LETTERS
Two tin cans and a string Thank you for [Harvey Berkman's] informative article in the May issue, "Been there, dialed that" (see page 12). If only it had appeared in February or March! I suspect that the breakup of old Ma Bell had a lot to do with greed. And with the numerous splinter phone companies calling or sending me literature, there must be a lot of swill for the pigs at the trough. Besides not publishing costs for interlata calls prior to the April 1 effective dates, no one seemed to know whether calls would be more or less expensive anyway. I was told by one carrier that I should look at my next bill and compare it to an old one. God forbid having to contact the phone company as it is! Mechanical assistance has replaced user-friendly, English-speaking operators with a series of transferring clicks that eventually link you with Peggy Sue in Catswamp, Louisiana ... "Howwww kin a helllpp eyew?" Try as I might, I cannot come to terms with the menace a telephone has become. We have call waiting and voice mail answering to keep us in the know. A line connects my computer to the Internet, the glorified phone book with click and point features, and in both of my cars I carry a telephone for access to emergency help. My phone bills look like the itemized record issued following my last major surgery, and the rates just keep climbing. I once read a book entitled Atlas Shrugged. Maybe before the universal service is developed our world will come to a close. I've heard that in heaven two tin cans and a string work real fine!
John B. Carter
Well wishes to retiring journalist An institution in Illinois journalism and government has retired. Bill O'Connell, the Peoria Journal Star's veteran political writer, put aside his pad and pen after covering state government and politics for more than four decades. In perhaps the understatement of the decade, O'Connell was quoted as saying: "I think I did a good job." Good job, indeed. A superlative job it has been. As he enters a well-deserved retirement, it should be remembered how much of a mentor he has been to so many of us in the Statehouse press corps. Probably no one — in or out of public office — has known more about Illinois government and politics than Bill O'Connell. And, like such luminaries in the press corps as Don Chamberlain, Charley Whalen and Bob Howard, he was always willing to share his knowledge with anyone who asked. As the former Waukegan News-Sun political editor who covered the Illinois General Assembly in the 1960s and 1970s, I am one of those who owe him a big debt of gratitude. And, as a longtime friend and colleague in the news business, I wish him and his wife Helen many years of happy retirement. His legion of readers and news sources know he has earned it.
Ed Nash
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Illinois Issues August 1996 ¦ 39 |
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