This past weekend, I was robbed at gunpoint by my passengers while working as an Uber driver in Chicago. Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt, but my phone, wallet and sense of safety on the job were taken from me. I’ve given nearly 40,000 rides in the eight years I’ve worked as a ride-sharing driver in this city. But with all the recent news about Chicago ride-sharing drivers being harassed, attacked, shot and sometimes killed on the job, with at least three drivers being harmed while working in just the last six weeks or so, I’m starting to wonder if it’s time for me to give it up.
The fact is that driving for Uber and Lyft is a dangerous job, and the Uber and Lyft corporations don’t do anything to protect the safety of their workers. Drivers are required to verify their identification in order to use the Lyft and Uber apps, but passengers aren’t. I don’t know who the person is who is about to get in my car when I arrive at a pickup spot. And because my driver rating goes down when I turn down a ride, I feel pressure to take any ride I’m offered, even if the person I’m picking up makes me feel unsafe.
A 2022 study from the University of Illinois showed that, on average, a ride-sharing driver in Chicago makes around $13 an hour after gas, insurance, and vehicle maintenance — significantly less than Chicago’s minimum wage of $15. Why should Chicagoans put up with huge corporations paying them less than minimum wage for any job, much less one that might get them robbed at gunpoint?
I’m a member of Chicago Gig Alliance, a group of Chicago Uber and Lyft drivers who have been working to solve the issues facing ride-sharing drivers in the city since 2019. Our ordinance, the Rideshare Living Wage and Safety Ordinance, is currently working its way through City Council and would go a long way toward protecting safety and guaranteeing decent wages for our city’s ride-sharing drivers.
I encourage the City Council and the mayor to pass this ordinance. As a vital part of Chicago’s transportation infrastructure, ride-sharing drivers like me deserve basic safety protections and decent pay.
— Thomas Loftus, Chicago
Americans’ actions during COVID-19
The main lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Dr. Cory Franklin (“The incalculable damage wrought by COVID-19 is everywhere,” Jan. 8), are that public health officials ignored the impact of public health measures on the economy and on schoolchildren. He is right that these concerns received too little consideration but wrong in asserting that these are the most important lessons.
A much more important lesson is that widespread noncompliance with public health measures had devastating consequences. It is important to remember that the magnitude of COVID-19 deaths was enormous — greater than the number of combat deaths of American military members in many American wars. If more Americans would have worn masks, as public health officials recommended, hundreds of thousands of deaths that occurred before vaccines became available could have been prevented. If more Americans would have gotten vaccinated, as public health officials recommended, hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths that occurred after vaccines became available could have been prevented.
The main problem wasn’t too much adherence to public health measures but too little.
— Dr. Richard Hudson, DePaul University Department of Biological Sciences, Chicago
Adams County judge failed us
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I would like to address misconceptions Adams County Circuit Judge Robert Adrian allows our community to believe in order to save his own pelt. First, in the state of Illinois, any person younger than 17 years of age is under no circumstances ever allowed to consent to sexual activity. In some states, there is a “close in age” provision. That provision does not exist in Illinois. Cameron Vaughan, who was 16 at the time of her sexual assault, would not have been able to consent to sex, per the legal definition, as opposed to what Drew Clinton, the 18-year-old convicted of the assault, said.
Second, the state has no burden of proof concerning a victim’s age. Age is considered a fact. In a bench trial, the judge is the fact finder. If the judge knows the victim was below the “age of consent” at the time of an alleged assault, it is the judge’s job to apply that fact. The state has no burden to prove the alleged assailant was or was not aware of the victim’s age.
It’s despicable that a representative of the judiciary would say that we should pity them because they got called out for perpetuating an injustice. It’s insulting to Christians that Adrian used the name of God to shield himself from accountability. It’s insulting to the judiciary that he led our community to believe lies. And it’s certainly insulting to survivors of assault to throw us under the bus for the sake of making sure rapists don’t face the consequences of their own actions.
Making mistakes isn’t what breaks a person’s integrity; it’s being so determined to deny any wrongdoing at the expense of others. Thank you to every person who has stood up to agree that our communities deserve impartial judges who tell the truth and follow the law instead of abusing the authority they’ve been granted. Peace cannot be attained through silence; it requires dedication and persistent, constant effort to cultivate and maintain.
We can use our voices and actions to fight for stronger, safer, kinder and more honest communities for all of us, because only that love is going to turn the tide of apathy and exploitation washing over this world.
— Allison Huber, Quincy, Illinois
Hamas should reframe intentions
Karlene Mostek writes in her Jan. 7 letter (“US should support cease-fire”) that “civilians in Gaza and now Lebanon are exhausted by war, and so are we. This is not a question of Democratic or Republican support for the Middle East conflict. It is a question of understanding right from wrong.”
Israelis did not ask for this war and are also exhausted by it. Mostek left out of her letter that Hamas, the leaders of Gaza, started this war by brutally torturing, raping and killing Israelis with the promise of more to come. Who must understand right from wrong?
Perhaps instead of demanding a cease-fire, Hamas can start the conversation by reframing its intentions, creating a new charter that does not call for the destruction of Israel and choosing leadership that commits to a peaceful coexistence of Gazans and Israelis.
— Ifaat Bosse, Northbrook
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