From the vault, June 12, 2014 (revised): School shootings. Assaults on minorities. Government troops in the streets. Congressional gridlock. Inflation. The list of societal woes goes on and on. How many times, dear reader, do we speak about the “good old days” when life was simpler, people were more civil,
By John & Nisha Whitehead “Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands…for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”—Daniel Webster We find ourselves approaching that time of year when, as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed,
November 21, 2025Dear editor; Where does the State of Illinois and other states get the legal right to spend our tax dollars defending Illegal immigration, not talking about legal immigration? In the Beacon News dated November 19, 2025 Kane County State’s attorney, Jamie Mosser, clarified for the Kane County Board
I don’t think I’m out on a limb by saying a good number of us old geezers and young geezers remember December 7 as Pearl Harbor Day, just like June 6 as D-Day. Donald Trump isn’t included in that good number of us because he thinks Pearl Harbor is some
By Bela “Bill” Suhayda I read, with some interest, Wayne Johnson’s account of our meeting at the Yellow Bird Bookstore where he and others presented readings in honor of our veterans on Veterans Day. And as Wayne suggested in his November 13 article, we probably do have things in common
By John & Nisha Whitehead Pay-to-play schemes. Protection rackets. Extortion. Corruption. Self-enrichment. Graft. Grift. Brutality. Roaming bands of thugs smashing car windows and terrorizing communities. Immunity for criminal behavior coupled with prosecutions of whistleblowers. This is how a crime syndicate operates—not a constitutional republic. What we are witnessing today is
Musings: •The Sins of Donald J. Trump (chapter 13). He has: Authorized the CIA to conduct operations in Venezuela as a first step toward ousting Nicholas Madura from his presidency; Paused “lower-priority” Army Corps of Engineers projects in “blue” cities and states and may end them altogether; Threatened to declare
By John & Nisha Whitehead “The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything…. It’s called the American Dream, ‘cause you have to be asleep to believe it.”
I would be remiss, more so than usual, without a tremendous “Thank you” and big hug to all those who came out to Yellow Bird Books in Aurora this past Saturday to hear Sara Knigge and me make our presentations in honor of Veterans Day, based on our veteran-authored books.
By Bela “Bill” Suhayda Look out workers at The Voice. If ”The Chas” Coddington had it his way, he would take the paper and make it an employee-owned and operated state publication. He would then have you work for The Voice as an employee for wages he would determine for
By John & Nisha Whitehead America has been backsliding into kleptocratic territory for years now, but this may finally be it. A kleptocracy is literally “rule by thieves.” It is a form of government in which a network of ruling elites “steal public funds for their own private gain using
November 3, 2025Dear editor; Property taxes in Illinois are too high and the highest of any state in the U.S., recently surpassing New Jersey. I remember 30 years ago, as a freshman State senator assigned to the Revenue Committee because of my tax background, working on the as “Low-Income Senior
October 30, 2025Dear editor; Here we go again, another No King rally cry. Watching some of the protest on TV, I would have to agree that across the entire country there were probably millions marching. Of course not near the millions that elected Donald Trump to do what he said
From the vault, September 6, 2018 (revised): In a previous essay, I declared that capitalism was the worst economic system ever devised by the minds of men. It has engendered greed and corruption on a massive scale and is diametrically opposed to democracy, i.e. the wealth of the few vs.
By John & Nisha Whitehead Monsters don’t always come wrapped in the trappings of horror or myth. Most often, monsters in the real world look like ordinary people. They walk among us. They smile for the cameras. They promise protection and prosperity even as they feed on fear and obedience.
October 22, 2025Dear editor; I hope everyone read the poem in the October 16 issue of The Voice, “Our Constitution”. About two-thirds of the way down, it reads: “You are the master of your fate—it’s in the book. “And you can start with this—for here you have a voice; “Plus
One thing I’ve gotten in the habit of doing first thing in the morning, besides kicking empty beer cans under the bed, is taking a Dramamine pill before I turn on a morning news program and see Donald Trump’s orange face plastered across the screen and hear what embarrassment he’s
By Bela “Bill” Suhayda Six bunker buster bombs dropped on Iranian nuclear facilities changed the course of history in the Middle East. The person sending the bombs was none other than president Donald Trump, the person most hated by The Voice contributors “Wayne’s World” Johnon, Charles “The Chas” Coddington, and
By John & Nisha Whitehead For a man supposedly intent on winning a Nobel Peace Prize, Donald Trump spends an extraordinary amount of time waging war, threatening to wage war, and fantasizing about waging war. Notwithstanding his dubious claims about having ended “seven un-endable wars,” Trump has continued to squander
By John & Nisha Whitehead “Brother, I am American. You are twisting my arm.”— Man shouts “I am American” while ICE agents detain him Masked gunmen. Tasers. Tear gas. Pepper spray. Unmarked vehicles. Intimidation tactics. Brutality. Racial profiling. Children traumatized. Families terrorized. Journalists targeted. Citizens detained. Disabled individuals, minors, the
