To the person who commented that we should indeed judge medical marijuana, unless you have known anyone whose illness was helped by using medical marijuana, you have no room to judge—it comes in many forms, not just the stereotype of smoking it rolled in paper or in a pipe—any more than if that person took a narcotic or other heavily regulated substance that can also be misused. I think it’s the stigma, label and stereotypes which have been placed on marijuana that prevent people from seeing it has a medicinal value. That, and a narrow-minded, unsympathetic point of view.

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Hi. Just read the SPEAK OUT this past Wednesday. The post office, yes, is in a mess, but they can't seem to find good people who want to work and as far as taxpayers paying their wages, that is not true. They get all their revenue from their stamps and all other parcels and things they send out. Sorry to say, folks, whoever that was, you’re wrong on that one. Give them a chance and give them a break. There are a lot of people out there who just don’t want to work. Thank you.

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This is for the people who want to stand up for minimum wage. If you are between the ages of 22 and 50, and you’ve been working a minimum wage job for over six months, the only one to blame is yourself. You don’t blame your mommy, you don’t blame your daddy, you don’t blame the teacher, you don’t blame the rest of the world. You are the one to blame for a minimum wage job, between the ages of 22 and 50, especially if you’ve been doing it over six months. Don’t blame everybody else.

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I’m just calling to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas, a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Happy New Year.

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I have some words for you people who criticize a lot, to listen to. A wise old Indian once said, "I never criticize my fellow Indian until I’ve walked a mile in his moccasins." So, you people who are criticizing the police, spend a week with them and go through what they go through. I think you’ll have a different perspective of what the job consists of. So, stop criticizing when you have no idea; the problems they have to put up with, and when you want help, who are you calling? The police. So, stop your criticizing and pay attention to what’s going on. Goodbye.

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The news from the neighborhoods of Chicago is dismal. A 15-year-old shot; a 5-year-old; a brilliant student on the way to college. Where is the outrage, the disgust, or demonstrations in leadership? There is none. It is easier to promote black/white separation for money and power. Neither Michael Brown nor Mr. Garner was a case of racism.

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I called a store to make inquiry about an item and the person on the other end answered with her name and Merry Christmas. She didn’t have what I was looking for so I called another location of that chain. That person said her name, but instead wished me Happy Holidays. I asked why the other person said Merry Christmas—and she didn’t—and she said it was what her boss told her to do. Might as well not say anything at all. If some people don’t celebrate Christmas, why wish them a happy holiday? Just say Happy New Year and be done with it. Bah, humbug.

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The Washington Free Beacon, in an article by Bill Gertz, is reporting today, on Dec. 18, that China has developed a long-range, intercontinental ballistic missile, the DF41, which has multiple warheads up to 10, and they can target the entire continental United States. I want to quote from the article: "The development of China’s multiple warhead technology was assisted by illegal transfers of technology from the U.S. companies during the Clinton administration, according to the documents and officials familiar with the issue." This document will show that Bill Clinton was reportedly personally involved in giving away our technology to the Chinese. Thank you.

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Hello, Villa Park calling. Every week I’m seeing people calling about cars blowing stop signs, and every week it’s a different intersection. If it’s not stop signs it’s speeding cars, then it’s people on cell phones; then it’s drug use, then it’s gangs. There are over 1,000 intersections in Villa Park. I guess to make everyone happy we’d better hire 1,000 policemen to be everywhere to watch everything. Oh, wait, we can’t do that, because then someone would complain there are too many police cars at the police station. I’m proud of our policemen in this town. They do a hard job. If you want to complain about all the broken laws, maybe you should go be a policeman and see if you can do it better. Thank you.

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I could not believe what I was seeing the other day on Main Street south of the tracks. A man about 20-ish was walking with a child who looked to be about 3 or 4. The man was keeping a grown-up’s pace with the kid just behind him—on the street side of the sidewalk—trying to catch up. I was stopped waiting to turn, so I had a chance to see this. The man never looked back to see if the kid was next to him, nor did he offer to take the child’s hand or slow down. That little boy could have darted into the street before the guy even had a chance to grab him. They were about to cross at a stop light and I wanted to cringe, but had a green light and went my own separate way. Total disregard for that toddler’s safety, from my vantage point. Shame on him.

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Lombard calling. Returning from an errand, I was stopped at a traffic light when I noticed the Obama ‘08 sticker in front of me. Usually when this happens, it aggravates me but this time, in the spirit of Christmas, my reaction was different. Thinking positively, it was a warning for me and other drivers that we are sharing the road with someone who is deaf, dumb and blind. We should use extra caution. Thank you.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I really like reading the Lombardian; however, I am totally disgusted with the front page of the Lombardian for the Dec. 17 issue. Happy Holidays is really not our holiday. We say Merry Christmas. It’s amazing that the people who want to change the name of Christmas are the very ones who are out in the stores buying all the sale items. If you don’t like the name Christmas, then keep your kids doing schoolwork during the Christmas holiday, do not go shopping during the Christmas season. Oh, and the Christmas holiday for school is now everything except Christmas vacation. The reason it’s called Christmas is because we put Christ in Christmas. So, Merry Christmas and have a happy shopping center time. Bye.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. I’m reading in the Lombardian that someone is complaining about not stopping at stop signs on Washington Street. The person needs to remember that many of the people who are driving right now don’t have a license, don’t understand the rules, can’t read, can’t write, so tell the person not to worry about it. It’s happening everywhere. Have a great day. Bye

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Obama’s deal with Cuba includes a secret Santa surprise, that gives back Guantanamo and closes Gitmo. And just you wait and see; his parting gift for you in his pardons when he leaves office. Merry Christmas.

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It’s America here calling, and this is a proud Democrat to be calling in. The person who called in and labeled all Democrats—which there are millions—communist and called our president communist has no idea what he or she is talking about or what living in a communist nation would be. I highly suggest this person do a little more checking before he or she takes it upon himself or herself to label a party. That’s why this is the great land that it is, because a person with no intelligence can call in and label a party communist or Democrat. We are proud Democrats just like you are probably proud of your party, but obviously you have no clue as to what you said. You are a very sad individual and I as a Democrat hope all Democrats—or most of you—would just call in to SPEAK OUT and stand up for your party and let this individual know that if he or she actually lived in a communist country, this person couldn’t be making the phone calls he makes. Thank you.

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This is for the two callers last week in SPEAK OUT who were complaining about the minimum wage being too low. Let’s start with the person with the widgets. If you work at a widget company and the only thing you know how to do is widgets, I’m just sorry. I should not have to pay for you to have a better job or better education and paying $20 for a hamburger that you’re flipping at McDonald’s. As far as the one about not having the academic abilities, thinking they can become CEO of a company, I just want you to think about that for a minute. How many companies are going to go out of business or have gone out of business because the minimum wage went so high? Why should we pay for people to sit around with a minimum wage job when they’ve got no ambition to go out and do anything else, no ambition to get a better education for themselves, for their children and their family?

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Lombard, this is to you procrastinators who waited until after Dec. 1 to put your leaves out. They’re still going to be there at Easter. The free leaf pick-up cut off was Nov. 29. It was in all of the papers.