Jordan River Forum

Shaming Chicago uncalled for Recently, Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show was pulled off the air because of mildly bad comments made about Detroit as a joke. In my opinion, the IDS should have taken a similar step when it came to Emily Cooper's editorial about Chicago ("The Bad Matter of Chicago," June 10). Cooper expressed narrow-minded views of Chicagoans being poorly mannered with accents that make people sick. She bases these views on a phone call with a newspaper worker in Chicago and an altercation with one man in the parking lot of Woodfield Mall. Any person with a shred of logic would not form such strong negative opinions of an entire city of almost 3 million people based on two events. People of Chicago are regarded throughout the country as friendly people, consistently in the top 10 on Marjabelle Young Stewart's well-mannered city rankings. However, the people in Chicago are not out to cater to your needs. While there are many great communities in Chicago, a person would be left behind in a big city if they waited around for every irrelevant person who wasted their time. I'll let you in on a secret: A Chicago newspaper shouldn't care about a county 250 miles away. Writing articles about Brown County would be a quick way to lose readers in Chicago. I am not attacking Brown County as you did Chicago, but if I were as narrow-minded as Cooper, I would take all people from Brown County to be narrow-minded simpletons with huge deficiencies in distinguishing the fiction that exists in their minds from reality. This is not a personal attack on Cooper or the IDS, but exercising a little better judgment in what you publish would go a long way toward establishing credibility with your readers. It is childish and unnecessary for an IU newspaper to publish demeaning articles about a city that provides a large number of students to the University, and very friendly ones at that. Scott Weinberg
Junior Pajamas pose problems for people As I reach the end of the first summer session, I am beginning to notice a trend that I was sure would die out but has sadly only grown. I'll be the first to admit that I have little to no fashion sense, but the young women of IU wearing pajamas to class day after day after day has got to end. The thing that I find the oddest about this phenomenon is that not only do you wear what looks to be whatever you slept in (flip-flops, pajama pants, a ratty old T-shirt or wife-beater and, invariably, a headband with your hair tied back) on a daily basis, but you seem to find the time to put on make-up and shower as well. If you have enough time to put on make-up or take a shower, surely you have enough time to put on a pair of pants, a skirt, some shorts, a dress, a hoop skirt -- basically anything other than your PJs. I don't know who started the rumor that seeing stretch pants dragging on the ground behind a pair of haggard-looking thong sandals looked good, but it doesn't. I'm not saying you can't wear your sleep pants ever, because what college student hasn't rolled out of bed and headed straight to class. But rolling into class every day looking like that just makes you look sloppy. If you insist on wearing pajamas to class though, may I suggest that we all start wearing footie pajamas? Because that would be awesome. Rob Burgess
Bloomington