Voters can end this ongoing disaster
For the past several months, I have been experiencing varying degrees of anger over the situation involving Chris Welch, his lawsuit against a couple of attorneys who were once his friends and now his foes, and the willingness on the part of the school board to line the pockets of Mr. Welch by paying legal fees on an issue that doesn’t concern them, nor does it involve them. Close to $60,000 and counting.
We learn over and over again that the attorneys who stand to gain from this hoopla continue to advise the board that they should cover Mr. Welch’s expenses because he is always and forever a school board member. And why wouldn’t they give this kind of advice. Are they not the same attorneys who stand to gain from this ongoing process? We then learn that Mr. Welch himself, as president of this fine board, is so concerned about the students he represents that he fails to excuse himself from votes involving this matter. It must be wonderful when one can be his own judge and jury.
And so it has been presented in opinion piece after opinion piece in theme and variation, can we do anything about this?
The answer is an emphatic yes! Chris Welch, along with the rest of the school board members, is a public official, and it is our job as voters to evaluate their performance by voting either for their retention or their elimination from the positions they hold.
If you are tired of the shenanigans going on in District 209, and if you are tired of seeing your tax dollars wasted on such flimflam as we have been reading about, you can join me in doing the following.
1. Go to the polls and vote when the opportunity presents itself.
2. Remember that Theresa Kelly and Sue Henry have consistently voted against paying Mr. Welch’s legal bills.
3. Remember to vote for Theresa Kelly and Sue Henry if they are up for election.
4. Vote against all other incumbent board members as they are only contributing to this ongoing disaster.
David Meyer
Forest Park
Actions, not titles
I hope I’m not the only person in Forest Park who read Anthony Calderone Junior’s letter in the Jan. 22 Review and wondered exactly where on the map do we find “Real America” inhabited by the “real Americans” he wrote about?
The honorable ones don’t protest and are respectful even when treated unfairly or when someone in charge is doing something “we don’t like or agree with.” Would that include spending the largest surplus the nation ever had, starting a war and torture?
I don’t know anyone like that where I live in America. We moan, groan, complain, protest, write letters, make calls, send e-mails, march, name-call and even whine when necessary.
My American forefathers raised protest to unimaginable heights after their appeals failed, by undertaking the Boston Tea Party and starting the Revolutionary War. American civil rights leader Dr. King led the peaceful protest march on Washington that planted the seeds of change and enabled us to witness the historic election of our first African-American president 40 years later.
In my America, protest is a good thing, the foundation of our current government and a catalyst for social change.
In Illinois, our elected officials allowed the CTA and state government offices to practically shut down through petty bickering, the inability to pass a budget and failure to legislate with any sense of urgency. Cook County is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget and seems to operate with no oversight or accountability to taxpayers. We have a former governor in jail and the current one has been impeached.
In my America, honor and respect is earned by superior performance, and doesn’t automatically come with an elected office or job title. I don’t believe this is the time to be asking anyone to be kind or respectful to any elected official in Illinois. They have let us down and are simply not doing the jobs we elected them to do.
So what’s with the ridiculous gibberish about “real Americans?”
Neil Wren
Forest Park
