A chronic wound is a wound that does not heal in an orderly set of stages and in a predictable amount of time the way most wounds do. Chronic wounds may never heal or may take years to do so. These wounds cause patients severe emotional and physical stress and create a significant burden on patients and the whole system.
Wikipedia
Six weeks out and we’re still bleeding. This is not good.
I admit to being skeptical the morning after our recent village election when Forest Park Town Hall Facebook readers were informed that “It was over,” “We should move along,” and “We all need to jump right into the real work of community building.”
Too soon, it appears.
The healing, the inclusion, and the bridge-building seems to need more thought and treatment than previously offered which was, admittedly, nothing. Our brutal village elections have unhealthy consequences and, this time, it has spread to our newer, mostly younger residents, who justly want to be civically active in their own town.
Traditionally, the aftermath of our electoral savageries are swept under the rug with the lie that civic activism is welcomed at village hall, but there is just no pleasing those malcontents/outsiders who do it wrong. Why do they have to be so public with their ideas and questions?
Going back 16 years or so, it’s the damnedest thing, Calderone’s “enemies” have been smart, invested, creative and more than willing to do the hard work necessary to make Forest Park a better village. Most communities treasure their activists, but our burg excludes them — and trashes them. Not only does our village lose many of its best and brightest to our D209 exodus, but also to deliberate disenfranchisement by our own government. And, yes, that leaves a mark.
If you followed this recent election, the party line since last fall was that Calderone et al were running against Vox, a powerful and dark political party which commissioned Chris Harris as its puppet candidate for mayor. This notion is patently wackadoo, but it allowed Calderone to avoid engaging in real issues, to treat any challenge as part of the conspiracy, and to demonize differences.
This election, though, Calderone had to tangle with a new generation of activists, who don’t seem to have received his “This is How We Do It (or Die)” memo.
Forest Park is enjoying a new generation of stakeholders and they either don’t know or don’t care about the old rules. They’ve led the way through our largest political pit, D209, and began chipping away at destructive practices at their first board meeting.
Feels good, doesn’t it? Feels healthy.
And it’s the damnedest thing, but it’s not that residents necessarily disagree on issues (how would anyone know?) because village hall does not do public discussion. We have no public space! Not even for rain barrels.
Our commissioner form of government was conceived as a team effort, and our three new commissioners ran on citizen involvement and teamwork. Commissioner Byrnes has emphasized transparency and by that, we hope he means discussing the public’s business in public, as we’d like to know your rationale on important issues — each of you, individually.
We’re sure it was a rookie mistake, but we wish that your private deliberations for commissioner assignments had been public. We don’t want to make a phone call to each of you to get the lowdown on the public’s business. Please, if you will, explain to your constituents why you chose/were assigned your particular village department and how you intend to oversee it. We look forward to hearing from you at the May 25 council meeting — perhaps in your commissioner reports.
Thanks in advance.
