When did the U.S. declare open season on children in their classrooms? This must stop.
For the GOP and Mr. McCarthy to continue to say it’s a mental health problem and not a gun problem, they are right. When a shooter takes the lives of children and the adults who care for them with assault weapons, the person clearly has a mental health problem.
On the other hand, don’t we also have a mental health problem when our elected leaders refuse to accept there’s a gun problem and refuse to ban assault weapons and not even try to stop this madness?
I appreciate The Herald editors for the good wishes to upcoming high school state competitors expressed on Feb. 3 in the Saturday Soapbox as well as seeing the pictures both of Barrington and Maine South dancers as they competed for the championship in Bloomington on Jan. 28. However, it’s disappointing that no sports page coverage occurred for the dancers, and I suspect none of the other less-prominent high school sports will be covered either in the upcoming state competitions.
I follow dance to support our granddaughter, a member of the Barrington Broncettes dance team, which finished second in state this year. Dance teams embody teamwork; they perform as a single unit. No stars dominate; instead, they must move as a single entity, each dance move choreographed to depict a story, to communicate the emotion of the story and to demonstrate the highest level of skill creatively and athletically.
These dancers practice up to five hours a day both at school and at their studios. Weekends are reserved for more early morning practice during the competition season. Many of these participants carry a heavy academic load, performing on the dance floor and in the classroom.
I wonder if a sports writer took the time to learn about this sport, attend a competition, watch a grueling practice, if he or she might find a worthy story to report.
I encourage your sports writers to broaden their interest and coverage to include the many student athletes who compete at high levels and represent their communities in such positive ways. I know they and their coaches would love to see a little ink for their passion as well.
I am wondering where the hue and cry is for an apology from Chris Rock to Jada Pinkett Smith. His unscripted non-joke followed two others aimed at people who clearly weren’t expecting being the butt of his idea of “funny.”
Rock clearly embarrassed her in front of a billion viewers worldwide and several thousand of her peers in that theater. Regardless of whether he knew about Pinkett’s autoimmune condition, have we in America not gotten past the age of picking on people? To suggest she is filming a G.I. Jane movie was a huge leap of ignorance. Goodness. Pinkett Smith has willingly been out there promoting her condition to create space for people everywhere who are bald, whatever their reasons. But also she has wanted every younger male and female to know that it is both acceptable to be in public with your natural head and to not feel shame or isolation for it.
On Monday, the same day as the insult, Congress was signing The Crown Act, which is to permit Americans to wear their hair naturally or styled, legally, without fear, interference or shame. Pinkett Smith has been on every possible media about her struggle with Alopecia for two years. How anyone hasn’t known this is by choice.
I, as a senior citizen with other autoimmune conditions that cause thinning of my hair, am waiting for Chris Rock’s now-long-overdue apology for insulting me and millions of others. Why isn’t he being “investigated by the Academy” also? It may not be illegal, but it sure was hurtful.
Lately, there have been too many stories about bicycle-related accidents and deaths. These stories are often followed by comments from riders, drivers and pedestrians alike regarding who is really to blame. The reality is that it’s everyone. We have all seen far too many cyclists who ignore the rules of the road, far too many reckless drivers who are heedless of those around them, far too many careless pedestrians. And most of us have probably been one of them at some time.
Two years ago this week, my brother died from massive injuries after he was hit by a car on his nightly walk home from the train station. The driver committed no quantifiable errors. Was she distracted? Was he? We’ll never know. And I’m not sure how much it would matter to have someone to blame; he is still lost to those who loved him.
Our moving among each other in this busy, crowded world is serious business, requiring constant attention and respect for the rules of safety, as well as for ourselves and those with whom we share our space.
Without it, precious lives will continue to be lost or forever altered.
If you’d like less partisan gridlock, there’s something you can do, i.e., work to change how we vote to ranked choice voting. It’s a way to reduce the power of the political parties to pick candidates and give it back to the voters.
George Washington and other Founding Fathers were wary of the influence of political parties and a recent analysis by Michael Porter, an internationally known economist, found that the political parties don’t compete but primarily operate to pursue their own interests, not those of the country.
Ranked choice voting isn’t a new idea. It’s now used in Alaska, Maine and Washington state and in more than 20 U.S. cities.
Here’s how it works. Each voter ranks the candidates in their parties’ primary election and the five top vote-getters all appear on the general election ballot. When the votes are counted, if a candidate gets 50% of the votes they’re the winner. If no one gets 50% in the first round, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is dropped and their votes for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th choices are reallocated to the remaining candidates. If in the next round, a candidate gets 50% of the votes, they are declared winner, if not, the process is repeated until a candidate gets to 50%.
Ranked choice voting has a number of important advantages over the way we vote today, including, Higher voter turnout. All voters become important, so candidates need to compete for larger groups of voters.
Fewer false negative attacks. They become a liability and campaigns become more civil.
Lower costs. It’s necessary to hold only one election, never a need for runoff.
If this sounds like a good idea, you should check out what they are doing at FairVoteIllinois.org and if you like what you see, you can do your part.
Marty McLaughlin is the clear choice when casting your vote for state representative for the 52nd district. As village president in Barrington Hills, Marty has worked tirelessly to streamline government, resolve pension issues, lower taxes and recognize opposing views. His financial background and pension expertise will help bring reform and responsibility to Illinois’s disastrous overspending and overtaxing. Our state is in crisis and needs a known leader not a Madigan-funded rookie.
Vote for Marty McLaughlin. He will represent our interests in Springfield, not Madigan’s or other special interest groups’ agendas.
For the second time in three weeks, Democratic signs have been vandalized at the crossroads of Plum Tree, Old Hunt and Algonquin roads in Fox River Grove.
Do we not have free speech in this community?
Bullying and vandalism to express political preference are perfect examples of what is wrong with the current state of affairs in our formerly civilized democracy.
Judge Mark Gerhardt is running for Circuit Judge in the 22nd Judicial Circuit-4th Subcircuit. I have known Mark as a practicing trial attorney and as a colleague on the bench. In both capacities, Mark has always been prepared, professional and knowledgeable of the law.
He expects no more or no less of those attorneys appearing before him.
A judicial race is not about partisan politics. it is not about gender. There are a number of major considerations in deciding which candidate is best suited for the position of Circuit Judge.
Does the candidate have integrity? Is the candidate impartial? Will the candidate apply the law fairly, without discrimination? Does the candidate have the requisite experience and knowledge to hear and rule on all types of cases, criminal and civil?
Does the candidate have the ability and foresight to improve the Court in its administration of justice and in servicing all the people of McHenry County?
When it comes to Judge Mark Gerhardt, the answer to all of the foregoing questions is unequivocally yes. Mark Gerhardt has all the qualities we deserve to have in our judges in McHenry County.
Evidently, WriterDebra J. Saundersisn’t doing the in-depth research as necessary for her very partisan articles. The agreement signed between Israel, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain is not ending “the bloody, bloody sands” as Trump claimed. Those two countries have never been in struggles with Israel and there hasn’t been “bloody, bloody sands” in any dessert area of the Middle East in the past century as the great exaggerator with limited knowledge of history likes to portray.
Jared Kushner used the leverage of selling military weapons to those countries in exchange for their signatures. This was an arms deal that was totally unnecessary since they aren’t technically enemies of Israel. This is in fact a total public relations setup to impress Trump’s evangelical core and anyone else easily influenced, who doesn’t fact check. And, yes. Trump is hoping that like Obama, he too can get a Nobel Peace Prize so he has one more thing to crow about. As if, he – Donald Trump – had anything to do with the latest perpetration of smoke and mirrors.
Our arms deal with Bahrain and UAE also gives the Saudi-led insurgents more weapons to use against the Yemen genocide. Readers might recall the executive order Trump signed, going around our own non-partisan congressional ban on arms to be sold to the Saudi government. Trump himself sold military jets and weapons to the Crown Prince just after the horrendous murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Our intelligence services have evidence that the prince ordered that murder, yet Trump said he believed the Saudi’s denial and sold him the weapons.
The Middle East is a tangled web and no American should think that Trump or any other individual is capable of bringing true peace to that region. Only those countries can solve that.
