Is Illinois a high-tax or a low-tax state? Either one, depending on how you choose to spin the statistics. “Illinois Tax Facts” (December) reports that on a per capita basis, Illinois total 1994 taxes were $2,474.50, above the midwest and U.S. average. But per $1,000 of income–a more reasonable standard–Illinois total taxes were $110.32, well below the midwest and U.S. average rates.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Our turn? Recent reparation payments made by the American government, according to David Smallwood in N’Digo (November 27-December 3): “$1 billion and millions of acres of land to Alaska natives in a land settlement in 1971; $81 million to the Klamaths of Oregon in 1980; $105 million to the Sioux tribe of South Dakota, $12 million to the Seminoles of Florida, and $31 million to the Chippewas of Wisconsin, all in 1985; and $32 million to the Ottawas of Michigan in 1986 to honor a treaty made in 1836. Then there’s the $1.2 billion the American government decided to pay Japanese Americans in 1990 for their four-year internment in prison camps during World War II. ‘That made more people aware that African Americans are deserving of similar and appropriate compensation,’” [Hannibal] Afrik said. Afrik is cochair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America.
“Christians in every age make huge trade-offs, all too often letting the culture define the gospel rather than the gospel reshape the culture,” writes George Marsden in Books and Culture (November/December), quoted by Martin Marty, in “Context” (February 15). “If true Christianity is found only among radical followers of Jesus’ teachings who have turned away from every cultural idol, then Christianity is a vastly smaller movement than most of us imagine.”
