Editorials

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley is nobody's fear-mongering right-winger. He's a liberal Democrat — smart, practical, prudent — whose district roams from Chicago's North Side west into DuPage County. Many of his fellow congressional Democrats don't like to talk much at all about terror threats; they think doing so is bad for the Obama administration's image. They leave the terror talk to Republicans.

Today we recognize Equal Pay Day, a day that symbolically represents when a woman’s wage finally catches up to what a man was paid in the previous year. Despite often being equally qualified, a man’s pay outpaces a woman’s by 79 cents for every dollar.

In America, most of us are lucky enough to take our clean drinking water for granted. We think of contaminated drinking water as a problem that happens to other people in remote parts of the world. However, the recent crisis in Flint, Michigan, has forced us to recognize that these problems can also crop up close to home. As we celebrate World Water Day today, let's consider the threat our aging water infrastructure poses to our clean drinking water right here at home, and what we can do about it.

“I look with increasing horror, along with a growing number of other Americans, at the great and bitter division that is taking place in our politics, and the cynicism that is the end result of power for power’s sake. We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views.”

We were pleased, but not surprised, to learn this week that the Illinois Supreme Court declared its four-year pilot program allowing media cameras into courtrooms around the state a success. As national leaders on this issue, we have been pushing the U.S. Supreme Court to allow video and live-audio, improving transparency and justice for all.

Over the last 15 years, more than 1.16 million illegal attempts to buy guns were flagged and stopped by the current federal background check system – usually because the person trying to buy the gun was a convicted felon.

Last week, we saw a monstrous winter storm that brought most of the East Coast to a grinding halt. More than 80 million Americans were impacted and eleven states declared a state of emergency. While we know that weather and climate are not one in the same, the recent blizzard elucidates a trend that has been emerging for some time — climate change is rapidly altering the world around us, contributing to higher temperatures, changing seasonal patterns, and the loss of habitats and species.

Today, the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade turns forty-three years old. For forty-three years, the Supreme Court has upheld their decision that a woman's constitutional right to privacy also protects her right to make personal health care decisions about abortion. And, for forty-three years, women have had the constitutional right to access abortion services without government interference. After the unprecedented attacks this past year on Planned Parenthood and reproductive health broadly, it is perhaps more important than ever to wish Roe a resounding happy birthday.