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  "path": "/letters-to-the-editor/2026/03/20/women-ncaa-brackets-homeless-iran-war-trump-jeffrey-epstein-bone-spurs",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-20T11:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://chicago.suntimes.com",
  "textContent": "<p>In Sunday’s sports section, I found it dismaying to encounter the men’s and women’s NCAA brackets on facing pages: the men’s in bold, dynamic color and the women’s diminished in sad gray.</p><p>In these times when the differences between men and women, white and nonwhite, majority and minority are so amplified, equal treatment of the brackets should have been a no-brainer.</p><div class=\"Enhancement\" data-align-floatRight> <div class=\"Enhancement-item\" data-crop=\"\"> <figure class=\"Figure\"><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"image-c80000\" name=\"image-c80000\"></a> <picture data-crop=\"medium\"> <source type=\"image/webp\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" data-srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b0c7a7e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x539+0+59/resize/490x275!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F91%2Fe4%2F4dd8779d4e8193ff2c9520150d67%2Fimg-5612.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/6fd6ff9/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x539+0+59/resize/980x550!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F91%2Fe4%2F4dd8779d4e8193ff2c9520150d67%2Fimg-5612.jpg 2x\" data-lazy-load=\"true\" srcset=\"data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" /> <source width=\"490\" height=\"275\" data-srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c597b88/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x539+0+59/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F91%2Fe4%2F4dd8779d4e8193ff2c9520150d67%2Fimg-5612.jpg\" data-lazy-load=\"true\" srcset=\"data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" /> <img class=\"Image\" alt=\"A tabloid style newspaper opened. Two pages can be seen with chartlight graphics. \" srcset=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c597b88/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x539+0+59/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F91%2Fe4%2F4dd8779d4e8193ff2c9520150d67%2Fimg-5612.jpg 1x,https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/df5e01b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x539+0+59/resize/980x550!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F91%2Fe4%2F4dd8779d4e8193ff2c9520150d67%2Fimg-5612.jpg 2x\" width=\"490\" height=\"275\" data-src=\"https://cst.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/c597b88/2147483647/strip/true/crop/960x539+0+59/resize/490x275!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F91%2Fe4%2F4dd8779d4e8193ff2c9520150d67%2Fimg-5612.jpg\" data-lazy-load=\"true\" src=\"data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZlcnNpb249IjEuMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNzVweCIgd2lkdGg9IjQ5MHB4Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" > </picture> <div class=\"Figure-content\"><figcaption class=\"Figure-caption\"><p>The men’s and women’s NCAA brackets on facing pages in Sunday’s Sun-Times.</p></figcaption><span class=\"line\"></span><div class=\"Figure-credit\"><p>Provided </p></div></div> </figure> </div> </div><p>I understand the pages of the paper alternate between color and black and white. You can’t change that, and at least both brackets were the same size. It’s clear no one meant any insult. It was just a practical business decision based on the pages and inks available. However, all we have to do is turn back to Scoop Jackson’s column that same day to see <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/2026/03/14/wbc-world-baseball-classic-team-usa-black-players-aaron-judge-byron-buxton-mark-derosa\" >business decisions</a> used as license to discriminate in sports.</p><p>We can do better. There was no way to render the women’s bracket in color because it was on a page printed with only black ink. But there’s nothing that says the men’s bracket had to use colors of ink available on its page. Next time, send cyan, magenta and yellow to the bench in the name of equality.</p><p><i>Todd Schultz, St. Joseph, Michigan</i></p><div class=\"RichTextSidebarModule Enhancement\" data-module data-align-center><a class=\"AnchorLink\" id=\"module-980000\" name=\"module-980000\"></a> <div class=\"RichTextModule-items RichTextBody\"><h3>Give us your take</h3><br>Send letters to the editor to <a class=\"Link\" href=\"mailto:letters@suntimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" >letters@suntimes.com</a>. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words.</div> </div><p></p><h3>Misplaced priorities in the U.S. </h3><h3></h3><p>WBEZ's Chip Mitchell's story of <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/real-estate/2026/03/16/legion-park-chicago-tent-encampment-homeless-unhoused-fire\" >Carmen Laude</a> in Tuesday’s Sun-Times was tragic. How can we be the richest country in the world and have people who worked lose their home over medical debt?</p><p>The story also made me break out my calculator. If we took the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://time.com/article/2026/03/16/what-us-spending-on-the-war-in-iran-could-fund-instead/\" target=\"_blank\" >$1 billion a day</a> we are spending doing whatever it is we are doing in Iran and distributed it to our nation’s <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://endhomelessness.org/state-of-homelessness/\" target=\"_blank\" >770,000 homeless</a>, we could pay them in a day $1,300 — what it takes them to have a home for a month.</p><p>Our priorities in this country are wack. The next time someone tells you we are a Christian nation, I suggest you laugh in their face.</p><p><i>Don Anderson, Oak Park</i> </p><h3>Haunting thoughts </h3><p>I don't believe in ghosts, but it seems the Jeffrey Epstein haunting is so formidable, it compelled us to engage in a protracted war.</p><p><i>Larry Niemi, Loop</i></p><h3>Bone to pick </h3> <p>President Donald Trump has said that the Iran war will be over <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/13/trump-iran-war-ending-timeline-00828138\" target=\"_blank\" >“when I feel it in my bones.”</a> Does this include his <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https://chicago.suntimes.com/2017/10/23/18331262/mccain-issues-veiled-criticism-of-trump-s-vietnam-deferment\" >bone spurs</a> that prevented him from serving [in the military]?</p><p><i>Dennis Fitzgerald, Melbourne, Australia</i></p><h3>Next steps?</h3><p>As Donald J. Trump has done all his life, will he walk away from the U. S. presidency as he is prone to do in any situation where he does not get his way?</p><p><i>Eileen Hughes, Near North Side</i> <br></p>",
  "title": "Women’s NCAA brackets in Sun-Times deserve same presentation as men's",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-20T11:00:02.097Z"
}