Community Roundtable

Impeached-president Trump shouldn’t be nominating a Supreme Court judge at all, especially a month before the election, after blatantly announcing he’ll need the full court to decide the contested election-fiasco, that he’s working deviously to perpetrate.  Polls show a majority of voters believe the general-election winner should fill the SCOTUS vacancy.  Opposition to Barrett’s confirmation grows, per NYT.  Over 1500 alumni at Judge Barrett’s alma mater, Rhodes College, signed an open-letter opposing her nomination, “Many of us, contemporaries & friends, even sorority sisters of Amy Coney Barrett, despite the respect we hold for her intellect, the friendship we held or hold with her, are firmly & passionately opposed to her nomination”.   Many resonate with Facebook quote by Louise Knott Ahern, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going to be replaced by a woman who walked through every door that Ginsburg opened for her, so she can promptly use her position to shut them all for others behind her”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Absolutely, approve the resolution.  Condemn and acknowledge systemic racism, so we will hopefully become more informed, more educated & enlightened and move forward.  This resolution, approved & accepted by our City Counsel, may serve to motivate each of us to dig deeper to educate ourselves on how racism & bigotry became systemic, institutionalized, ingrained & rooted in our systems & practices; how it affects people adversely: in hiring practices, in disparities in economic opportunities, disadvantages in education, housing, healthcare, biases in policing, and in an unfair criminal justice system overall.  Truly SEE how those disparities continue to affect our society adversely.  Becoming more enlightened, we must seek the steps we CAN take to correct these practices, and endeavor to uplift humanity.  OF COURSE, we should resolve to protect all our residents & visitors, regardless of race, ethnicity, class, faith or gender identity.    NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!   Let’s truly RESOLVE to know better and do better!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Acting presidential would be a good first expectation. Act trustworthy & competent!  Tell the American people the Truth …. about the global pandemic, about reasonable safety measures & about the reliability & risks of any vaccines that could be available before year’s end.  Give clear, correct facts that affect Life & Death of citizens you hold sway over!  Hold a mature, virtual debate on the basis of what your plans are for our nation; not obfuscating, denying, lying.  Don’t stoke hate, fear & division among different groups, creating confusion & chaos!  Don’t try to suppress or convolute the 2020 Vote.  Don’t use our Post Office, our military, or our Department of Justice to your own perverted advantage.  Don’t commit criminal acts, or target persons for attack.   Don’t force children & teachers back to in-person schooling before we’re ready.  Don’t hold in-person rallies!  Wear a dang mask & act like a good, reasonably-honest adult.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Best option: online distance-learning!  Illinois is back up in 5th highest place for U.S. Covid-19 infections, with 39 deaths on Tuesday, driving total deaths as of 9/1/20 to 8,064 among 236,515 confirmed cases.  New mitigation measures are imminent for Illinois.  Students’ return to in-person classes & campuses across our nation “is changing the landscape of pandemic America”.  University of Alabama: 1200 students tested positive this semester; Colorado College just moved  fall classes to “remote-delivery”, quarantining 100 infected-students.  Schools are revising their plans.  Just as cases were beginning to trend downward, we now see spikes resulting from liberty-minded people participating in summer activities, such as trips to Disneyland, sending kids to summer camps; hundreds of thousands of bikers attended a Sturgis-rally, “revved the infection-rate, moving it fast & far”.   1000 deaths daily in U.S.   Proponents of Herd-Immunity, enjoy Labor Day weekend!   With mitigation, we’re at 6.1 million cases in U.S. with near 186,000 deaths.  Look forward to remote-delivery of Thanksgiving & Christmas.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Anyone with ‘eyes to see’ can tell what Donald Trump is up to!  Having installed a big-donor friend, Louis DeJoy to head-up the Post Office on 6/15/20, DeJoy has quickly worked to dismantle services & slow down mail delivery; he’s displaced 23 experienced executives, removed expensive mail-sorting machines from postal centers, picked up mail-collection boxes in several swing states, suspended overtime pay for workers, cut services, and has impeded the efficacy of our national postal service.  Trump is against funding for USPS; he has blatantly stated that Democrats cannot have their Universal-Vote-by-Mail initiative because mail-in voting is rife with fraud, even though he votes by mail, most states allow absentee-voting, and several states have mass Mail-in-Voting!  Louis DeJoy has been called to appear 8/24/20, before the Congressional House Oversight Committee, and he quickly announced that he’s suspending the changes until post-election.  USPS is a government SERVICE, a Constitutional piece of our infrastructure, not a ‘for-profit’ business.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The City of Galesburg ended their 3-month moratorium on water-line shut-offs in June, “as Illinois entered its fourth phase of reopening”, which definitely did not find everyone back at the jobs they previously held.  Many workers were displaced, few businesses are hiring, many of our neighbors are in dire straits.  Now is not the time to lift the moratorium on disconnections, as people try to figure out how to pay their rent/mortgage, utilities, buy food, keep their vehicles & car insurance & other needs.  I was heartened to see  Peter Schwartzman, Bruce Weik & others come out ‘fighting’ for those about to lose access to water in their homes during a pandemic.   The City should discontinue late fees; and maybe the big monetary grants to ‘events’ shouldn’t have been passed.  The economic downturn will probably deepen as this year runs into 2021.  Rent/mortgage SHORT-TERM help is available in Illinois; apply NOW at: ema.ihda.org.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Yes, masks should be required indoors in public spaces, and many of us are being vigilant about wearing them.  Many businesses with signs on their doors, stating  masks are required, shy away from forcing the issue.  Too many people are running around acting selfishly, and this is extremely disconcerting.  Some local bars & restaurants are not requiring customers wear masks to the tables, and the wait-staff & cooks aren’t wearing masks either; so, conscientious folks are not spending their dollars at these businesses.  In Knox county, Covid-19 outbreaks are rising daily, as are the virus-rates elsewhere in Illinois & other states.  As travelers return home  from Disneyland, camps & other vacation-spots across our nation, we’ll see the infection-rates soar higher, as schools are commanded to reopen.   With nearly 5 million infected in the U.S. and nearly 160,000 dead, Trump told journalist, Jonathan Swan, that this plague “is under control and it will disappear, it is what it is”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

The government has several roles in U.S. economy; it raises & spends money, employs workers, consumes goods & services, and disperses monies through contracts with businesses and through social programs that benefit the public, such as Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.  This pandemic will cost our economy dearly, have long-term consequences, and may bring about a “paradigm-shift in greater public support for more spending in healthcare & safety-net programs”.  Trump has hollowed-out our government & continues doing so; his tepid response to this disaster has cost many thousands of lives, and he continues to propagate fake-information, touting fake-cures to obfuscate his failed ability to respond adequately.   In the first Cares Act aid -package, many big businesses & wealthy individuals sucked-up monies that were intended for flailing small businesses.  State economies will be hurting; the Federal Reserve needs to step-up, forestall evictions, and rescue the economy, the poor & displaced workers.   Elections have consequences!   VOTE BLUE!

Trish Forsyth Voss

Suppressing protesters is UNAMERICAN!  Our nation was birthed in the blood of  dissent & the battle for liberty from a monarch or fascist.  It’s in our very DNA.  “Stirred up after hearing the freshly written Declaration of Independence read publicly on 7/9/1776, the so-called Sons of Freedom — a mix of George Washington’s soldiers and civilians tore down a statue of the British monarch George III in New York City” (Encyclopedia Virginia).  Statues glorifying slavery or the Confederacy should have come down long ago!  We’re in a time of Revolutionary energy; “the times they are a changing”!   Either get with us or get out of the way!  In Portland, Oregon, federal agents deployed by “Impeached Donald Trump” in ‘Operation Legend’ teargassed a wall of moms, and beat a Navy veteran who tried to talk to them.  Many people who think of themselves as ‘Conservatives’ will agree with Trump, but they, like the Nixonians, on the wrong side of history!

Trish Forsyth Voss

I wear my mask while shopping, and am not ready for indoor dining.  Those of us being careful do not appreciate the ‘anti-fact cult-members’ who do not.  Knox county is NOT a closed area; Illinois is NOT a closed state.  People with riskier behaviors are traveling, visiting, partying, wanting to carry on as if our nation were not leading the world in Covid-19 infections & deaths.  If you left Illinois this summer to visit a state with higher infection rates just because you could, you are part of the problem, not the solution. Travelers come back to join family members, co-workers & residents, and thereby increase our state infection levels.  Resuming online learning this fall is important for our students, who really want to see their classmates and resume social interactions, but that is not reason enough to force full-time, in-school attendance next month, as the infection-rate surges throughout the nation.

Trish Forsyth Voss