DuPage Co. soap box

Never easy to start over

There's a lesson in the Rev. Jim McLain's story about how he and his wife rebuilt their lives since Hurricane Katrina destroyed their church and home two years ago in New Orleans. McLain has since found a new home in Roselle and a new flock to lead as pastor of Itasca's First Presbyterian Church. "That's not our home anymore," McLain said of his old life. "That's an empty piece of property we used to live in. The people who made that our community and our family are long gone." He's looking forward to celebrating the holidays here. The lesson is simple: Sometimes you just have to learn to let go of the past, celebrate your future and be thankful for the blessings it holds.

Disney winners

Kudos to Naperville's Patriots Pee Wee Red team, which won the city's first American Youth Football national championship at a Disney World sports complex last weekend. The city has a great football tradition, including previous youth national playoff teams, high school state title winners and players who went on to NFL careers. This team has a special spot among all of them.

How about a grain of road salt

The outlook is for greater than normal snowfall, so get ready. Or not. ABC 7 meteorologist Jerry Taft recently told us to take those long-term forecasts with a grain of salt. Science isn't there to accurately predict beyond seven days. Now, there's a refreshingly honest forecast.

Good work

Speaking of salt, kudos to the road crews for staying on top of a slick situation and keeping the highways from turning into hockey rinks during the recent ice storms.

Roulette Road?

Now that the state is moving toward using gambling money to fix up and build roads, will there be a Blackjack Byway, a Hold 'Em Highway?

No Santas in summer

All those holiday lights on homes and decorations in the yards are real pretty to look at. But they are a real eyesore if they are left on the lawns and hanging from the gutters well after the Christmas season is over. So be a good neighbor and take the decorations down in a timely fashion. Nothing quite as silly looking as a plastic Santa still on the lawn on the Fourth of July.

Weird elective experiences

If 14th District U.S. House voters don't think it's weird enough that they'll be voting twice for the same office on Feb. 5, once to choose a party nominee to fill Dennis Hastert's seat temporarily and once to fill it permanently, they'll no doubt find it even weirder to have an election on a Saturday. The governor picked March 8 for the special general election in which party nominees for temporary fill-in will face off. Because it's the only race on the ballot, the governor thought a rare Saturday vote might help turnout. We shall see.

Billing for fire service a bad idea

A plan being discussed between the Roselle Fire Protection District and the village of Roselle would have some district residents being billed when they call 911 for fire assistance. They could be charged anywhere from $580 for an average call to thousands of dollars in case of a major emergency. Our hope is this proposal is defeated and a less burdensome way of bolstering the financing of fire protection services can be found.

One of baseball's good guys

Former Los Angeles Dodger manager Tommy LaSorda will be in Naperville Sunday to sign copies of his new book. He's one of the great guys in the game, and you can be sure he didn't get into the Hall of Fame with the help of steroids.