Regarding “Same-sex penguin couple showcases animal diversity” (June 23): Rebecca Johnson’s article reminded me of “And Tango Makes Three,” the award-winning 2005 children’s book based on the true story of Roy and Silo, a bonded pair of male penguins at New York’s Central Park Zoo.
Believing a rock to be an egg, Roy and Silo took turns incubating it. A zookeeper, noticing their behavior, gave them an egg from another penguin pair unable to care for it. The two males incubated the egg until it hatched and then raised the chick, Tango, together.
The parallel with Lincoln Park Zoo’s bonded male penguins, Pilchard and Maynard, is striking. As Johnson reports the zoo’s manager of birds saying, after about seven years together, they are “still going strong.” During Pride Month, Chicago-area zoos are highlighting animals such as Pilchard and Maynard to illustrate what Brookfield Zoo describes as “the beauty of difference.”
The story of Roy, Silo and Tango was celebrated by many book readers, but the book became a frequent target of efforts to remove it from school and library shelves because it portrayed a same-sex penguin family. So extensive were those efforts that between 2005 and 2017, “And Tango Makes Three” appeared eight times on the American Library Association’s list of the 10 most challenged books. Those challenges remind us that what some once viewed as threatening, others saw simply as a happy family that did not look like most others.
The stories of Roy, Silo and Tango and of Pilchard and Maynard suggest that diversity in family and social relationships is hardly unique to human beings. That lesson remains worth remembering.
— Robert E. Lehrer, Chicago
Bold literary magazine
Kudos on the recent article “From ‘The Jungle’ to Shel Silverstein, how the state has helped shape the printed word” (June 21). I love the publications the Tribune highlights and want to call out another notable contributor.
The Little Review was an avant-garde literary magazine founded by Margaret Anderson in 1914 and published out of Chicago’s Fine Arts Building. Anderson was joined in 1916 by co-editor Jane Heap, who also became her life partner.
While in Chicago, the magazine published many modern, experimental and feminist writers, including Amy Lowell, Carl Sandburg, Sherwood Anderson and Emma Goldman, among others.
After a move to New York in 1917, The Little Review expanded its international focus, with support from Ezra Pound. After James Joyce’s experimental novel “Ulysses” was rejected by publishers in Europe and the U.S., Anderson and Heap’s Little Review published the book as serial chapters until publication of “Ulysses” was banned in 1920 for charges of obscenity (raised by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice). “Ulysses” was published in full by Sylvia Beach out of her bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris in 1922. “Ulysses” remained banned in the U.S. until 1934.
The Little Review and its Chicago roots afforded a bold platform for landmark writers we might well otherwise have missed.
— Deborah Burnet, Flossmoor
Sanctity of national anthem
One elegant gift we could present to our country on the occasion of its 250th birthday is to always render our national anthem in grand and glorious manner as befits this musical masterpiece and what it stands for.
My wish is that every United States citizen would know the words to our anthem, rise to his or her feet when it is played, and sing profoundly and proudly at every appropriate occasion. What a great gesture when every gentleman removes his hat, and every man, woman and child places a hand over his or her heart as the anthem is presented.
My wish also is that soloists cease all their vocal theatrics, which only distort and cheapen the solemn rendition of our anthem. I do not care that you can hit a high C when none is called for. I care that the music is presented the way it was written, its regal beauty touches the heart of every attendee and our country is truly honored with every rendition of the magnificent “Star-Spangled Banner.”
— Kathleen Melia, Niles
Patriotic pride and regret
I’ll feel the pride that swells annually on July Fourth while gazing up at the banners commemorating veterans in our village as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration. One banner will celebrate an uncle who served in World War II — the uncle who gave me a summer job loading trucks at O’Hare International Airport that helped pay for college.
I’ll listen to our national anthem and feel patriotic but also unsettled when the words “bombs bursting in air” are sung. It will bring visions of drones and missiles exploding in war zones.
I’ll feel regret for those children who lose a relative — someone who might have given them a summer job and a chance for a better life in a land of freedom won by the brave.
— Jerry Levy, Deerfield
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Iran war is the same story
Thank you to Scott W. Patton for his recent op-ed (“As debate rages over an Iran deal, let’s acknowledge how much Americans have already lost,” June 24). Our son recently returned from an eight-month deployment to Qatar with the Air Force. As a social worker with the medical team, much of his time involves trying to reduce the stress levels for military personnel and their families back home. That stress is a part of daily life in a combat zone.
As Phil Ochs sang in 1965, “It’s always the old to lead us to the wars. It’s always the young to fall. … Tell me, is it worth it all?”
Not much has changed.
— Neil Farber, Carol Stream
Note to readers
Bike lanes in Chicago inspire a lot of passion. We’d like to hear your thoughts. Do you support bike lanes? Or are you opposed? Whether you’re for or against, do you have advice for the city on its approach? Send a letter of no more than 400 words to [email protected] by Wednesday, July 1. Include your full name and city/town.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email [email protected].