone not something — and the language we use should reflect that.”
At Friends of the Chicago River, where we work to protect people, water and wildlife every day, we already took that to heart, and our people and publications refer to “he, she, them or who” over “it.” This formal adaptation to our style guide is out of respect for the wild lives with whom we share our watershed and our desire to see them treated as having value with inherent rights of their own.
In a time when the climate crisis, habitat loss and a new force of political threats pose such danger, it will help if we use the right language, which tells everyone wild animals of any kind are not inanimate objects.
Margaret Frisbie, executive director, Friends of the Chicago River
Airbrushing Blagojevich’s past
I find it astonishing that ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich continues to receive national television exposure, particularly on Fox News, as though his disgraceful record in public office were merely an unfortunate misunderstanding.
I remember a very different Blagojevich.
My late mother, Judy Baar Topinka, challenged him for governor in 2006. I witnessed the personal attacks, ridicule and vilification directed at a woman who devoted her life to serving Illinois. Political disagreement is legitimate. Attacking someone’s character for political advantage is something else entirely.
Blagojevich was impeached, removed from office by a unanimous 59–0 Illinois Senate vote, and convicted of federal corruption offenses. Presidential clemency cannot rewrite history or erase the betrayal of public trust.
My mother believed public office was a responsibility, not a personal possession. She worked across party lines, respected political opponents and understood that serving people mattered more than personal publicity.
Television networks have every right to interview Blagojevich. But giving him a national platform without confronting his record does a disservice to viewers and to the people of Illinois.
This is not about Republicans or Democrats. It is about character, integrity and accountability.
My mother spent her life earning the public’s trust. Blagojevich squandered his.
Illinois should never forget the difference.
Joseph Baar Topinka, New Braunfels, Texas
Vote to keep Trump in check
To me, only a simple analysis is needed to decide whom to vote for in the upcoming congressional elections.
If you are happy with how things have gone since Jan. 20, 2025, voting for Republicans makes sense.
However, if you think that Donald Trump has behaved like a monarch and been a domestic and foreign policy vandal, is not that competent or qualified for the job in a conventional sense and is more than a little corrupt, you might want to vote for people who will work to constrain his worst tendencies.
This leads to another question: What evidence have Republican senators and representatives presented that they would do that, especially in the context of Trump’s project to purge the party of those who disagree with him having progressed substantially during his reign?
Some Republican members of Congress support what Trump is doing because they agree with it. Some acquiesce because they want to keep their jobs. If Republican voters want to rehabilitate their party — and they should not kid themselves about whether this is needed, both for the party, itself, and for the nation — they must show on Election Day that failing to fall in line with their party’s leader isn’t the only way that those who represent them in Congress could lose their jobs.
Curt Fredrikson, Mokena
Homophobic name-calling
Recently JD Vance made a false homophobic comment implying that James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, was gay. This is our vice president? Of course, Vance minions giggled like grammar school kids. I wonder if one of Vance’s kids were gay how he would feel about all the laughter.
Thomas Bajorek, Burbank
Uncertainty of life
A priest from Ecuador was giving a sermon on how fleeting life is over the weekend when a crucifix fell off its stand, killing him. If that tragedy isn’t a quintessential example of irony, I don’t know what is.
Wes Dickson, Orland Park