Gene Rennels

     One of the rapidly growing segments of our population in our country is the senior citizen. That is a segment that I am proud to be a member of. However, being a senior citizen, for most of us, no longer means we can retire and enjoy the remaining few years.

     I happened to see Mr. Tom Tawney’s commentary relative to Jim Oberweis’ position on weakening the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. I find it very interesting that Mr. Tawney’s comments were not contained in the DuPage, where I believe he still resides, issue of the Herald but in the Kane County edition.

I have read with senior citizen taxpayer interest the questions posed on WEGO Web relative to adjustments to income and benefits given to the District 33 Superintendent at a recent Board of Education Meeting.

I have also found the non-answers put forth by the District 33 Board President and one other member of the Board of Education humorous but not responsive.

     Joseph Goebbels, the notorious Nazi propagandist (a job which today would be called “spin doctor”) came up with a theory in the 1930’s called the BIG LIE: the bigger the lie you tell people, the theory went, and the more you repeat it the more likely people are to believe it. Goebbels might be gone but his theory is not.

Where has my Republican Party and the Republican Party of my ancestors gone? Rennels’ have been voting Republican, in Illinois, since the advent of the party and prior to that they cast their ballots for members of the Whig Party. So we have a long history in Illinois politics.

As we enter into the final days of the hearings concerning siting of a new waste transfer station those of us who are public body watchers have to wonder:

We wonder why the County of DuPage even bothers with its usual "smoke and mirrors" hearings. Do the county leaders really think that they are fooling anyone.

We wonder how the county leaders can justify the expenditure of thousands in taxpayer funds to conduct such a rigged event.

     Several months ago I assisted others in counting trains crossing Washington St. and recording the time the crossing was closed. As I recall there were 219 trains in 24 hours and the gates were down for approx. 8 of the 24 hours. Cars and trucks end up idling at closed crossings and add to congestion and pollution but, this pales in comparison to the effect that heavy train traffic can have on emergency vehicle response time.. The Mayo Clinic told the Surface Transportation Board, in testimony concerning blocked crossings in Rochester MN, that delays caused by blocked crossings could affect survival rates in medical emergencies. The STB has in several cases directed the railroads to work with communities to solve the problem. In 1997