I was rather incensed by the comments actor Daniel Kyri made in Neil Steinberg’s recent column about playing a gay firefighter in “Chicago Fire.” Kyri said he was hesitant when the show’s writers decided to have his character come out, because he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as playing nothing but gay characters. You never hear actors worry about playing any other type of character, but there’s inevitably the straight actor who is praised for being “brave” to play a gay character.
Gay actors play have played straight characters for decades, and I guarantee you, they’re not worried about being limited to playing straight roles. Reading Steinberg’s column, I felt like it was 1995 not 2025. The world of casting and the larger world, for the most part, have opened up. Kyri’s comments just made my blood boil.
Scott Olson, Chicago
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People living in tents should follow rules too
After another “teen takeover” took place downtown late last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson emphasized, “What we have to do is enforce the current citywide curfew law that we already have in place before we consider additional measures.” I can’t believe what I’m about to state: I agree 100% with the mayor. In fact, Mr. Mayor, let’s start with our parks. Every park in the city generally has an 11 p.m. closing time. Everyone must be out of the parks by 11 p.m. If I have to go, the tent knuckleheads have to go too. Mr. Mayor, if you allow these freeloaders to stay, you really have only two choices. Either hit them with a $25 per-day rental fee or start issuing them property tax bills. That would help close your budget gap.
Paul Koehler, Rogers Park
Trump-style statesmanship
Donald Trump-diplomacy at its finest: “Hey Vladi, my man, you take Ukraine, and I’ll take Greenland. Cheers comrade!”
Tony Prevolos Bonita Springs, Florida
Advice to federal workers who lost jobs
Every federal worker losing their dream job is a reminder of what I experienced 30 years ago as a Chicago Park District employee. In 1994, under Parks Supt. Forrest Claypool and Mayor Richard M. Daley, the park district laid off 1,000 of its 4,000 employees.
Born and raised in Chicago, earning my degree in landscape architecture from University of Illinois, I felt like I won the lottery when I was hired in 1989. I was living my best life, designing gardens in Grant Park to “look good from a blimp” for the 1994 World Cup. I designed dozens of playgrounds for children throughout the city and just bought a condo to be close to the administration building on McFetridge Drive.
Then the layoffs started in the engineering division. It was all the 20 and 30-somethings who were losing their jobs, last hired, first fired. It was painful to be described as “fat and waste” by the superintendent.
I have advice for federal workers. Accept any career support or classes offered. I so identified with my career, and learned that family and friends come first. You can be a dedicated employee, excited to go to work each day, but then one day your name is on a list being passed around. You no longer have a job. Treat this as the major life event that it is, like a divorce or death of a loved one, and please be kind to yourself.
Irene Hogstrom, Downers Grove
Not the Sun-Times I have known
I’ve been a reader and a subscriber to the Sun-Times for more than 50 years. After the restructure (force out), last Sunday’s newspaper was a colossal failure. Few columns, no editorials, an anemic sport section and mostly crime stories that highlight the city’s problems.
I’ll also tell you that I’m tired of the constant trolling for donations. My paid subscription for home deliver is my contribution.
Is there anyone in management who can tell me why I should continue to subscribe to a paper with little content?
John C. Nuccio, Park Ridge
Sticking with the Sun-Times
While I too will miss so many Sun-Times staffers, I’m grateful that I can still depend on excellent reporting from this newspaper. Providing facts and context allows me and all readers to assess the news and form our own opinions. Isn’t that the mark of an informed public?
Diana Faulhaber, Lincoln Park
Grateful to Goldberg
To answer letter writer Terry Cornell’s question about why no one has suggested prosecuting The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg for having “released and printed the alleged classified information to the world, intentionally,” I would think that Trump administration’s persistent insistence that no classified information was included in the Signal chat might be a bit of a problem for the prosecution.
Legalities aside, there was little for the Houthis to learn from the “game plan” days after they had actually experienced the “game.” By the time when The Atlantic published the information, it was past its use-by date, something that couldn’t be said at the time of the chat.
We were lucky that somebody as responsible as Goldberg was the accidentally-invited journalist. He was not going to publish the transcripts of the chat until he was vilified by Trump administration officials, who suggested that he was lying about sensitive information being disclosed. At that point, Goldberg, as a journalist, had a responsibility to make clear who was lying.
In these days when journalists aren’t as powerful as they once were, it was good so see Goldberg stand up to power on behalf of the public. His courage shamed others like Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, who bends the knee to Donald Trump to protect his government contracts.
Curt Fredrikson, Mokena