Government business slogged forward in March as a fourth corona-wave appeared imminent. On March 9, after several delays, Peoria City Council updated the city code for short-term rental uses. Before this action, short-term rentals such as Airbnb and VRBO were…
Author Archive for Community Word Staff
Inland Art | Welcome, Nichole Gronvold Roller
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Inland Art | Welcome, Nichole Gronvold Roller
Editor’s note: After more than four years writing Inland Art for Community Word, Paul Krainak is focusing on other projects, notably a blog “Bad at Sports” accessed at http://badatsports.com/2021/sub-rural/. He recommended Nichole Gronvold Roller as his replacement. Her column will…
Art Alerts | May 2021
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Art Alerts | May 2021
Fine Arts Society of Peoria presents lecture by Dr. Robert McCarter “The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa: Recomposing Place, Intertwining Time, Transforming Reality,” 10 a.m. May 13 via Zoom. Register at FineArtsSociety.net. “Seen but not Felt” will be virtually exhibited all…
Reflections from an Existential Lens | Religion, Secularism, and the Meaning of Life, Part IV
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Reflections from an Existential Lens | Religion, Secularism, and the Meaning of Life, Part IV
What is the meaning of life? Last time I suggested that we instead ask whether life is lived meaningfully. This phrasing doesn’t assume meaning must come from somewhere outside, written in words of fire. As Viktor Frankl says, “Questions about…
Labor Roundup | May 2021
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Labor Roundup | May 2021
Regardless of union outcome, Amazon effort inspiring. Ballots from voting at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., facility are being counted at press time, but labor leader Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants/CWA said it’s a win-win no matter the results.…
Saved from the wrecking ball
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Saved from the wrecking ball
Letter to the Editor | Vaccination and cell line from aborted fetuses
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Letter to the Editor | Vaccination and cell line from aborted fetuses
With the approval of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, concerns have been raised by some religious leaders that it was developed using cell lines from fetuses aborted decades ago. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference has recommended that…
New senior housing in rural areas
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on New senior housing in rural areas
The Housing Authority of Champaign County is reaching out 100 miles to develop an affordable senior living facility in Henry, a small community just 34 miles north of Peoria. Called Oak Field Place, the new 30-unit, affordable senior housing facility…
Reflections from an Existential Lens | Religion, Secularism, and the Meaning of Life, Part III
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Reflections from an Existential Lens | Religion, Secularism, and the Meaning of Life, Part III
In David Hume’s “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion,” three characters debate God’s existence. The character Demea represents rational theology and deductive argument—at least until the end, when he suddenly declares that “each man feels, in a manner, the truth of religion…
Labor Roundup | April 2021
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Labor Roundup | April 2021
Amazon union drive helped by White House, NFL, Hollywood. The election to unionize a Bessemer, Ala., Amazon warehouse employing almost 6,000 workers is getting support from a variety of figures, from President Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to National…