Lombard here. People still miss the point when they blame the Republicans or the Democrats. Both parties are wrong. They are leading us down the primrose lane, where we argue Republican versus Democrat, Bush versus Clinton versus Obama. They are poor and bad leaders. We do nothing but argue over party affiliations. Vote. Tell the politicians what we want. If need be, vote them out of office, Democrat and Republican, and let’s start over.

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Hi, Lombardians, let’s look into the future 50 years from now. What does the downtown look like to you? Let’s see—we have a rundown train station, we have vacant stores, we still have a Marathon gas station and people paying for parking. Let’s look 30 years in the future. We still have a rundown train station. Let’s look 20 years. It’s the same thing. How about 10 years? Let’s see five years from now. Is there any hope or chance that we could improve downtown? You know, now is the time, not in five years. We need better leadership in this town.

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Hello, Lombard. Yes, you are right, sir—the person you can blame all this on is George Bush. However, when the great change president Barack Obama got into office, he said he was going to change everything. Everything was going to be better. It’s worse, if you hadn’t noticed; unemployment, 10 percent; taxes going up; everything is just lovely and this is not what people signed up for. The problem with your argument that it’s George Bush’s fault is we have a president who said he is going to fix it and he hasn’t done a thing about it but spend more money. If you want to complain then tell me what Obama is doing.

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Somebody asked the question that at what point do Barack Obama supporters think that it’s his economy. I would have to say that George Bush had eight years to drive the economy and the country into the ground. I think the least that Barack Obama deserves is eight months to try and turn it around. You know when it will be Barack Obama’s economy? When his term is done, so at the end of four years, or hopefully eight years, we will judge and see if the country is better off than when George Bush left office. When George Bush left office, the country was toast. Oh, and one more thing;vFiat’s not owned by a French company. It’s owned by an Italian company, so get your facts straight.

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This is Lombard calling regarding the person who called about universal health care and that we should have it.vThis is not about fixing our health care. This plan is about control. Once the government has this plan in effect, there will be a panel making decisions on what procedures and what medications we can have. It’s losing more of our freedom at a cost. What we should do is contact our senators and congressmen and ask them to vote no on it. Possibly this person who wants this universal health insurance should move to Canada.

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I can see that President Obama is starting to slip down that slope a little faster, especially with the comment he made about the Cambridge Police Department. Everyone knows that when the police say to come with them, you have to agree, otherwise it’s disorderly conduct. What is the problem with this? And the other part of it is, why does a president think he can judge what went on miles and miles away? This is just part of his Napoleonic superiority that he has answers for everything. It’s time for new leadership and change that really does good, not stupid things.

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This is north Lombard calling. I’d like to find out how we can get the red light cameras removed. It’s totally ridiculous, like it’s “1984.” George Orwell may have been right. I’d like to get rid of them and I’d like to find out how.

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Villa Park calling. Hey, all you Republicans out there, the reason for spending so much is because Bush did so little. Bush had eight years to get it right and did nothing. Obama’s been in office eight months. Change will come when the Republicans disappear like the Whigs.

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It’s nice to see they finally did some roadwork on Illinois state Highway 53 along in Lombard there. It was terrible. Now I’m wondering, when are they going to widen it? That road needs it desperately. And, you have to have some kind of left-turn access on 53. It’s just too far to have to go out of your way to get around that. That road should be five lanes, two in each direction and one center turn lane. I’d like to see when the state is going to do that—it is a state highway; it doesn’t belong to 10 or 12 NIMBYs who live in Lombard who knew they were living next to a state highway when they bought their property. This belongs to the state and all the people of the state of Illinois and it needs to be widened. I’d like to see when that’s going to happen. Any politicians out there—let’s get working here.

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This is Lombard calling about the person with the bands playing too late at the Taste of Lombard. Now you know they play until 10 p.m. so you’ll have time to save up for a hotel. There are plenty of them.

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What a great time to go fishing. Bring your kids fishing in Lombard; there are a lot of great places to go in Villa Park, Salt Creek.

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We should have some straight talk with our Congress. When will Congress start working for the American people. In the new health care bill, where is the liability reform? Is Congress proposing to reduce care for seniors? Will seniors be required to attend end-of-life meetings with bureaucrats? Come on, Congress, work for us. Our health care should be your health care.

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This is in response to the multiple comments in SPEAK OUT from people who believe that the upkeep of vacant houses is the real estate agents’ responsibility. We do not own the house, we have no monetary investment in the house. It’s not our job to remove wildlife that has taken up residence nor is our job to mow the lawn, remove weeds or fix broken windows. Many times we go above and beyond the responsibilities to try and maintain a house that there’s a good chance we may never see a commission on. Please stop placing blame on the realtor and place it where it belongs, on the actual owner of the home.

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This is Lombard calling. As someone who swiftly removes the mess his German shepherd leaves during his daily walks, I still find myself receiving quite the number of crude stares from my fellow residents. Bagging my animal’s waste is evidently not enough. People now, it seems, can’t get past the idea of a dog urinating on their lawn, as if letting them do it on a driveway would be any better. My local park has never allowed pets and there is nowhere else I can take him that’s within any reasonable walking distance. Several strangers have suggested I walk my dog in the street, but in my nearly four decades of existence, I have never once seen anybody do that.

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This is for the person who said the Taste was lame and just keeps getting worse and the downtown is a joke, and only stays here for the kids and lived here 40 years. Unlike that person, I’ve lived here in a lot of different places and moved about every four years, and I’ve lived in Lombard now the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere—eight years. I would say to that person, the fact that we have these great park systems, the fact that we even have a Taste of Lombard, and parades and even have a downtown right now, we’re lucky. So, Lombard is not lame. Lombard is a great town and I’m happy to live in it. Maybe this person should think about moving.