Grandkids already have lots of “stuff.” As the holidays approach, consider a gift that keeps on giving, that being a monetary contribution to a post-high school education fund. Said funds can be used for college, trade school, specialized training, all related to preparing your grandchildren for gaining skills to enable them to find long-term meaningful employment.
Employers hire new people to fulfill specific needs within their organizations. Speaking for myself, having a B.A. degree in economics provided a macro understanding of how the economy works. However, to be able to communicate with employees and supervisors in a plant production arena, I took many short courses in science, technology, engineering and math-related subjects to acquire enough knowledge to fully understand the big picture and to be able to surround myself with people with the skill levels I needed (and knew had to be more advanced than my own to make plant operation successful).
Bottom line: Education has to continue well beyond high school and even college. I would interview applicants with more “degrees” than a thermometer, but depth of knowledge was often lacking. Wiring a house is not the same as wiring a control panel with a maze of integrated circuitry. Give the gift that keeps on giving.
King Embry, Winnetka
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Shooting down words of war
The new Cook County state’s attorney compared Chicago’s gun violence to a “war zone.” Maybe Eileen O’Neill Burke should go on a fact-finding mission to Ukraine. Is it the duty of every elected official to exaggerate the problems they face? (See Mayor Brandon Johnson’s disingenuous performance.) She can follow her statement by blaming the last state’s attorney, taking another page out of Johnson’s playbook.
O’Neill Burke’s statement was an insult to the service people who have been in a real war zone.
Kevin Berg, Fox Lake
More pardons needed to Trump-proof country
I 100% agree with the pardon of Hunter Biden and here’s why. The Republicans investigated him for the last two years of the Trump administration and found nothing. They have trashed him for the last six years in the press and for the last two years, the Republican-majority House has tried everything but to tar and feather Joe Biden and came up with nothing. So, let’s look at the charges Hunter Biden was convicted of. Number one: the gun that he had illegally for 11 days. The fact is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rarely has brought charges against a single person for the purchase of a single gun. Number two: tax issues. He cheated on his taxes (Yes. So has Donald Trump). He’s paid his back taxes and his late charges, so fine him and move on. This entire thing has been 100% political ploy.
If I were President Biden, I would issue a pardon to every Cabinet member and their top assistants across the board. I would pardon retired General Mark Milley and all of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I would issue a pardon for every executive level employee in the justice, defense, education, energy and border protection departments, Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and of course, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
If this doesn’t go far enough to stop Trump’s witch hunt, I would issue a blanket pardon for the entire federal government.
With this out of his way, Trump can make American great again.
Jeffery Carr, Carol Stream
Too many guns
How did we get to be a country where we put up with travesties like a police officer’s being fatally shot near the Oak Park Public Library at 9:30 a.m.? Where we live in terror whenever our kids go outside or, even scarier, go to school? Where people value their guns over human life? And many folks erroneously think these guns make them safer. Somehow I don’t think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Deborah Donovan, Berwyn
A new pledge to the flag
Since the Supreme Court granted Donald Trump immunity from the law, thus rendering him lawless, and should he escape punishment for his felonies because of his money, I propose a new Pledge of Allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the plutocracy for which it stands: One nation under God, with liberty only for those who can obtain and retain more wealth for themselves, with freedom from governmental regulation, from equality, and from justice for all others.
Marion J. Reis, Lombard
Ohtani would make fewer errors in the Oval Office
While the concept of “Golden At-Bats” seems preposterous in the traditional game of baseball, it’s not without some merit elsewhere.
For instance, maybe the next time Donald Trump brings up tariffs or tax cuts for the wealthy, maybe Shohei Ohtani can be announced as a designated decision-maker. After all, the Japanese superstar has succeeded at everything else, why not global economics as well?
Bob Ory, Elgin