Ice bombs keep falling on my head

February 3, 2002

I awoke Thursday morning to my radio telling me that 11 inches of snow had fallen at O'Hare Airport while I was sleeping. After much preparation and a long driving commute, I managed to arrive at my Loop parking lot unscathed--no car accident, no heart attack from shoveling--only to be met with the ''Falling Ice'' signs and orange cones with yellow caution tape surrounding each building in the Loop warning all pedestrians they are facing imminent peril!

I have worked in the Loop for 30 years. I don't remember this ever happening 30, 20 or even 10 years ago. It seems the last five years or so, after a snowstorm, we all have to take our life in our hands and run this ''Falling Ice'' obstacle course down the sidewalks of the city in fear for our lives. There is nowhere to go. It is a terrifying challenge to outmaneuver these spiraling ice bombs.

What is the problem? Can't the snow from rooftops of buildings somehow be eliminated? Do building owners really assume that their liability is over when they place a cone saying "Watch for Falling Ice'' out on the sidewalk? I have instructed my family to sue for millions if I am killed by falling ice!

I believe that all pedestrians should rise up and say ''We are not going to take this anymore!''

Claudia Coleman, Darien

Vaccine protects kids

As chairman of the state's Immunization Advisory Committee when the varicella [chickenpox] requirement was considered, I feel compelled to respond to a recent article about the committee's decision [''Ties to drug company raise vaccine questions; conflict of interest charged in decision on chickenpox shot,'' news story, Jan. 27].

I was one of the five pediatricians on the committee at the time without any financial interests or ties to any pharmaceutical company. Before the vote, we considered the public health implications of the requirement. The pediatricians were following the unanimous recommendations of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Executive Committee, as well as recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unfortunately, your article does not consider the fact that failing to protect all children in Illinois would result in leaving some children vulnerable to the potentially life-threatening complications of chickenpox. Each year, a number of children die as a consequence of having the disease.

Our decision to recommend that the state mandate the vaccine was the correct one in the best interest of all children of Illinois.

Mark Rosenberg, M.D.,

president, Illinois chapter,

American Academy

of Pediatrics

Vaccine poses risk

As the parent of a child who was severely injured by vaccines, I am gravely concerned about the impending mandate of the chickenpox vaccine for all Illinois schoolchildren ["Chickenpox among less grave illnesses,'' news story, Jan. 27].

The chickenpox vaccine, like the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, is a live virus vaccine. Food and Drug Administration guidelines published in 1997 warned of "recombination" events with live virus vaccines resulting in more virulent strains of the viruses; in other words, MMR plus chickenpox might be a disastrous combination for a child. We simply don't know. The research has not been done.

There is no proof of lifetime immunity for the chickenpox vaccine. Chickenpox in older adults is a more serious disease. There is a serious health risk to the unborn children of mothers who develop chickenpox during pregnancy. With the mandate of this vaccine, we may be creating generations of vaccine-dependent adults who will need to be monitored on a lifetime basis for booster doses. In 1999, on a national basis, 48 individuals died from chickenpox. Is this really necessary? I say emphatically "no." Let parents in Illinois choose whether to vaccinate their children for this disease, and not the faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats at the Illinois Department of Health and the CDC.

Liz Birt, founder,

Medical Interventions

for Autism, Wilmette

Quit taking our land

Landbanking for a proposed airport in Peotone is not only an affront to the farmers and residents of Peotone, but to the taxpayers of Illinois and to the cherished American value of the right to private property.

The State of Illinois recently began spending $75 million to purchase land near Peotone. On Jan. 10, 117 farmers and homeowners received a frightening registered letter from the Illinois Department of Transportation saying that the state will acquire all 4,200 acres (seven square miles) for the ''inaugural'' airport site within two years, and threatening legal action if residents do not sell voluntarily.

The FAA is scheduled to complete the first phase of their Environmental Impact Statement this spring. That phase does not address whether or not there is a need for an airport at Peotone, it merely approves the site in case the FAA determines, in the second phase of study, whether there is a need. With expansion of O'Hare, Gary and increased utilization of Rockford, the need for Peotone is questionable at best.

To force farmers and homeowners off their land before the FAA has determined that there is a need for an airport is outrageous! No more land should be purchased until the FAA completes the second phase of its study, which may take another year. State officials say they want to buy the land before it gets more developed and more costly. With the threat of landbanking hanging over us, I guarantee there will not be much development during the next year. Farmers and homeowners are afraid to do even basic repairs to buildings, fearing they will be displaced and not compensated.

The vast majority of residents in the inaugural site and in the full 24,000-acre (38 square miles) site do not want to sell. Many in the small group of residents who did start negotiating with the state dropped out in disgust, insulted by what the state offered to pay.

The Illinois Department of Transportation, the agency planning Peotone and the one that would build it, bought us Mid-America Airport at Mascoutah, a white elephant that sits empty. Obviously, IDOT has a track record of incompetence when it comes to planning and building airports. Its attempt to landbank at this time is clearly a mistake.

George Ochsenfeld, president, STAND (Shut This Airport Nightmare Down), Monee

Say no to casino deal

Mark Brown should be applauded for exposing the shady deal the state is about to strike with some wise guys from Las Vegas [columns, Jan. 22, 23]. Brown knows a sucker when he sees one. In this case, the suckers are the taxpayers of Illinois.

Our one-term governor has stacked the state gaming board with new pro-gambling members who, instead of objectively supervising legalized gambling activities, are personally involved in brokering the dirty deal in favor of the special interest. This is wrong!

Compared to the obscene profit the new Rosemont casino will get, the $160 million payment the state is to receive is like a drop in Lake Michigan.

If we can't stop this questionable maneuver, let's postpone it until a new governor is elected this fall. He or she should fire the current gaming board members and appoint impartial ones to look into this mess openly.

For the time being, let the casino deal become a campaign issue. Thus, the voters can have their say in this important matter. If the proposed casino must open, it ought to be run by the state so that the windfall profits stay in the public coffer rather than going into those carpetbaggers' pockets.

Eric Lin, Argo

Let detainees rot

How dare people criticize our military for the handling of the sons of Satan in Cuba. I knew people would begin to forget the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001--I just didn't think it would be so soon.

Those bleeding hearts complain about these monsters being blindfolded and sedated. How much better it would have been for the victims of those hijackings to have been blindfolded and sedated while they were flown into the twin towers and the Pentagon.

How dare the media continue to show these animals being rightfully detained in an attempt to obtain public sympathy. I hope the barbarians rot in hell.

Gregory Piazza, Lockport

Comparing comfort

I read with interest that human rights groups are concerned that the detainees are not being properly treated in their 8-by-8-foot holding cells. I bet they're a lot more comfortable than all of the Americans they helped put in 3-by-6-foot caskets.

Valorie Sarafin, Lockport

Something stinks

I don't understand: When Commonwealth Edison was unable to supply electricity to parts of the city, Mayor Daley jumped all over the company. He wanted ComEd to serve the people. Daley now appears to believe that homeowners in Chicago should pay for a permit to rod their own sewers [''Aldermen raise a stink over permits for sewer work,'' Jan. 23].

Something is wrong. Does the mayor not realize that property taxes just went up? As taxpayers, we can't vote ourselves a cost-of-living pay raise whenever we feel like it. Many of us are seniors living on a fixed income.

Willie B. Candler,

Auburn Gresham

Same army, new war

Doesn't it bother President Bush and all his hawkish Republicans that if we go to war with Iraq, Iran and North Korea, we will be doing it with a military that is the same military we had under Bill Clinton?

I thought the military was depleted under Clinton. Nobody fired everyone in the military, and hired or enlisted a whole new military when Bush became president.

Amazing how the military under Clinton was in shambles, according to everything I read, but nothing has changed since Bush became president and yet we are about to take on the world with the same military that was under the command of President Bill Clinton.

Bill Corcoran, Beverly

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