I felt a profound sadness seeing the front page Sun-Times story about Weiss Memorial Hospital’s closing. The facility was a central part of my family’s lives since 1958 when we moved to Chicago. My mother worked there until she retired in 1975. I worked there from 1971 to 1998.
Louis A. Weiss Memorial opened in 1953. As I understand it, one of the goals was to be a hospital where Jewish doctors could practice medicine. The location was a natural choice given the significant Jewish population on Chicago’s north lakefront.
Doctors at Weiss were involved in cancer treatment research, and the hospital had one of the early intensive care unit models in health care.
Weiss handled a wide clientele, from lakefront residents to Native Americans and rural folks who had settled in Uptown. I can attest to its active emergency room when I worked in housekeeping summers during college.
The association with the University of Chicago seemed promising at a time when so many hospitals such as Henrotin and Michael Reese and many others had closed. Unfortunately, the connection didn’t seem to last long, and much of its original core patient population had aged and/or moved out of the city.
Since then, Weiss moved into the private hospital category, and it was rather like watching a hotel or retail store gradually move down-market to meet its final demise.
This seems to be the way of the world. It feels like I should be attending a wake.
Michael Hart, West Ridge
Hill of beans
I thought I had seen it all. But the “Human Bean” article in Saturday’s Sun-Times was pure insanity.
From my office window at 8 S. Michigan Ave., I watched the entire construction of Millennium Park, including Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, or as many call it, The Bean. As an artist myself, I photographed it in all its stages from beginning to end, from the armature infrastructure to the rivets, from the welding of stainless steel plates to the final polishing.
When reporter Stefano Esposito quoted the group spreading the lie as saying, “The media finally sees us,” I have to ask, who are “they?” People promoting the propaganda that there is a “man living inside” are nuts. I’m sorry that Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) has to put up with this, yet I appreciated his humorous response. Cloud Gate is a modern marvel. The work of Kapoor is known around the world. It is full of wonder, but it does not in any way shape or form contain a hidden creature. This is the kind of nonsensical and conspiratorial absurdity that today’s world revels in. Where will it end? I fear it will only get worse with artificial intelligence.
Mel Theobald, South Loop
Vance’s commandment
Moses, the devoted servant of God, split the Red Sea, so the people could flee oppression. JD Vance, the devoted servant of Donald Trump, had the Little Miami River raised, so he could go kayaking safely.
The modern gods have different priorities.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia