May is Mental Health Awareness Month. As a volunteer and advocate with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, this month I am asking everyone to join us and demand #MoreForMentalHealth.

I am doing more by calling on my legislators at the federal and state levels to support legislation that will fund the implementation of 988 and the suicide and mental health crisis system across our nation, particularly for those in underserved communities.

Currently, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available at 1-800-273-8255 and de-escalates the crises of tens of thousands of callers each day. On July 16, those in distress and those that support them will be able to reach the Lifeline through a simple 3-digit number: 988. By making the Lifeline more accessible through this shorter number, calls, texts, and chats to the Lifeline’s network of crisis call centers are expected to increase. It is vital that the federal government work with states to ensure callers in distress will have: 1) someone to call, 2) someone to come help, and 3) somewhere safe to go. We must act NOW to secure funding to equip call centers and community crisis response services throughout the country with the staff and resources to respond to everyone in crisis.

Join me this month in urging our federal and state public officials to do #MoreForMentalHealth.

— Whitney Surane, Chesterton, Indiana

April 26 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, world renowned as America’s premier landscape architect. His work defined parks as essential elements of modern urban life — open spaces necessary for individual and public health and for promoting an inclusive democracy. In tribute to Olmsted’s pioneering designs, The New York Times included in the day’s edition a 32-page, full-color supplement on “Olmsted’s Enduring Gift.” The text and lush photographs featured Olmsted’s still-vibrant creations, both in New York (Central Park) and in cities ranging across the continent from Boston to Washington to Detroit to Louisville to Oakland.

Noticeably absent from this cross-country hit parade and potential tourism checklist was Chicago, the location of Olmsted’s largest urban park and one of his most noted designs — South Park, comprising what today are known separately as Jackson Park, Washington Park, and connecting them, Midway Plaisance. Such a prominent omission surely reflects the reality that in Chicago today Olmsted’s creations are being destroyed rather than treasured. In giving the Obama Foundation carte blanche to occupy space in Jackson Park for the Obama Presidential Library (now Center) and to extend its redesign throughout the park and to Midway Plaisance, the City has effectively abandoned its responsibility to preserve and protect an irreplaceable public good. Instead of a win-win that would locate the Obama Center on non-parkland and enable residents to join in the celebration of Olmsted’s legacy to Chicago on the occasion of his bicentennial, we must mourn its loss.

— Brenda Nelms and Jack Spicer, Jackson Park Watch, Chicago

Putin follows Lenin’s dictum, “Lying is justified by our objectives.” Every criminal in America knows that, and many politicians do too. When Putin lined up tanks and troops on the Ukrainian border, he said they would not be invading. When Putin said he would be de-escalating operations around certain Ukrainian cities, the next few days he bombed the daylights out of those areas. When Putin said he was allowing humanitarian corridors for fleeing refugees, he was just putting targets on their backs should he need them. Putin tried all this out first when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. When the world became outraged, Putin simply said Russian troops and tanks were not there!

For Putin, the end justifies the means. For the Communist Party of his upbringing, the end was the workers’ paradise.

Today, the end for Russia’s head of state is Putin’s personal paradise of power.

— Kimball Shinkoskey, Wood Cross, Utah

How ironic that the symbol of the Republican Party is an elephant considering the favorite expression of so many of its members these days is, “I don’t recall.”

— Bob Ory, Elgin

Join the conversation in our Letters to the Editor Facebook group.

Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.