Many children will lose out without public media access
When I was a kid, I had a little Thanksgiving tradition. Channel 11 would play "A Hard Day’s Night," and every year I’d watch it while my mom cooked the turkey. We all grew up with "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" and "Sesame Street," but sometimes something niche feels like it belongs to you. Channel 11 gave me that.
When I was fresh out of college and driving from Chicago to Rockford for my first journalism job, I discovered NPR’s "Car Talk" and "This American Life." Because I refused to live in Rockford, I spent hours with Ira Glass. Those drives didn’t kill time, they taught me stories, how to listen and think like a journalist instead of just a kid with a notebook.
And now the cuts to the organizations that bought me such joy aren’t threats — they’re real. The federal government already pulled funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, gutting the backbone that kept WTTW and WBEZ connected to the hundreds of smaller public-media outlets nationwide.
Chicago might limp along on pledge drives, but downstate stations don’t have a donor class to save them. Without public broadcasting, many will go dark. And when that happens, how’s a kid in Carbondale supposed to get "Wild Kratts?"
Public media is free, it’s weird, and it’s ours. For a lot of kids growing up in the Chicago area, there’s no cable or unlimited data plan. What they have is Channel 11. Every kid in Chicago knows Arthur and Big Bird. It’s the one thing that doesn’t require a credit card or the right ZIP code.
WTTW gave us “Chicago Stories,” deep dives into how the city was built. It showed us Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert’s fractious relationship. It preserved Studs Terkel’s investigations into the American mythos. Meanwhile, WGN-TV blasts reruns, and WGN Radio is conservative talk hosts pretending they understand the city.
The U.S. spends about $1.50 per person per year on public media — less than 0.01% of the federal budget — while countries like Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom invest $75 to $140 per person. For less than a CTA ride, PBS and NPR reach nearly 99% of Americans.
Gutting it doesn’t save taxpayers anything; it just hands politicians a culture-war trophy at the expense of working families.
"PBS Kids" is one of the most trusted educational tools for low-income families. Politicians who talk about "protecting kids" are defunding the one media ecosystem actually designed for them.
Big Bird didn’t deserve this.
Robert Dean, Austin, Texas
Political climate taking a toll on all
A letter to the editor last month, Children facing ICE threats need indoor sanctuaries, made me reflect on the mental health implications of our current political environment.
If I had to evaluate Illinois’ mental health as if it were a patient, I’d say our society is showing symptoms of anxiety, depression and paranoia from not seeing ourselves in others. Regardless of political ideology, everyone’s mental health has been suffering in this toxic environment that was heightened during the ramped-up immigration raids in the Chicago area.
Similarly, the beef and soybean trade war is taking an emotional, as well as economic, toll on rural farming communities in our state. Farmers face significantly higher suicide rates compared to the general population.
Illinois is already directing extra mental health resources to shore up our suffering agricultural sector, but the anxiety and pain caused by current economic instability is palpable. It is threatening small multi-generational businesses, hurting families and destabilizing communities.
Some of our fellow Americans don’t seem to be concerned. Suffering in rural communities is dismissed by some with a, "They voted for him." On the other side, people cheer that their guy is, "Finally cleaning up a liberal mess."
These divergent views from conflicting cultural regions are not new, but they are playing out in increasingly toxic ways. The unwillingness to acknowledge the humanity of the "other side" corrupts all of us. No matter which "side": Everyone is affected psychologically in a negative way.
Let’s take a step back from the brink by reminding ourselves of our common humanity. As Abraham Lincoln wisely noted, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." For us, that means there are no winners with our political house so profoundly divided.
Anyone experiencing psychological distress can call 988 for help. There are also so many resources for immigrants, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. And farming families struggling can also seek help at 1-800-FARM-AID.
Steve Weinstein , president-elect , Illinois Psychiatric Society
Unjust justice
It's ironic President Donald Trump pardoned convicted drug trafficker and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, while blowing alleged drug-running boats out of the water in the Caribbean. The evidence that puts a man in prison means less than the absence of evidence that gets others killed. The logic is a rock-solid void.
Tony Galati, Lemont
Name-calling
President Donald Trump has called Gov. JB Pritzker "a fat slob” and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., “wacky.”
If the president wants to check out a real "fat slob" and an authentic "wack job," all he has to do is look in the mirror.
Neil Milbert, Wilmette