I am writing to express my support for the Chicago Sun-Times' editorial of July 13 embracing the need to clean up the Chicago River and related waterways as recommended by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

On Thursday, the Sun-Times reported that the Tribune Co. is considering five bids for the Cubs, while rejecting others. Readers had these responses:

So let me get this straight: The governor, the speaker and the Senate president are all Democrats from transit-dependent Chicago, but the voice of reason on transportation funding is . . . Judy Baar Topinka? ["Topinka rips gov for cutting RTA budget," July 18]

Your story ["McCain's own Tony Rezko"] on Monday tried to parallel the two cases. There is a critical difference. McCain did favors for Keating, as he has continued to do favors for dozens of lobbyists. A politician has to accept political donations and socialize with the donors. Either that, or he has to be rich enough to pay for the campaign himself. It's his choice, however, as to whether he uses his political position to do favors for the donors, and it's blind luck whether those donors get in trouble elsewhere.

Let's call blaming the rising crime rate on timid policemen who lack aggressiveness in fighting crime because they fear lawsuits by its rightful name: bull manure.

As president of the Board of Commissioners of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, I believe that the taxpayers deserve a response to the July 13 editorial, "A green city needs clean rivers, canals."

Mary Mitchell's recent columns on the reunion of the Mount Greenwood Seven were fascinating in recounting the experiences of these individuals who desegregated Mount Greenwood School in 1968. The Mount Greenwood Seven and Mitchell's columns provide a first-hand lesson in the courage and strength of human spirit needed to confront intolerance, hatred and racism.

On Friday, Sun-Times editorial board member Deborah Douglas wrote a column about the n-word. "Like most weapons, the word has been turned against its original users, and is now used by some African Americans as a term of endearment, chastisement, or like [the Rev. Jesse] Jackson, an assumption of groupthink" penned Douglas, who is black.