Opinion

By C.E. Gauf, Peoria Heights, IL The question is, whether or not downtown Peoria is ready for a museum (Sear’s block) of this magnitude. With only one half of one per cent of the population in the Greater Peoria area projected to attend museum functions, tax payers will be obligated...
Read more »

by Ed Klein, Peoria, IL What are your thoughts – or concerns – about the government playing a role in health care reform? Republican spokespersons and other conservative pundits attempt to shock us with horror stories about “socialized” medicine. “Government,” they say, “can’t possibly do for Americans what the marketplace can.” Cal Thomas...
Read more »

Waterboarding has always been a war crime by Ed Klein, Peoria, IL  A debate has arisen about something which is not debatable: the rule of law, and the floor beneath which we must not go if we are to be the country we claim to be.  Waterboarding has been punished for being...
Read more »

PPD Up to Old Tricks! by Merle Widmer, Peoria County Board Member and local blogger On April 17, 2009, JS reporter Catherine Schaidle, Bonnie Noble and the Peoria Park District combined in a “pull the wool” over a naive and sometime apathetic Peoria citizenry. Schaidle wrote “East Bluff land catches Park District’s Eye”. This property...
Read more »

by Merle Widmer, Peoria County Board Member and local blogger In April of 1999, Caterpillar stock closed at $32 and change. Recently, ten years later, Cat stock closed at $31.94. More layoffs are being considered. Caterpillar suppliers locally have cut their workforces drastically and some face an uncertain future. In the year 2002, Caterpillar...
Read more »

by Dolores Klein, co-editor, Peoria National Organization for Women Our progress on the road to equality has depended on both activism to change discrimination against women which has been enforced legally and through intimidating violence, and on individual citizens. I think of the woman who walked by the Clothesline Project on display at the...
Read more »

By Elaine Hopkins The disharmony, even cacophony from the Peoria Symphony Orchestra Board’s ouster of its popular music director and conductor David Commanday just gets louder, playing on and on to widening audiences. For a decade Commanday has been a dashing figure leading the symphony and its feeder group, the Central Illinois Youth...
Read more »

Restoration of Trust in Democracy by Jim McGill, North Pekin Corruption can be outlawed. Just as laws were enacted enabling it. However, it will take major changes to even begin to turn it around. It is vital for voters to step up and get incumbents, at all levels, to make those dramatic changes. ...
Read more »

Dolores Klein, Peoria, IL All across the country women are succeeding as congresswomen, governors, mayors, serious presidential and vice presidential candidates. They deserve accolades for continuing their uphill battles. They also deserve our continued efforts to secure their places in our Federal Constitution. By crossing state lines to change residence, jobs, etc., they and...
Read more »

I had some thoughts on some of Peoria’s recent news items that I thought I’d share with the Community Word readers. The first item of interest is District 150’s latest cost-saving efforts. While it is usually quite acceptable by taxpayers for schools to be conscientious of their spending, no one truly believes that cutting...
Read more »