Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s recent comments on being snubbed by Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden struck me as small and petty. Lightfoot almost makes one believe that a first-term mayor is automatically owed some special deference from these presidential candidates.

More to the point, Lightfoot notes that although Sanders and Warren have visited the city and publicly supported the Chicago Teachers Union during the 2019 strike, they didn’t — to her astonishment — set aside time to meet with her.

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I’m surprised the mayor finds that so hard to believe. If you were a genuine progressive, like Warren and Sanders, would you trip over yourself for someone who’s gone out of her way to meet with, say, Ivanka Trump, as Lightfoot has?

When presented with the kind of ideological battle the most recent CTU strike represented, would you favor the underpaid public servants fighting for the basics of fairly-funded education? Or would you favor the corporate lawyer standing vehemently opposed to the progressive ideas she once claimed — with little evidence — she supported?

Tyler McGaughey, Humboldt Park

Coronavirus and the human diet

Fifty million people locked down in China. Fifteen countries hit by the new coronavirus. Three confirmed cases in the United States.

These are the kinds of dramatic headlines that announced the arrival of another pandemic caused by our abuse of animals.

Sixty-one percent of the 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans originated with animals. These zoonotic diseases, which have claimed millions of human lives, include Asian flu, Hong Kong flu, West Nile flu, bird flu, swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and yellow fever.

The pandemic “Spanish” flu of 1918 may have killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.

Western factory farms and Asian street markets are breeding grounds for infectious diseases. Sick, crowded and highly stressed animals in close contact with raw flesh, feces and urine provide ideal incubation conditions for such viruses. As the microbes reach humans, they mutate to defeat the new host’s immune system, then propagate on contact.

We can help end these deadly pandemics by replacing animal products in our diet with vegetables, fruits and whole grains. These are foods that don’t carry flu viruses or require government warning labels. They are touted by every major health advocacy organization. They were the recommended fare in the Garden of Eden.

The internet offers ample recipes and transition hints.

Claude Prescott, West Town