Hello, Villa Park calling. Just a word about Willowbrook High School; they’re the highest-paid teachers in DuPage County, with the lowest test scores in DuPage County. One win in football, three wins in basketball. I guess money just can’t buy everything. Thank you.

After checking the Illinois Interactive Report Card site, http://iirc.niu.edu, Fenton High School in Bensenville has an average teacher salary of $101,084, compared to Willowbrook’s $92,640. Additionally, if you are looking at composite scores for the ACT exam, Fenton’s is lower at 20.3, while Willowbrook’s composite score is 21.2. More extensive school report card information is available for Illinois schools on this Web site.—JAC

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To the person complaining about having to wait at a traffic light at St. Charles and Elizabeth, you really don’t know why those lights turn red when there’s a train—especially a freight train? If east-west lights on St. Charles stayed green, and someone in front of you is waiting to turn left, you might be tempted to bypass that person and go straight. Hmm. What might happen next? I’ve sat at that light but on Elizabeth facing north, and I could see there’s room for me to cross St. Charles, but gee, the light is red for the train. Better safe than sorry, don’t you think?

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When I went to the motor vehicle division to renew my license and while I was waiting, I was reading “Rules of the Road.” I found it quite interesting that the rule on the left lane of a multi-lane highway or roadway is considered a passing lane, whether it’s Main Street, Lombard, Roosevelt Road, North Avenue or the tollway. You’re only supposed to drive in it if you’re passing. Additionally, when you make a turn, whether a right turn or a left turn, you’re supposed to turn into your closest lane. I’ve seen people driving miles and miles in the left lane, not passing anybody, blocking traffic, and also, make a right turn into the far inside lane, causing a possible crash with two different lanes of traffic.

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Patterns, by definition, repeat themselves. Each time a state has convened a special session to pass tax giveaways in the hundreds of millions of dollars to big corporations, they have followed up with anti-union, and budget-slashing, legislation. Last December, Illinois passed more than $300 million in tax giveaways to corporations and the super-rich. Smell the coffee. You are about to start hearing about the evils of unions and how the state is broke. 

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Hello. Haven’t we spent enough money on the downtown area of Lombard? Isn’t it about time we stop, some would say, putting our money into a bottomless pit of nothingness? It will never be like the downtowns of Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst and Wheaton, so why don’t we let the market forces prevail? Thank you.

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Lombard calling. On March 28 a union worker stated teachers should pay into their pensions and health insurance. Get your fact straight. My wife has paid into both all 25 years she’s been a teachers. Question the big waste of tax dollars: the Congress and Senate payroll, pension, health care for life, which is free. Get it straight before you speak your piece. Thank you.

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Maybe I’m out of touch; maybe somebody can help me here. Why should I have to use my taxpayer dollars or anybody’s taxpayer dollars to afford somebody to go out and get contraceptives so they don’t get pregnant? My taxpayer dollars are being used to buy contraceptives for males and females? I just don’t get it. Somebody help me here. Why should the taxpayer dollars be used to cover people who don’t want to go out and get their own health care insurance? My taxpayer dollars are not going to be used to pay for somebody else’s health insurance or contraceptives because they’re too lazy to go out and get their own contraceptives. Not going to happen.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling, wishing a happy congratulations and shout out to Class 3A state champions, Willowbrook state champion Jimmy Hilligoss. Congrats, boys. Keep on working hard in the off season.

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While we, the citizens, are goaded into party politics, our legislators are somewhat free of the fight by blaming the other party and half truths. A half truth is a little lie mixed with a little truth. We have to make them accountable, if they want their job, come to us and tell us what they’re prepared to do. This goes for all levels of government. We have to make them afraid of losing their job. We have to make it a reality.

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Lombard here. It seems we have had a serious problem keeping a fire department chief and hiring a new one. This has been an ongoing situation ever since Village Manager Dave Hulseberg took power. It was first noticeable when we didn’t have fire trucks lead the Lilac Parade when the village manager took office. The village board needs to do what we elected them to do and pay attention. Could it be the way Lombard is being run? Ask yourself, because the village hall has a gag rule. Thank you.

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President Obama is like a man in a rowboat rowing furiously and proclaiming how hard he’s working. He’s going nowhere because the oars are not in the water. How easily some people are fooled over and over again.

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Hi, SPEAK OUT readers, this is Lombard calling. To all the dog owners out there, I fully appreciate your love for your beloved pet. But please respect others and when you are in a public place like the Prairie Path or paths around Lombard and Villa Park, keep your dog on a leash. You may trust your animal, and in private places like your yard, feel feel to have your animal unleashed and go to a dog park if you want a larger area to run. On the path, please respect those runners, walkers and bikers who don’t know or trust your animal like you do. SPEAK OUT, if you could please, print the ordinances for leashing your dog. Thank you.

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This is Lombard calling. What is the police department’s answer to why they don’t give tickets to people driving with windshield wipers going and no headlights on? It’s a state law that you have headlights on. Thank you.

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Villa Park calling. For the teacher bashing, I’ve got one little test I want all parents to give to their kids because we just gave it to five neighborhood kids. Here’s the test. Five multiplication tables; five addition tables; five subtraction tables; and five division tables. They have 20 minutes to do this with nothing but a pencil and paper and answer the 20 questions. We’ve had five kids, sixth, seventh and eighth grade, do this test, and believe it or not, all of them failed. So, if your kids pass the test, thank a teacher. If your kids fail the test, well then, thank a teacher.

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Well, the primary is over, and it looks like Lombard has decided to send back to Springfield the same politicians who raised your state tax 15 months ago, but who convened a special session back in December to give away $300 million in tax dollars to big corporations and the super rich so that they could continue to serve the interests of the super rich, who give nice campaign contributions.

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A recent caller suggested that under Republicans things would go back to the way they were in the ‘50s and women would just be in the kitchen with an apron on, and would we really want that? I’ll raise my hand and say yes. Thank you.

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If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. This was a quote by Anne Bradstreet, who lived in the 1600s. We have had our winter and adversity. Now it is time to show the elected ones it is time to go.

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Hi, this is Lombard. I have to share this experience with the world. I just had the best gyros ever at Tom’s Grill on Highland Avenue. It was my first time there and I will definitely frequent it more. They use really thin pita bread, which is wrapped like a burrito, which blends all the flavors in the entire sandwich. It’s definitely a must. My first time there; yum, yum. You must go. Thank you.

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This is for Villa Park. I tuned into the cable meeting of the trustees and the subject was recycling. The residents are going to get bigger bins. Did they every think of who’s going to carry the bigger bins out to the street, full of recyclables? Couldn’t you get some with wheels for the senior citizens and you’ll have more of your recyclables. Or, can we leave it out on the parkway from one week to the other because you’re going to wind up with the same problem you have now; seniors not taking recyclables out because there are no wheels on those containers.

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Hi, I’d just like to thank all the candidates who ran for political office in my area. Thank you for coming and knocking on my door once every two to four years from 7-9 at night, just so I can meet you for the first time ever, because you are so concerned about what I want and what my needs are that you want me to vote for you. I feel so great. What a great country.

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I was so glad after March 20 to not get any more of those annoying robocalls from and about politicians running for office. Then, lo and behold, during the last week of March, I got a robocall from Peter Roskam in the evening. Whether I’m a supporter or not, I’m tired of the calls. The only good thing about it is his office, unlike the campaign calls, has the decency to let his name appear on the caller ID so I know where the call is coming from.

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I think the president of the United States and our government are hypocrites with a capital H. What I mean is, the president says it’s a lot cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one. Why are they permitting all these drugs that kill more people, that make more people sick after they are treated, rather than give them natural cures? Cures that have no side effects and don’t kill people. But if you come up with a natural cure you could get in trouble or have your license taken away. What a hypocrite; it’s cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one? Sounds like a lie.

SPEAKING OUT FOR 25 YEARS

The following comments are reprinted from the April 5, 1995, SPEAK OUT column in celebration of SPEAK OUT’s 25th year.

Well, here we have some beautiful spring weather and we go outside to enjoy it and all of our senses are assaulted by the smell and burning sensation from all of the sprays and chemicals people put on their grass just to control some dandelions. There are other ways to have a nice, green, healthy lawn and people should look into those chemicals that they are spraying on their grass because they are not perfectly safe and healthy. In fact, some of them are very dangerous. Many of us are getting sick from the odor of them that permeates the air in the spring and in the fall when everybody insists on spraying this stuff. It’s disgusting and I wish you all would think of another way to have your grass. This is not a beautiful thing.

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When applying your new village sticker to your car, remember that if you cut out a small piece of plastic wrap such as Saran Wrap or HandiWrap and put that on the sticker before you apply the sticker, it will be much easier to remove the sticker next year. This is especially useful when the village is using such large stickers that they almost become a billboard on your car. Make the plastic wrap just a little smaller than the size of the sticker. Good luck.

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This is in response to the person who said people don’t spend enough money in the downtown area. I’m very concerned about that myself and I would very much like to see other people revitalizing downtown themselves by investing some money in it. I found some very excellent stores. Perhaps there’s some motivation problem, I don’t know. Perhaps this is something the village or the newspaper can investigate. Thank you.

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Hi. This is Villa Park calling. I just wanted to let you know that we’re really appreciative to Bill Wiet at the Village of Villa Park for helping us. We had so many questions about putting up our fence. These people at the village here in Villa Park are really great and a special thank you to Mr. Wiet who made our lives a little bit easier this week. Thanks a lot. Bye.