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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.

Semantics change could help: Perhaps we need to change the messaging of getting vaccinated to that of getting preventive treatment. Getting preventive treatment helps our doctors and nurses who have to face COVID-19 everyday, greatly reduces the risk of serious illness, helps avoid costly hospitalizations and rehabilitation, and even helps to prevent death. This Valentine’s Day, give the gift of love. Get preventive treatment for COVID-19. Your loved ones will love you for it and so will your wallet.

Race issue at play: Regarding Whoopi Goldberg, remember back when Mel Gibson in some drunken rant said something about Jewish people even though he has tons of Jewish friends. The ladies on “The View,” especially Barbara Walters, crucified him for saying something like that. So now Whoopi Goldberg says the Holocaust wasn’t about race, and she gets a two-week vacation. So tell me now that it’s not about race. She can say stuff and she gets two weeks off. There’s a double standard right there.

When does it end? It simply saddens me to hear about Jewish, Asian and Black hate crimes. Here lately there has been a lot of hate crimes against Jews. Seventy years ago, six million Jews were killed, and now it’s the year 2022 and crime against them is still going on. Our Asian Americans are also being attacked and told to go back home. African Americans continue to face hate crimes. The time is now to ask yourself, do we want to continue to live in a world with hate against people of other races, or is it time to question our behavior toward others and try to change our way?

Freedom fighters: I first heard about the Canadian truckers Freedom Convoy when a neighbor told me her friend in Vancouver baked more than 150 muffins to share with truckers! My husband and I saw nothing on mainstream TV so we began watching videos online as the convoy reached a length of 45 miles. Some videos showed people lining highways and overpasses in below-zero weather, cheering the truckers. With restrictions in place as truckers head into COVID-19’s third year, they were driving to Canada’s capital to protest vaccine mandates that can disrupt supply chains and sideline as many as 26,000 truckers.

Doesn’t make sense: Gov. Pritzker states that Illinois would have a budget surplus even without the federal money gift that Illinois received. If that were the case, then why did he ask voters to approve a change to the graduated income tax to raise revenue in 2020?