Soapbox: Seeing red
Bravo, Elk Grove Village. If only every intersection in the state could have cameras to catch reckless drivers speeding right through a red light, in a hurry for an early demise and eager to take others along for the ride. So again, bravo, Elk Grove Village, for approving the installation of cameras to detect these nuisances to drivers everywhere. It might only be another small step in the fight to erase this ever-growing danger, but it's a life-saving one.
Jake and Elwood ride again
It's a testimony to the staying power of our favorite pop culture touchstones that 27 years after the "The Blues Brothers" release, the movie's main characters and the Mount Prospect squad cars that played a supporting role remain big crowd-pleasers, as evidenced by this week's opening of the Blues Bar, which opened this week in downtown Mount Prospect.
What's the point?
State legislators are having trouble producing a budget, resolving pension problems or finding badly needed money for transit, roads, bridges and schools. But given a chance to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's prudent veto of a mandatory moment of silence for public schools, they're all over it. Why? State law already assured that any student who wants to observe a moment if silence or pray silently may do so.
Cowardly resort to vandalism
It was no surprise that readers responded (some two dozen letters to the editor) to our story about the daughter of atheist Rob Sherman saying that her high school's homecoming week songs should be secular only. The letter exchanges were a healthy exercise in public discourse. Not so healthy? The vandalism of the Shermans' home and the egging of a car belonging to a letter writer who expressed a view quite different from Rob or Dawn Sherman's.
Has anyone seen a trucker going 55?
State legislators' decision to go along with Gov. Rod Blagojevich in keeping the truck speed limit at 55 mph instead of 65 surely must disappoint truckers on downstate interstate highways. Now they'll be burdened with the knowledge that their typical cruising speed is still 15 mph above the legal limit, instead of a mere 5 mph in excess.
Or a car going 70?
It's Sunday afternoon, and scores of us Chicago-area residents are bearing down on the city, returning from weekends out of town. Many of us are driving gas-guzzling SUVs or minivans and all of us are driving the interstate at 75 to 85 mph. Except the one guy going 65 in his silver Prius -- the one drawing glares from the rest of us for the sheer gall of breaking our stride as he obeys the speed limit and tries to conserve a little fuel. By the way, how are our energy-independence efforts going?
630 dialing certainly no crisis
Citizens Utility Board Executive Director David Kolata last week called extra dialing now required of all those with a 630 phone number an inconvenience and blames inefficiencies in the distribution of numbers. "It's a totally artificial crisis," Kolata said. Well, yes, but it's also no big deal. All of us having to dial 10 digits? We'll get used to it.
Words hardly suffice
Words fail in expressing condolences to longtime political fixture Jim Ryan and his wife, Marie, on the death by apparent suicide of their son Patrick. Ten years ago, the Ryans lost 12-year-old daughter Annie to a brain tumor. Jim and Marie have battled serious health issues themselves. We can only echo state Sen. John Millner, who poignantly summed up: "My heart goes out to them. They're just good, honest people who have endured well beyond what any family should have to experience."