If you are a veteran, here are two issues from Home Depot. The Home Depot gives veterans preference on job openings. If you are out of work, go to the Home Depot and fill out an application and make sure you fill out the veterans section. Also, Home Depot gives veterans a 10 percent discount on your purchases. This goes on all year long.

You are partially correct in the information you provided. However, Home Depot spokesperson Steve Holmes said this: First of all, veterans do not get preferential hiring treatment. “We do recruit veterans,” he said, as their service to our country is “extremely valuable,” but they do not get hired simply because of their veteran status. Secondly, all veterans get a 10 percent discount (there are limits and exclusions) on major holiday weekends. Holmes said that the 10 percent year-round discount you refer to is for retired and disabled veterans. The spokesperson said Home Depot has about 35,000 employees who are veterans, and any veteran interested in applying is encouraged to do so at www.careers.homedepot.com/military.—JAC

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Hi, this is Lombard calling about the problem with somebody blowing leaves into the street. We have the same problem. There is a village ordinance on the books and we’ve got the same problem with our neighbor, too, and this person has been doing it for years. Nothing ever seems to get done about it. So, the village doesn’t bother enforcing it, apparently, unless you call an emergency and then they don’t even come out. So, good luck trying to get them to stop.

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This is Lombard calling and I’d like to complain about the obstacle course of commuters at Main Street and St. Charles. The commuters do not obey the traffic light, they do not obey the crosswalk signals and they jaywalk, even through oncoming traffic; running from the parking lot that’s on Main Street, running from Dunkin’ Donuts and just running from the parking lot on St. Charles. These are the same people who are continually late every day, and to those people, they need to set their alarm clock 10 minutes early and they wouldn’t be in such a rush to make the train. I would also like to know if there can be some type of community safety officer there to start ticketing these people, because there’s going to be an accident. It’s an accident waiting to happen, especially with the time change and it’s getting darker in the morning and in the evening.

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I’ve been watching the news and I see that our illustrious president is going to try to give breaks to college students who get loans to go to college, but apparently, they get the loan and don’t want to pay the whole loan back because it’s apparently way more than they thought. Once again, it’s about today’s youth not realizing what’s in front of them because they’ve been dumbed down and now the students or the parents do not want to pay for the loans they take out to pay for their kids’ college education. Now they want it for free or a lesser price. That is totally wrong.

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OK, all you Obama supporters, let’s look at the facts. Unemployment is 9.2 percent; he spent more money in the first three years than George Bush did in his entire administration. They are now going to pull part of Obamacare because it cannot support itself and Obamacare is self-sustaining. Guantanimo Bay is not closed. We spent $3.9 trillion in one month; the misery index is the highest since 1983. This is just Jimmy Carter II. I hope everybody who voted for him is happy with the wonderful job our President Obama has done. He’s done such a good job that we could be bankrupt in a matter of months. I just don’t get it. I hope the hope and change you were looking for you have received. Thank God 2012 is just around the corner.

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Hey, JAC, I’ve got a question for you. Who do you think Biden was talking about, President Clinton, President Reagan, President Carter, President Bush, President Bush? He was talking about Obama. Quit trying to be a liberal Democrat and quit trying to read between the lines. The economy is this way because our wonderful president, Barack Obama, decided to spend more money than we had. Now, we’ve got more debt than we know what to do with. Of course it made the economy bad. Quit being a sideline Democrat trying to say that this isn’t Obama’s fault. I’ll give you some credit; Bush did have something to do with this but Obama made it worse.

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I have a correction to last week’s SPEAK OUT regarding the undefeated Montini football team. It was the sophomore team who went 9 and 0 for the 2011 season.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I am asking my fellow citizens and taxpayers of Lombard to call your village trustee and call the Village of Lombard and ask them why they’re subsidizing the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra’s concert at Glenbard East. I see here that they’re subsidizing the concert at Glenbard East, whereas tickets are $65 for a family, $31 for an adult. The role of our village should not be to subsidize entertainment for symphony orchestras. The role of government is to keep us safe; run the village, water, garbage, police, fire, etc. I would not like our tax dollars to be used to subsidize entertainment that charges very expensive ticket prices. So, please call your trustee and ask him or her why.

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This is to the person who thinks the rich will hire people if they get a tax cut. Here’s a fact to confuse you. The rich need customers in order to hire anyone and customers need money. Customers get money from jobs, thus the need is for jobs. Get it? Here is another fact to confuse you; during our country’s greatest years of prosperity, the tax rate was near the highest. For Fox News fans, this data was heard on that bastion of conservatism.

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While a person can argue about whether man is causing global warming or whether it’s just a normal climate cycle, warming is undeniable. Even if one ignores studies that show warming is a fact, anyone can do their own study by simply observing in person or online the steady receding of glaciers, polar ice caps, etc. For example, when we vacationed in Alaska recently, the locals and the guides—not the scientists, politicians or people on a rant—all showed us where the glaciers had greatly receded over the past 10 years. It doesn’t take a genius or an expensive time-consuming study to realize that when massive ancient ice fields all over the world are steadily and drastically melting away, the only possible answer is that our average earthly temperatures are warming. Even if man isn’t the cause of or a contributor to global warming, wouldn’t it be prudent of us to take steps to help temper the long-term effect of our and future generations’ benefit?

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How disturbing and disappointing not to see one name of a Lombard school in the featured school report card of the Chicago Tribune. Have the school administrators in Lombard been sending misleading messages of academic achievement in their newsletters and columns in the Lombardian. What other explanation is there for us to comprehend? Why haven’t the elected school board members notified the community during a town meeting regarding the lack of acceptable learning achievements among the student population? The unacceptable test results put everything into perspective—our tax bill shows the largest percentage of dollars are school-bound. We know the teachers have adequate salaries and benefits for a 150-day school year. They also have 21st century technology to enhance their teaching programs.

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I have a question for the person who does not think the Bush tax cuts helped the economy. You stated that when Bush cut taxes, that put five cars in all the rich people’s garages, but if that put five cars in rich people’s garages, then they bought those cars, paid taxes on those cars, and that kept people employed. Same thing with their country club memberships; if they’ve got their country club memberships they paid for those memberships and that kept people employed. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Just because the rich can afford five cars and you and I may not, if they’re buying things, doesn’t that mean they’re helping the economy because they’re purchasing things and keeping people employed? I think that’s how it works.

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Hi, this is a Lombard citizen here. Since kindergarten until fifth grade I went to Park View School. I was just walking past Park View, walking home from the train station, and noticed that they still have the relief images of a boy and girl dancing around on the front of the school in black brick. I just want to reminisce about that on a nice walk back home.

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Recently, at about 10:30 p.m., our power had been out for over three-and-a-half hours. It wasn’t windy or rainy, snowy or icy, so why was it out? Well, a major feeder line just fell down near Hickory and Main. Why? I was told it’s because it is over 50 years old. My home is over 60 years old and my home hasn’t fallen down because of it. I monitor the home status and do regular home maintenance. Come on, ComEd, you keep jacking our rates up and the service goes down. We’ve been without power four times since January. You can’t blame this on an act of God. Just blame it on inaction on your part.

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Hi, Rick Poole. Just wanted to say great job the park district is doing. It would be nice to have one of the tennis courts at Madison Meadow frozen so the grandkids could ice skate and we could have the enjoyment of watching them. Also, at the snow hill over here on Jackson, is there any possible way to put the pipes with the ropes so that when the grandparents want to go up the hill with the kids we have something to hold on to? Well, thank you very kindly and keep up the good work. Thanks a million.

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Villa Park calling. To the person calling to complain about teenagers trick or treating, perhaps you’re the same person who made nasty comments about my 13-year-old autistic son when he was trick or treating this year. You can’t judge a book by its cover. There’s no reason that teenagers shouldn’t be allow to trick or treat like the rest of the kids.

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After going to community after community such as Oak Brook, Wheaton, Westmont, I noticed that residents push their leaves in the street and on specific days the village comes along and picks up the leaves from the street. I was just wondering, and I know the village won’t answer this but maybe somebody else has the answer. Why are we so antiquated that we’re still putting them in the bags, the bags get wet, the bags rip, we have to pick the leaves up again, when it seems like the simplest solution and maybe even more cost effective, would be for the village to pick the leaves up from the streets.

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In response to the generous person who was willing to donate partially burned candles, Cross Roads Community Church in Carol Stream is doing “Journey to Bethlehem” as an outreach to the community on Dec. 17. There will be a candlemaking booth and any used candle wax would be greatly appreciated. You can contact Ronda at 630-627-3925 to arrange pick-up.—JAC

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Our adult son was walking his dog past Sunset Knoll recently in the late morning. He collapsed and was unconscious on the side of the path. When he started coming to he could hear runners slow down and made remarks about him being drunk and then they kept running. He couldn’t respond or ask for help because he was so ill. We don’t know how he managed to call us and staggered to the basketball court where we found him and we took him to the ER. My point is, do people know how many illnesses there are that someone could collapse and be unconscious? If you didn’t want to go near him, the least someone could do is call for help. Please, next time you see someone unconscious or hurt, dial 9-1-1. Please.

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I just received a bag from the park district to give food to those in need. Whether or not it is a good project is not the question. The question is, Why would a tax-body entity such as the park district do something that has nothing to do in person with the park district? Why are you using my tax dollars and paying taxpayer dollars in salaries to people to do something that is not part of your jurisdiction? I really wish somebody from the park district would answer that. Have we got a bleeding heart agenda? Are we now going to become Oak Park West?

Paul Friedrichs, executive director of the Lombard Park District, responded: “The Trick-or-Treat Food Drive has been a part of our teen offering for many years in our efforts to help them develop positive leadership opportunities.  Due to interest and need in the community, it has grown to involve a variety of youth and adults, but the intent is still the same. Over 40 volunteers take part in this event; direct costs such as bags and drivers are donated to the park district.  Getting the youth of Lombard out on a Saturday to take part in this event, in my opinion is recreation and our volunteers commitment to the community should be commended and applauded. The volunteers collected two truck loads of food for the Villa Park-Lombard Food Pantry, maybe the Lombardian should contact Silas there to hear the impact this event had on their operation this year.  As far as your questions regarding the ‘bleeding heart agenda’ and ‘becoming Oak Park West,’ I’ll leave it to the readers of the Lombardian to decide those answers.”—JAC

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This is Lombard calling. It is 7:30 a.m. and all the parking spaces at the Hammerschmidt parking lot, at the old DuPage Theatre parking lot, are all taken for Metra. What happens to everybody else who wants to take the Metra after 7:30 a.m. and where are they supposed to find parking spaces? Do we have to drive to Villa Park and Elmhurst to find parking to be able to take the Metra? There’s so much land open that the village owns—next to the parking lot, the whole lot sitting empty by the old DuPage Theatre. It would be greatly appreciated if someone really thinks about where they can put some more parking spaces for us who are not in the early morning rush hour but need to go downtown also.