Low Vision Awareness Month, which we observe this February, is an ideal time to schedule an annual eye exam to be sure that your eyes are and remain healthy. After all, many diseases that can cause low vision can be managed if caught early.
In addition to prevention, this month also provides an opportunity for the public to increase its general knowledge about the causes of low vision and where to find help for any family members or friends who cope with it.
Receiving a low vision diagnosis is difficult, and often scary, for many patients. What do you do to make those who are newly diagnosed feel at ease and optimistic that they can continue to lead independent lives?
As an optometrist at The Chicago Lighthouse Low Vision Clinic, the oldest and most prestigious in the Midwest, I listen to our patients’ concerns, making it a point to know them on a personal level and hear how vision loss has impacted their activities at home, work, in retirement and at school. Then I offer reassurances that while we might not be able to bring their vision back, we can find ways to help patients deal with their challenges.
SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words.
Our clinic’s comprehensive services and breadth of assistive technology ensure that we have solutions to offer. In addition, all our eye care providers have completed a low vision residency, ensuring that we have the most knowledgeable low-vision care providers.
If you aren’t easily able to access a low-vision clinic, online resources can help guide you to assistive devices and technologies that may help. Mytoolsforliving.com is one such online resource that can help you find helpful tools to assist in day-to-day activities if you have low vision.
Low Vision Awareness Month is also a time for thinking about inclusion. We often take for granted how much of our daily activities rely on good vision.
Reading packages, mail, emails, seeing faces, driving where we need to go. Think of the additional challenges posed by not having enough vision to do these things without adequate accommodations and accessibility.
We need to remember people with low vision when designing packaging, products and other items.
Inclusion of people with any disability is important and Low Vision Awareness Month is a great time to remind everyone about the power of inclusivity and accessibility for all, including those living with low vision.
Kara Crumbliss, chief of clinical services, Chicago Lighthouse
Clinée Hedspeth deserved better from City Council
The Sun-Times made an excellent point describing as “cattywampus” this week’s City Council hearing on a controversial puppet display. But it was off-base as to why: The hearing went south due to the disrespect and condescension several white alderpersons showed Cultural Affairs Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth, not due to Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez’s ”grandstanding.”
Commissioner Hedspeth is under fire from Ald. Debra Silverstein and other Council members for approving a puppet display titled “U.S- Israel War Machine.” The display’s placard controversially calls the U.S. government and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “child killers and murderers” for prosecuting a Gaza war that has left 47,000 Palestinians dead.
Silverstein and the Anti-Defamation League claim this display is anti-Jewish and want it removed.
Discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can turn a monastery into a fight club. The first punches were thrown by those claiming to defend Jewish dignity, but who actually treated Hedspeth, an African American, like a child.
Some alderpersons disregarded Commissioner Hedspeth’s explanation of the art approval process and attacked her personally. They interrupted her several times, with one alderperson charging her with hating Jews.
Silverstein condescended and asked wryly if Hedspeth “fact-checked” the display before approving it. She then asked if the commissioner would approve other artwork, all irrelevant to the issue, including a “display of Brandon Johnson with blood on his hands.” The alderperson persisted like a parent extracting a confession from a child.
Silverstein finished by slandering the commissioner, accusing Hedspeth, “You do not return my phone calls,” a claim dispelled by Hedspeth.
These alderpersons would be censured if they treated a white commissioner in this manner.
Disturbingly, the hearing allowed testimony from the Midwest regional director of the ADL, a national organization, while other witnesses were all community members.
The ADL has been politically motivated in its mission. According to Jewish Currents magazine, ADL staffers said its president, Jonathan Greenblatt, “redirected the ADL’s day-to-day work to target pro-Palestine activism rather than focusing on antisemitism.”
So, the ADL opposes a puppet criticizing Netanyahu’s war in Gaza — a war many, from the UN to parents of Israeli hostages, called genocide. Strangely, the ADL initially defended Elon Musk’s Nazi salute.
That suggests shutting down free speech of the marginalized, not combatting bigotry, is the goal of the ADL’s allies in the City Council.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th Ward
Caise D. Hassan, Granada Center for Human Rights, Chicago
Toughen electronic monitoring laws
Sheriff Tom Dart’s letter to the editor last month was right on point (“Electronic monitoring is now ‘rendered powerless’ by legislation”).
It was refreshing to read his thoughtful and common-sense perspective on the current status of electronic monitoring in Illinois. Most importantly, those charged with serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder, aggressive battery, sexual assault, vehicular hijacking and gun crimes have no business being on electronic monitoring. It is an abuse of the system.
Furthermore, allowing everyone free movement two days a week, without consideration of their charges, is beyond ludicrous. The judicial system and Legislature need to work to straighten out this system to benefit and safeguard our citizenry.
Barbara S. Marion, Orland Park
Pausing foreign aid endangers U.S.
Freezing foreign assistance makes the U.S. weaker, less safe and less prosperous. Here’s how:
As we know all too well, diseases don’t respect boundaries. U.S. investments in global health have saved millions of lives, but they also help contain disease threats, such as the current outbreak of Ebola in Uganda, to keep us safe and healthy here at home. To pause these programs makes us less safe — to say nothing of the threat it poses to millions of people around the world who rely on U.S.-funded programs for health care that keeps them alive.
Foreign assistance might eventually be delivered to other countries but in many cases, these are U.S. goods and products, like food and medicine, that are shared around the world. To pause foreign assistance risks American jobs and exports, leaving millions of dollars of resources to waste.
At a nexus of global conflict and crisis, now is an ill-advised time for the U.S. to step away from its role as a global leader. The confusion, instability, and loss of trust that a sudden disruption of historic U.S. support is currently causing provides an opportunity for America’s adversaries to gain ground.
At less than 1% of the federal budget, for a relatively modest amount of money, this work does a world of good. Our legislators must continue their support to maintain these vital programs and the legacy of U.S. leadership that they’ve helped create.
Kristine Lofquist, Evanston
Display national, world news prominently
Please explain to me why “The Hardest Working Paper in America” hides the Nation/World news in the back of the paper after the classifieds and obituaries. Our democracy is being threatened by the dismantling of governmental agencies occurring in our nation’s capital and the media should be prominently reporting this.
It is the responsibility of the press to keep people informed and headlines such as “Trump and Musk Move to Dismantle USAID” or “Trump: U.S. Should Own Gaza” among others should be front-page news, not hidden away between the obits and sports. Our nation is being systematically dismantled and people need to hear about this as important and prominent information that could change the trajectory of our democracy. Please give credence to the Nation/World news by more prominent placement in the hardest working paper in America.
Barbara Harris, Des Plaines
Will Trump heed the courts?
Donald Trump, with a blitzkrieg of executive orders, has shifted our government from a democratic republic to an oligarchy. While our sociopathic president is focused on retribution, Elon Musk, our country’s first oligarch, is gaining control of the Treasury Department and the systems that control government payouts, like Social Security.
Many, if not all, of Trump’s illegal actions are, and will, be challenged in the courts; but will he abide by the courts’ decisions if they go against him? He will not. This last election could indeed be our last election. Only a coalition of Democrats and Republicans, who now regret their vote for Trump, can stop him from completely destroying America.
If this coalition can bring out millions of protesters, and if the Republicans pressure their congressional representatives, impeachment might be possible. But this won’t happen until Americans actually care about what’s going on,
Richard Keslinke, Algonquin
Democrats, step up
I am appalled by the pace at which a private, unelected individual, Elon Musk, with the support of the president, has been able to dismantle the U.S. government. This is unprecedented. Furthermore, it’s disheartening that the Democratic Party seems to be missing in action to address this constitutional crisis. The party needs to step up, show up and assert the rule of law, the separation of powers and the authority of the U.S. Constitution.
Walter Gallas, Edgewater
Constitutional double standards
Let me see if I have this straight. Certain groups, and jurists, espouse an “originalist” view of the Constitution, as in what did the founders or the writers of a particular Amendment intend? So, the 14th Amendment gets shrunk down until it’s narrow enough to pass through the eye of a needle, goodbye birthright citizenship. But that same narrow focus vanishes for their take on the 2nd Amendment, broad enough to drive a caravan of assault rifles through, never mind the bloodshed and the presence of that distinctly 18th-century term, “militia.” Narrow, broad, whatever it takes to rewrite the Constitution, I guess.
Douglas Bukowski, Berwyn
Trump’s real intentions on Gaza
Rather than a desire for ethnic cleansing, President Donald Trump is framing his call to “clean out” Gaza as arising from his concern for the residents there. However, I believe that Trump’s true intentions are revealed by his choice of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has stated that there is “no such thing as a Palestinian.”
Terry Hansen, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Be kinder to Angel Reese
I am really at a loss at the negative coverage that Angel Reese continues to garner in these pages. She has been a complete success at every level of her career, from being a national champion in college to an all-star in her rookie season, and now a participant in the elite Unrivaled league, where she is currently recruiting the best players to come to Chicago. And despite her growing fame, she does all the dirty work on the court that leads to winning. The sports landscape in Chicago is practically barren. Embrace Angel!
Jack Murphy, Hyde Park
Some federal workers might regret their vote
I have one word for all the federal workers who voted for Donald Trump: OOPS!
Alan Stoeck, Tinley Park
Sean Duffy wants his MTV
Regarding President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, it’s my hope that everyone will remember that as a young man he decided that the best way to start his working career was to be a reality TV star on MTV.
Steven Herr, West Ridge