Gov. JB Pritzker just signed the pension benefits bill, HB 3657, into law. Since then, editorials have used it to attack the men and women of the Chicago Fire Department. They focus on price tags and pension costs, but they rarely talk about the people who do the work.<\/p>\n
Being a firefighter isn\u2019t just a paycheck. It\u2019s missing your kid\u2019s first steps because someone else\u2019s family needed you more in that moment. It is a job that takes a toll on your body and your mind. It is dangerous \u2014 dangerous enough that we have lost six members in the last four years. Not one of these editorials has mentioned that.<\/p>\n
Just last week, we responded to a mayday \u2014 the call no firefighter ever wants to hear \u2014 when a firefighter went down in a fire. They pulled him out and the fire was extinguished. No press conference. No photo op. Just another day at work.<\/p>\n
Yes, we knew the job when we took it. The danger was part of the contract. Missing life events was part of that contract. But our pension and retirement security were also part of that contract, and Tier 2 pensions have been falling further behind every year. If other departments offer better benefits than Chicago, strong candidates will go elsewhere. That is not just a problem for us, that is a problem for everyone who depends on the CFD to show up when the worst happens.<\/p>\n
To be clear, members of CFD don\u2019t want the pension to be underfunded. We are taxpayers who live and play here and send our kids to school here. But we did not create this problem. Asking us to live with a worsening pension system is like asking us to watch a fire slowly burn a building to the ground.<\/p>\n
We are a diverse, well-trained and dedicated group. We don\u2019t look for attention. But even with the danger, even with four years without a contract, even while riding in engines and trucks that should have been replaced a long time ago, we still do the job \u2014 and we do it well.<\/p>\n
So the next time you see someone throw around big numbers about our pensions and warn that the future is bleak, remember this: When business folks or politicians say they\u2019ve been \u201cputting out fires all day,\u201d it\u2019s just a figure of speech. For us, it\u2019s Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u2014 James Burns, firefighter-EMT, CFD, Chicago<\/p>\n
Soft power<\/p>\n
I read with interest \u201cTrump\u2019s grand plan to lose friends and squander influence<\/a>,\u201d by Steve Chapman, on Aug. 6. He is absolutely correct. Our president does not seem to understand that our position in this world depends not simply on bluster and bullying but on the careful use of strength by \u201csoft power\u201d and the ability to work alongside other nations to achieve common goals. He is presently ordering the National Guard to occupy Washington D.C. and thereby to distract people from his Jeffrey Epstein problem. I used to think that Canada and many other nations were our friends, but the president has managed to turn them against us and to severely damage if not destroy that relationship. As Mr. Chapman states, \u201cHe has plenty of enemies around the world, and his friends can\u2019t stand him.\u201d And Lord Acton said, \u201cPower tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.\u201d I hope that, as Abraham Lincoln said, our \u201cgovernment of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Thomas Dupre, Romeoville<\/p>\n Polio eradication<\/p>\n This letter is in response to the Associated Press article \u201cPolio lingers despite global vaccine campaign\u201d published Aug. 8 in the Chicago Tribune.<\/p>\n As someone who is intimately involved in the global polio eradication effort \u2014 I have traveled to India to give vaccine drops to children and cycled 100 miles each November in El Tour De Tucson to help raise $72 million for the cause \u2014 I feel compelled to provide context to the concerns raised in Maria Cheng\u2019s and Riazat Butt\u2019s article and to correct the misleading headline.<\/p>\n First the big picture: When Evanston-based Rotary International and its partners formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries every year. Today, we have reduced cases by 99.9%, and just two countries continue to report cases of wild poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Eradicating a disease \u2014 only done once before with smallpox \u2014 is a monumental public health initiative and its final phase has proven to be the toughest.<\/p>\n Secondly, I want to point out that the GPEI operates in extremely fragile environments, often amid conflicts, natural disasters, lack of political will by national governments and weak health infrastructure, all of which make reaching every child with lifesaving vaccines immensely difficult. Operational challenges \u2014 such as barriers to access to families, community hesitancy and logistical gaps \u2014 are routinely documented. Based on my personal experience working with GPEI, I can assert unequivocally that it encourages frontline staff to report problems. It uses that information to adapt operations by boosting training for vaccinators, providing new tools and engaging community leaders.<\/p>\n Thirdly, the path to polio eradication is not linear and there will be debates along the way. These debates are essential in adapting the program to ensure its success. But when it comes to the oral polio vaccine, or OPV, endorsed by the world\u2019s leading health organizations, experts agree that it\u2019s safe and effective, and its benefits far outweigh any risks. Since 1988, more than 20 million cases of paralysis have been averted thanks to the large-scale administration of OPV. That\u2019s 20 million people who are walking today who would otherwise have been paralyzed.<\/p>\n Most countries that are polio-free today used this vaccine to stop the virus, including India \u2014 long thought to be the most difficult place to end polio. Stopping the use of this vaccine would prematurely undermine that hard-won progress because the issue is not the efficacy of the polio vaccine but the difficulties in getting the vaccine to every child.<\/p>\n Polio is only a plane ride away. Until we achieve a polio-free world, generations of children, including here in the U.S., are at risk.<\/p>\n \u2014 John Hewko, General Secretary and CEO of Rotary International<\/p>\n Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here<\/a> or email letters@chicagotribune.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. JB Pritzker just signed the pension benefits bill, HB 3657, into law. 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