Speak Out is a reader-generated column of opinions. If you there’s something you’d like to comment on in Elgin or beyond, send an email to [email protected]. Please include “speak out” in the subject line.
Too little advance notice: I was pleased that Kane County was choosing to have a memorial for the victims of COVID-19. I was waiting to find out when it was going to be and disappointed to find out it seemed like very short notice to have it on a Friday afternoon at 12. I’m sure it would have been nice for a lot of the families to be able to attend when it wasn’t during a work and school day. I wanted to attend with a friend who lost their loved one but we both work and it was too short of notice. I hope they decide to have a more permanent Memorial not just what look like a poster and a leftover Christmas wreath. This affected over 1,000 Kane County residents.
No surprise here: Donald Trump at a recent rally said that he will pardon the rioters of Jan. 6 if elected in 2024. That really shouldn’t come as a surprise considering our disgraced ex-prez is so conflicted when it comes to determining right from wrong.
Restoring voter rights: The John Lewis Voting Rights Act restores the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had been gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. It seeks to restore the pre-clearance regulations for certain states, mostly southern ones, that had a long record of discrimination against Blacks in voting. No more a federal take over of elections than the 1965 act.
Black women only: Female Hispanics, female Asians, female whites and males of any race need not apply! Sounds like the discrimination from years gone by, doesn’t it? But, before he even knows who he has that’s qualified, President Biden wants only a female Black for the next Supreme Court justice. We are going backward, not forward.
What’s an ‘influencer’? I hear people being called influencer. Who are these people? What do they offer that makes them an influencer? I don’t use social media, but some of these influencers have been in the news and I don’t see that they are anything special or offer anything special. Our children are being influenced by them on social media and I don’t get the rationale, but then I still don’t understand why anyone cares what Kim Kardashian does.