League of Women Voters of Oak Park & River Forest Newsletter October 2023 Volume 11 Issue 3

To our readers: From time to time our Vice-Presidents, Tina Birnbaum or Judith Crown, may write on special topics of interest for LWV OPRF members. This month Vice-President Tina Birnbaum explains how the League is organized.

Recently, I’ve heard many questions about how the League works. The League is unique among organizations, so questions are inevitable.

Why are there so many different Leagues? How are they different? How do they relate to one another? Are there local positions that local Leagues can take? On what kinds of issues does the League take positions?

While I won’t be able to tackle all of these questions in the space allotted to me today, I will lay out the basics of how the League is structured.

The League does not identify with or support any particular candidate or political party. However, the League does support and advocate for certain policies. These policies fall under one of three categories: voting rights, environmental/climate crisis issues, and equitably meeting basic human needs.

Some examples of voting rights issues are equitable redistricting, the abolition of the Electoral College in favor of directly electing candidates, and support for election laws that maximize opportunities for qualified citizens to vote. On the environmental front, the preservation of natural resources and water issues are some of the issues the League supports. In meeting basic human needs, the League supports public education, affordable housing, juvenile justice reform, criminal justice reform, gun violence prevention, mental health services for school age children, elimination of discrimination against women, and fair fiscal policies. These are a sampling of the issues that the League has studied and on which a consensus position has been reached.

But there are so many Leagues operating on so many levels! National, state, local, county, and regional. How is it organized? Am I a member of all of these?

If you are a member of our local League, LWV OPRF, you are indeed a member of a number of other Leagues as well. A portion of your dues goes to support these other Leagues.

Our LWV OPRF is a member of the Illinois State League, the U.S. League, the Cook County League, the Lake Michigan League, and the Upper Mississippi River Region League. The last three Leagues are termed ILOs, Independent League Organizations. Each member of our local League is also a member of each of these other Leagues.

On every level, the League studies issues in depth. Once a position is adopted through consensus, we advocate for policies and legislation that support the position. In addition, League members volunteer to observe public meetings and publish online reports to document how a particular branch of government is working.

Because we live in Cook County, we in this area have an additional branch of government involved in our lives. Cook is the most populous county in Illinois and the second most populous county in the country. County government is a taxing body. They use those dollars to provide services and functions such as healthcare, property tax assessments and appeals, maintenance of vital records such as birth and death certificates, administration of elections in suburban Cook County--Chicago handles its own elections--and running the county court system and the Forest Preserves, among other functions. 

Obviously the county is an important and unique branch of government that impacts all of our lives in a variety of ways.

Questions about how the League conducts studies and adopts positions will be addressed in future columns. All of the League’s positions may be found on the state and national League’s websites.

Tina Birnbaum

To commemorate Banned Books Week, the River Forest Library has invited actors from City Lit Theater in Chicago to perform dramatic readings of excerpts from books on the American Library Association's list of most frequently challenged books on Saturday, October 7, from 2:00-3:00pm. Celebrate the freedom to read with this special performance, the 18th annual edition of what City Lit calls "Books on the Chopping Block." Please note that some books featured are for teen readers, but excerpts may contain adult themes.

Finally, do you have books that are collecting dust and need a new home? The Oak Park Library is partnering with Open Books for a book collection drive. This organization is a Chicago nonprofit that provides books to thousands of readers each year through increased access, grants, book nooks, and bookstores. A permanent donation spot has been set up in the alley behind the Oak Park Library to collect gently used books for Open Books to distribute to neighboring low-income communities. Now with an established donation spot in Oak Park, the nonprofit hopes to increase donations and put more books into the hands of excited readers in local communities. Check your shelves!

Join the Oak Park-River Forest History Museum for a program that starts at 7:oopm on Thursday, October 5. Paula Fenza will discusses "Communities of the Dead: the Social Organization of Cemeteries." Paula Fenza is not only a local researcher but also an actress who usually appears in character on the annual Tale of the Tombstones tour in Forest Home Cemetery. 

Communities of the living are made up of people who occupy identifiable stations, occupations, and roles in life. People take pride in who they are and what roles they play in the community; the same is true of cemeteries. So what do tombstones say about residents of communities of the dead? Fenza will discuss different styles of tombstones and burial traditions found in cemeteries, with many examples from our local Forest Home Cemetery. Costs for Oak Park and River Forest residents are $5.00 and non-residents are $7.00.

Help get the National Popular Vote passed in Michigan (already passed in Illinois) in 2023!! Michigan has 15 electoral votes. Passing the bill gives us 220 of the necessary 270 votes to implement the National Popular Vote! Sign up with Common Cause to make calls requesting Michigan NPV supporters to ask their Speaker of the House to schedule a floor vote now. Here's the link.

Should the Electoral College be Eliminated? That is the focus of October’s Second Tuesday discussion on Tuesday, October 10, from 9:30-11:00am at the Oak Park Main Library. Reasons for elimination include swing states get all the attention and voter turnout in non-swing states is reduced. Does the Electoral College represent the will of the people? Arguments to keep the Electoral College will be dispelled, including that it encourages national campaigns and that the Electoral College is enshrined in the Constitution.

To help answer these questions, our presenter will be Joyce Williams, who is a member of the League of Women Voters of Chicago and a founding member of the Electoral College Committee of the Illinois League of Women Voters. This event is free and open to the public, so invite your friends.

Our first Drinks & Dialogue program of the year will present "Civility in Political Discussions" on Thursday, October 19 at 6:30pm at the Friendly Tap, 6733 Roosevelt Rd, Berwyn. Appetizers will be provided by the League with a cash bar.

Many believe that fighting to save our country begins with a ceasefire among our friends and family. Braver Angels is an organization that “brings conservatives and progressives together on equal terms to understand differences, find common ground where it exists, and help the country find a better way.” Chuck Stone, coordinator for Braver Angels Illinois, will be our speaker. He will discuss ways that we can bridge the partisan divide.

This discussion should provide an injection of hope into this polarized time. Stay and continue the conversation, as live music starts at 8:00pm, provided by Friendly Tap. Bring a friend!