It may have been a bit unusual. We live in unusual times. Three members of the Illinois U.S. House of Representatives, on a break from convening in Washington, D.C., were in Aurora Tuesday afternoon. They were a part of the group which held a media conference for the press and radio and television stations, not far from the United States Postal Service downtown Aurora Post Office.
The early afternoon meeting drew a large crowd with interest in the discussion and information. See the photos at thevoice.us. The group gathered near the auto entrance, south of the drop-off boxes for cards and letters.
Speakers in the group included representatives Sean Casten, 6th District, Bill Foster, 11th District, and Lauren Underwood, 14th District. They objected to the U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy’s action which curtail the functioning of the Postal service. He had ordered boxes to be collected from sites all across the country, high-speed sorting machines to be take out of sorting centers and stripped of mechanisms, and mail delivery slowed down.
Repercussions escalated.
Other speakers in the group included Valerie Savage, president of the American Postal Workers Local 351 and Michael Caref, national business agent of the National Association of Letter Carriers.
Their message was simple. The Postal Service is a key element to reaching every corner of he country and should not be devolved into a whimper by bureaucrats with political agendas.
In dramatic style, when congressman Casten took his turn to speak, he said his (cell) phone was lighting up with information. Mr. DeJoy said would roll back his effort to make the Postal Service less effective. It remains to be seen, however, it was good news.
• Another result of the COVID-19 reducing crowds, is the City of Lights Ukulele Society’s festival. It will be virtual instead all over downtown Aurora. The virtual festival will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will be called Aurora Uke Fest. There will be many performers. Performances will be live from home locations. Some performances will be from the Hix Bros. Music Studio in Aurora by the Naked Waiters and Olivia Ports. By any means!
Clear and Concise, Week 33:
• Replay: Normality, not normalcy.
History of the terms shows that a century ago, normality was correctly widespread and normalcy was not normal, in fact, a word seldom heard. Then along came Warren G. Harding who was elected president 100 years ago in November 1920. He was fond os saying normalcy instead of normality. He never learned the correct word and enjoyed using the incorrect word in his speeches. Now it would seem it is close to a 50-50 split today on the usage of the words. Will we ever learn?
• Words are important for many reasons. There has to be a reason to concoct new words. The problems are two-fold: A.: Is one word used when a correct term already exists, such as normality and normalcy; and, in sequence which Archie Bunker would say, 2.: Inventors too often want to use nouns as verbs and never shall the twain meet. Nouns and verbs? Read that once, somewhere!