Some village hall preoccupations must seem rather silly now that one of their teammates has been outed as a rat, Peter Pettigrew style. Anyway, and for the record, I am not presently the mayor; if drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve. Even if there are thousands (!) of write-ins, I will respectfully decline the honor.
In fact, I am quite taken with the role of citizen and am quite fond of my cohorts, “We the People.” Although our work and responsibilities never end, We have ultimate power (if We choose to take it) and We always have the last word.
On the other hand, Electeds are but our come-and-go, fair-weathered friends, always looking toward the next opportunity. Plenty end up in the pokey, some feel entitled to dump their dog poop onto the streets, and others slide under rocks to attack the People they took an oath to serve.
Cozy within this small, charming environment, We have a question for our village hall leaders: Why do you think so little of Us?”
The nicest and best thing that happened at the Comprehensive Plan (CP) Open House was that folks behaved professionally (never take that for granted) and, indeed, our hosts appeared earnest and enthused.
The open house had a distinct hands-off approach, which the organizers intended to be inviting and “non-intimidating,” aiming to neutralize the environment so as not to inflict bias upon Us.
OK, we’ll bite — how would a 10-minute, on-the-hour presentation of CP basics and steering committee specifics have intimidated Us? How would a shared Q&A have infected Us with bias?
It appears our officials are confusing information with propaganda, informed opinion with bias, and promoting fragmentation over shared knowledge. Why do they keep doing that? Hmmm. Whatever could be making their brains so un-brainy?
I am also not a psychotherapist, but it is painfully clear to any jamoke that certain officials and residents have a pathological love-hate relationship with Oak Park. Not a week goes by in which Forest Park doesn’t publicly insult Oak Park. Truth be told, it seems to be a daily ‘cleansing’ ritual. We obsessively monitor, measure and react against whatever ‘they’ do. You’ll be needing to serve a lot more (free) beer to convince Us that this behavior is ‘civic pride.’
Red Alert: Forest Park simply must get more comfortable in its own skin.
Seek therapy, act “as if” Oak Park doesn’t exist or call an exorcist but Get Over It. Let us not spend one more day/year/decade in reactive derangement, if only because your sad story makes no sense to residents under 50 and won’t re-elect you.
We have serious problems to solve, We need serious people to solve them and We have a serious election on April 9. Save the dates for the candidates forums!
Proviso Township High School District 209 school board – Wednesday, March 13 at First United, 1000 Elgin Ave. at 7 p.m.
Forest Park elementary school District 91 school board and Park District of Forest Park board (a two-fer!) – Tuesday, March 19, 6:30 p.m. at the Forest Park Middle School Cafetorium, and Saturday, March 30 at First United, 7 p.m.
Video Gambling referendum – you can watch the CUinFP YouTube, “The three panelists,” which is a very good overview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szLJL7sqIJ0&feature=youtu.be and The Q&A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYpYLwZUCps&feature=youtu.be
We’ll be exploring the local races/rat races on the Daly Dish this pre-election month. Email dalydish.fpr@gmail.com if you want to voice a particular issue. Legit requests only.
