Palatine Township Rejects Voter Initiative
The Palatine Township Board has refused to allow voters at the April 16th annual meeting to consider asking the Board to study the benefits of eliminating the township's Road District. In a March 19th email, Township Clerk Lisa Moran stated that the petition by 30 voters to include the item on the annual meeting agenda was denied based on advice from the Board's attorney. "The electors at an Annual Town Meeting cannot direct the Township Board to commission a study and make findings, as it is not a power granted to electors under the Township Code," said Moran.
Matt Flamm, one of the voters who had requested the agenda item, replied to Moran. "The agenda item we requested would not 'direct' the Township Board to do anything," said Flamm in an April 3rd email to Moran. "By its plain language, it would 'request' that the Board commission a study and make the results available to the citizens of the Township. It is certainly within the power of the citizens to make a request. The Township Board is violating Section 30-10(b) of the Township Code by refusing to include this agenda item for consideration at the annual meeting."
We will solve our gun violence problem
Conventional wisdom is that the United States can never solve its problem of gun violence. But it was conventional wisdom that we'd never end slavery, allow women to vote, enact civil rights laws, reduce pollution, prohibit smoking in public, elect a Catholic or black President, or allow gay people to marry. Fundamental change often takes generations. We must do our part to advance the discussion. Just because we can't solve the problem now doesn't mean we won't eventually. President Obama often quotes Dr. King, who said that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
A decisive victory
President Obama won reelection with 62% of the votes in the Electoral College. He won 26 states and the District of Columbia, representing 64% of the population. He won the popular vote by more than 4 million votes. He won more popular votes than any Democratic candidate in history (other than Obama in 2008). That's a decisive victory. So if anyone tells you the election was "close," they're ignoring the facts.
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