THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008
Letters To Our Editor
PR Fire Dept. Got Job Done Right
(Ed. Note: The following letter was originally sent to Park Ridge Mayor Howard P. Frimark).
I have been meaning to write you this letter for a long time, and I am finally getting around to doing it. I wanted to write to you to praise your city's Fire Department.
Specifically, Brian at the Oakton and Greenwood firehouse. I am a mother of twins, and I live in Des Plaines, and had my car seats installed at the Des Plaines Police Station. That is the way our town works. They will only do a courtesy installation at the Police Station, not the Fire Station. Once the installation was complete, my husband and I were driving our boys out and realized that something didn't look right. It just didn't look right. So we turned to the Park Ridge Fire Station, and even though we didn't live in Park Ridge, Brian wasn't about to turn us away, as our children's safety was at stake. He corrected the problem, and put in a pool noodle to make sure the seat was reclined.
When the boys turned one, and it was time to install the new car seats we bought that face forward, we would only trust him to do the job right. Mr. Mayor, I just wanted you to know how grateful we are that people like Brian exist, and to compliment your city for looking out for our children!
Respectfully, Dimitra Karadimas
Posing As Homeseeker Not Ethical
Editor, Journal:
I was both curious and perplexed to notice a display table and a stack of brochures prominently featured in our Park Ridge Library calling for local volunteers to "pose as home-seekers" and to go out in the community, presumably to see if any Fair Housing ordinances are being violated. This seems, to me, to be a somewhat dubious ethical approach, however, to ask people to publicly "pretend" or "pose" as something they in fact may not be, no matter how worthy the cause.
For example, last week we read in the Journal (April 16) of how someone "posing" as a city water inspector swindled a Park Ridge woman out of $100.
I would like to think that when the post man or cable guy or meter reader comes to my house that he or she in fact has no other motive than his stated function.
Is it not some sort of legal entrapment to send out volunteers "posing" as purchasers or renters to trick someone into committing a civil rights violation? Would this not be similar to a plain-clothes policeman urging a driver to speed so another uniformed officer could ticket him for speeding?
Many years ago, Park Ridge resident and prominent businessman Herbert J. Taylor composed a 25-word set of guidelines for personal business ethics. Mr. Taylor called it the "Four-Way Test", which was later adopted by Rotary International.
* Is it the Truth?
* Is it Fair to all concerned?
* Will it build Good Will and Better Friendships?
* Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
Would not following the Four-Way test be a better way to encourage both local government and local citizens to carry on their daily affairs? "Is it the Truth?" If not, maybe we should not do it.
Milton Edward Nelson, Park Ridge