This is for the person (Jan. 12 issue) who wants SPEAK OUT to cut out the politics and concentrate on community information only. Let me guess: You’re one of those liberal snowflakes who curls up in a fetal position whenever you hear someone express an opinion that’s different from your own. Should we organize a cry-in for you or get you a coloring book?

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Villa Park taxpayers, please vote no on the library remodeling.  They are asking way too much for the average person, and that is added to what we already pay for the library every year in our taxes.  And this amount will go up every year. We don't need a larger library—we need a more efficient library—less books, more computers, like many libraries are now doing. Don't make us pay more for space we don't need and can't afford. And we will all have to pay to keep up this additional space down the road—costing us even more.

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When Is the Lombard Post Office going to function properly?    I received mail that was supposed to be delivered between Nov. 4-6 on Nov 9. There is other mail that I should have gotten that has not been delivered. Bills come after the due date and sales coupons and fliers come after the sale is over. I called to talk to the postmaster and was told that I had to give my name so she could see if he wanted to take my call. I told her that my name shouldn’t matter. Then she told me that he was in a meeting. If he won’t listen to the problems, how can he solve them?

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Award shows aren't for politics or problems, they're for honoring talent. Meryl Streep should leave the country with the rest of the stars who said they would if Trump became president. Are they gone yet?

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“Game Day,” the “Big Game,” etc.; all alluding to the annual NFL championship game that apparently must remain vaguely worded for fear of trademark infringement. The NFL doesn’t make enough money already, that they have to snag a term to make even more? Then advertisers have to “buy” the right to use the term “Super Bowl” which then gets turned onto consumers through higher prices. Stephen Colbert was said to have once called it the “Superb Owl” to get around it. I never heard Sony gripe when people referred to their generic portable players as a Walkman or Discman. How about calling a tissue a Kleenex or gelatin Jello, or referring to a huge garbage container as a dumpster, which is the name of a company and now commonly spelled with a low-case “d”?

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Hello, Illinois. If you ever want to straighten the state out, you have to get rid of Madigan. He's killing this state and has been for the last 17 years. Thank you. Goodbye.

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Hi, this is Lombard calling. Thursday morning, woke up, they were predicting ice all night, ending at 6 a.m. Glad to see that we're conserving salt. I hope it doesn't cost somebody a life by us conserving salt. Have a good day.

Your comment was forwarded to Village of Lombard officials, who provided the following response: “The primary concern of the Village of Lombard is resident safety. While the Village of Lombard cannot attest to the unknown location of the report the caller is referencing, the Village of Lombard is not experiencing a salt shortage and is not actively conserving our salt supply. In addition to salt, the village utilizes pre-treatment techniques on roadways in efforts to discourage the formation of ice before it occurs. The village applies the anti-icing solutions up to three days prior to ice and snow events to help eliminate packed snow from bonding to the pavement, thus reducing the need of salt to melt ice. According to the village’s Snow Plan available at www.villageoflombard.org/snow, salt spreaders are dispatched as soon as icing conditions materialize. In cases of icing conditions, all nine of the village’s salt trucks are dispatched. These trucks can cover all village streets in four to five hours.

“In regard to the events of Wednesday, Jan. 11 and Thursday, Jan. 12, the village experienced similar conditions to those that affected the region, which forced the closure of highways, cancellation of schools and delay of numerous flights out of both O’Hare and Midway. Village crews were dispatched at 10 p.m., and applied salt on all roadways in Lombard. Based upon conditions, crews were called in to begin salting roadways at 6 a.m. Between the two call-outs, the village spread nearly 200 tons of salt at an application rate of 150 pounds per mile. This level of response is consistent with the Snow Plan. Please feel free to reach out to Public Works directly with any questions at 630-620-5718.”—JAC

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Let me get this straight. Someone makes a mistake, as with the early posting of referendum information, and legislators can just say, “We don’t like this rule” and change it at their whim? What happened to a local judge first making a ruling as was reported? The law is the law, and if people don’t like it, that’s how change is made, but it usually takes time for these things. How come this is happening so quickly? Voter intent or not, and while there was no harm done, rules are rules.

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The thing about Donald Trump and his followers that astounds me, troubles me and frightens me more than he does, is how can you possibly not realize that because you voted for him and think he's so wonderful, all the things these people are trying to get rid of affect your lives, aka Republicans as well as anybody else's. So all of you who think he's so wonderful, I hate to say this but I am living for the day when you all see your Social Security and your rates and everything changing, you are going to suffer as much as the rest of us. You can't see the forest for the trees.

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In a very disturbing move, the elected Democrat state representatives voted for Michael Madigan as speaker. A 17th term as speaker of the nation’s most mismanaged state with $111 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, more than $10 billion in unpaid bills, two years without a budget  and residents fleeing the state of Illinois. Lombard residents need to wise up and change some of the representatives in two years. Doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results is insane.

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It's amusing to listen to Democrats whine that the disaster of Obamacare might be repealed. These leftists suddenly act concerned about saving a great system for millions of people. Sure. What about the millions of people who lost their doctors, their plans and/or experienced massive cost increases thanks to Obamacare? I thought Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, was supposed to solve a lot of problems. It turned out to be a massive ripoff, and a major reason why the Democrats lost control of the House, the Senate and the presidency.

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Hi, this is for the caller who has a problem with Hollywood force-feeding their political views. What do you think you just did when you called SPEAK OUT? Can we just have one SPEAK OUT without having to hear about Trump? It's making my stomach turn.

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It is now official that state Rep. Madigan is again Speaker of the House of Representatives and thus holds most of the cards that will control Illinois' destiny for the next two years. Considering that he has held that position for most of the last 15-20 years and controls Illinois' financial direction as well, it is no wonder the state now finds itself in such a devastating condition. We can also look at all the Democratic state reps who have again voted for him and this includes the rep who represents Villa Park and Lombard. She, too, must now bear responsibility for the past, present and future difficulties this state now finds itself faced with. Voters need to remember that when her reelection comes two years from now. She is as guilty as Madigan.

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I happened to be driving past York High School in Elmhurst on the way back to Lombard and noticed on their sign that the students not only had Martin Luther King Day off on Monday, but also had Tuesday off for some kind of teachers’ institute day. Out of curiosity, I checked the school calendars for both District 44 in Lombard and Glenbard East. District 44 had an institute day the Friday before MLK Day, and Glenbard East had an institute day the day after MLK Day. Nothing like a four-day weekend after getting two weeks off for the holidays, right? If only the real world operated this way.

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You say it's only January and it's amazing what Donald Trump has done. You're absolutely right. He had absolutely nothing to do with the Carrier jobs; they were never going to move them. They were always going to keep a thousand jobs here. Now Carrier took $700,000 out of the Indiana state taxes and used that to pay them to stay there. The jobs going to Mexico, they weren't leaving, Ford plant was never going to leave. The union is what saved the jobs from moving to Mexico, not Donald Trump. He has done nothing but cause total disarray. He has no idea what he's doing. You people need to start fact checking what this man is doing to the great land of the United States of America. He doesn't belong in office. He is going to destroy us all.

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Lombard calling. After watching all the Obama worshipers pay homage to their messiah at his farewell speech in Chicago, heck, I was waiting for Obama to part Lake Michigan or maybe walk on the water to Navy Pier. If memory serves me correctly, one of Obama’s favorite campaign slogans was “Yes we can.” Well, Mr. President, as you head out the door, I think it’s more like, “No, you didn’t.”

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OK friends and neighbors, it’s time to put away the Christmas decorations. They were great, but leaving them up so long makes them not special.

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Clinton in 2016 did even better in Illinois than Obama did in 2012. With mid-term elections normally going against the party that holds the White House, it is not surprising that some are now referring to Rauner as “perhaps the most vulnerable incumbent in the country.” Without a budget to hire replacement workers, if the state's largest union goes on strike, the government will close down.  And all of the governor’s money, and all of the governor’s friends, won't be able to put a successful campaign together again. 

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It is apparent our society and its politics are severely messed up when the Senate held a middle-of-the-night vote to dismantle the Affordable Care Act with no plan whatsoever to assure that people don't lose coverage. Citizens will suffer, some will die, and for what? A tax cut for the 1 percent. Those on the right validly point out Obama's untruths about keeping the same doctors and insurance during its implementation. But during the campaign our president-elect said after the ACA repeal, young people would be able to stay on their parents’ insurance until 26 and that coverage wouldn't be denied for preexisting conditions, both of which have been undone with the latest legislation. Maternity care would no longer be insured, nor would mental health services. Patients and health care professionals rightly have complaints about the ACA, but there are countless people who can attest to it saving and improving lives through expanding access to health care. It is unconscionable that in this, the richest country in the world, health care is seen as a privilege instead of a right. Watching members of Congress these past few days smiling and acting like they have done something really wonderful is revolting. People will die because of their devotion to ideology over humanity. More than ever before (it was a long campaign) I am embarrassed to be an American, and fear for our collective future.