Is there a humanitarian crisis in these United States? Indeed there is. On our southern border, tens of thousands of human beings exist in a man-made limbo with little food, water, shelter, and hope for a better future. Across the country, hundreds of thousands more human beings exist without payment
Between 2014 and 2019, the Santori Public Library of Aurora’s budget rose three times faster than the overall budget. A comparison of the Aurora Library Budget from 2014, the last year of the Old Main Library, and 2019, with the new Santori Library, shows that the costs of the Santori
Listen: I know it’s been a hard, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning, kind of year. It’s been a year of hotheads and blowhards and killing sprees and bloodshed and takedowns. It’s been a year in which tyranny took a few more steps forward and freedom got knocked down a few more notches. It’s
Thanksgiving Day should remind us that our glass is half-full and not half-empty. We should express and feel an attitude of gratitude. We should think thanksgiving every day. Problems arise for some of us whose level of expectations are so high that their concept either is they are certain they
Joel Frieders, Yorkville alderman and founder of NSPAMP (National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month Proclamation Project), presents a talk on suicide prevention sponsored by the Oswego Lions Club in a free community event at the Montgomery Campus of the Oswego Public Library Friday, Nov. 2. He relentlessly has been an advocate
By Anthony Stanford – It’s not just members of the White House press corps who are appalled by the treatment of their colleagues by the president of the United States. More often it concerns every-day Americans that the vitriol and personal attacks referring to the media, as “enemies of the
Another election season has passed. With the hyperbole and nastiness given a break following the November 6 elections we can rest with the knowledge that the twin functions of candidates will return. We would like to think not too soon. It is disconcerting that negative advertising works for candidates. Sanity
Yet another shooting. Yet another smear of ugliness, hatred, and violence. Yet another ratcheting up of the calls for the government to clamp down on the citizenry by imposing more costly security measures without any real benefit, more militarized police, more surveillance, more gun control measures, more metal detectors, and
By Christopher J. Lauzen, Kane County Board chairman – Let’s say you’re the hiring manager for the Kane County Board, because that’s exactly what you are. Four years ago, the good people of the Southeast Side of Aurora made an unintentional error by selecting Don Ishmael for County Board. He
Thanksgiving dinner in Plano Nov. 8 A complete turkey supper with all the trimmings will be available from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 at Plano United Methodist Church, Hale and Clark Streets, in Plano. Food will be served at 5 p.m. with seating or carry outs. Reservations
Plano High School staff members nominated students for “Student of the Month” for September. Students are nominated for pride behavior, personal responsibility, respect, involved academically, demonstrates safe behavior, and excellence in what they do. Some reasons for nomination include making efforts to grow as an individual, translating class direction with
Predictability. Spontaneity. Both are a parts of our worlds, the fabric of our society. We can be just one strain, or, continually act in the other. Likely the best of each keeps us fresh and in focus at the same time. The joy of each day is relying on predictability
“ It’s A Small World, after all. It’s A Small, Small World.” —Written by the Sherman Brothers in response to the 1962 Cuban Missle crisis. What do you think the balance of trade is vis a vis the United States and the Chinese? The deficit is the excess of imports
The other day, I was thinking about phone books. You younger readers are probably wondering which planet I’m from, but that’s beside the point. Phone books were big, two-to-three-inch-thick books listing the phone numbers of every human in a city. Every human who had a phone, at least. Many times,
Life in a post-9/11 America increasingly feels as through it is an endless free fall down a rabbit hole into a terrifying, dystopian alternative reality in which the citizenry has no rights, the government is no friend to freedom, and everything we ever knew and loved about the values and
Frum thuh vawlt (November 3, 2011, reevized): Thuh disserneen reeder will notiss immeedeeuhtlee that thair iz sumthing rather differuhnt abowt thiss essay. Evereewun elss will haff too stuhdee it uh bit too reelize whuht iz differuhnt abowt it. Hee or shee may naht eeven beeleeve hee or shee iz reedeen
First of three parts – Comedian and author D.L. Hughley has made the rounds to promote his new book “How Not To Get Shot and other advice from white people.” Hughley has a wonderful sense of humor which he exhibited on shows, but it saddens me that as a society
During Labor Day weekend I lived up to the spirit of the holiday by doing labor: Cleaning gutters, moving furniture, and whining. The whining accounted for the majority of the labor. Speaking of labor, my unwritten rule for employment is to do just enough to keep from getting fired because,
Many items fill this page, which is a reflection of many the activities which rush to cross the bridge prior to and following Labor Day. It is Labor Day for many who reduce the Summer activities and resume a less hectic pace. Certainly last weekend in Aurora there was a
If you have been following Wayne Johnson’s contributions to this publication, dear reader, you will know that he has spent some time in the military. By all accounts, it was a rich and rewarding experience, and he has cherished it ever since. Sadly, the same cannot be said of my
