LWV OPRF November 25 Week in Preview

Great Decisions is coming

Interested in joining the Foreign Policy Association's Great Decisions 2025? The goal of Great Decisions is learning about our world. Eight topics that concern the United States and foreign policy will be discussed. Great Decision "briefing" books provide informative analyses of these issues. The meetings begin with a video on the topic.  

The discussion group meeting at Brookdale Senior Living, 1111 Ontario, Oak Park, is meeting the first and third Wednesday of month beginning February 5, 2025 at 1:00pm. If interested in joining this group and reserving a discussion book, please contact Joan Pope.

The Great Decision discussion group meeting at the Maze Branch Library, 845 Gunderson, Oak Park, will first meet on Thursday, January 30, 2025 at 1:00pm. Then the discussions will meet the second and fourth Thursdays of the month, ending May 8th. If interested in joining this group and reserving a discussion book, please contact Carolyn DeCoursey.

LWV IL Gun Control Study

Your opinions and critiques are solicited by the LWV IL Study Group on Guns and Violence Prevention. LWV OPRF will have a consensus vote in February on this study. Please let Lois Thiessen Love know of your interest in helping us prepare. Thanks! 

Coffee and Conversation Recap

On Thursday, November 14th, Chuck Stone from Braver Angels led a discussion on how we can recognize our own inner political polarizers. We did a self-assessment to determine how we felt about “the other side.” The answer to each question was Often, Sometimes, Never. See the assessment on our website.

Chuck talked about strategies that can be used to counteract polarizing thoughts and feelings. These include challenging our stereotypes. Blues believe that reds are racist, anti-immigrant, homophobic, anti-science. Reds tend to believe that blues are arrogant/elitist, fiscally irresponsible, unpatriotic, and hypersensitive “snowflakes.” Distinguish between positions and people. Distinguish between policies and core values. Distinguish between inconsistency and hypocrisy. Avoid using pejorative labels (“bible thumpers,” “libtards.”) Avoid using “they all.” Criticize the idea or the policy, not the motives of everyone who holds it. A quote from a Braver Angels workshop participant sums up why it is critical that

we depolarize and work together, “Neither side is going to vanquish the other, so we better figure out how to get along and run the country together.”

LWV IL will sponsor Observer Corps Training via Zoom on December 10 at 1:00pm. Members can register for the training here.

The Gala pictures are now in the LWV OPRF Photo Gallery.  If you attended the event, chances are you’ll see yourself!

LWV UMRR December Newsletter

LWV Cook County November Newsletter

LWV IL November Bulletin

LWV US Call to Action on the ERA

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