Former Ald. Ed Burke was a parasite sucking the life out of this city for more than 50 years. Everything good he did was a cynical ploy to provide himself cover and make himself untouchable, just like every successful leader of an organized crime syndicate in history.
The fact that so many of his former colleagues on the Chicago City Council call his conviction “sad” or “a tragedy” only shows that every single one of them were also parasites sucking the life out of the city (“Ed Burke’s conviction ‘sad’ and ‘a tragedy,’ City Council colleagues say” — Dec. 21).
What’s sad is corruption continues to be so normalized in this town that so-called public servants have no qualms about going on the record accusing the people who are fighting corruption of being “the bad guys.”
Daniel DiCesare, Irving Park
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.
Ed Burke helped others
We’ve known Ed Burke most of our lives starting from growing up in our old neighborhood. We know him so much better than the news media and feds.
He has helped so many people during his long term as an alderman — people who lost their jobs, needed jobs or were in trouble. Sometimes he succeeded, and sometimes he did not, but he always tried.
He has always been a generous and loyal man with his time and benevolence toward others. The general public does not know this, and they deserve to know this.
Peter and Pamela Neary, Orland Park
Why I love Chicago
Here are some reasons why I have lived in Chicago for almost three decades:
Culture: Chicago possesses home-grown excellence in the arts, letters and sciences. I have been doubled up with laughter by performances of Shakespeare, overwhelmed by the thought and expression of books by locals, and carbonated by the jazz, classical and ethnic music of local ensembles.
Though other cities with greater celebrity like New York, London and Tokyo have substantial gifts, I have found our culture meets and sometimes exceeds theirs.
Cosmopolitan flavor: People from all over the world have embraced Chicago through choice or necessity. I have met Filipinos who showed what the true love of family means, Brazilians who take celebration to a new level, and Venezuelans who express piety and peace with a level of soulfulness that would touch anybody.
In addition to meeting visitors from prominent nations like Germany, Australia and Mexico, I have met people from lesser-known but equally interesting places like Eswatini, Mongolia and Belarus.
And Chicago is a veritable classroom. I have taken Irish language lessons, learned in detail how skyscrapers and heavy infrastructure are built, and listened to dozens of lectures by authors regarding their literary output.
Like guest columnist Emily Dagostino, I can trace my ancestry in Chicago in terms of generations (“This city dares us to stick around and make it better” — Dec. 15). My grandparents lived in West Side apartments, worked in factories or as artisans, and adopted the gritty and occasionally acidic outlook of people in the lower depths.
Despite offers to work on the East Coast or the opportunity to decamp to the suburbs, I have stayed in Chicago. Like Dagostino, I dare others to take on the city’s problems of crime, poverty and indifference. I know we can build a city greater than we have.
Craig Barner, Lincoln Square
