Call me cynical, but the timing of the English-only campaign in Carpentersville—leading up to the municipal elections—has had me thinking it was primarily a way to re-elect the two village trustees leading the fight.
I can identify a “wedge” issue when I see one.
Proponents Judith Sigwalt and Paul Humpfer won election.
So, if it was a campaign tactic, it was a good one.
The village president, Bill Sarto, a political opponent, called the new board majority’s bluff a couple of weeks ago by asking for a vote on the English-only ordinance his two opponents had introduced.
They demurred.
Now, they seem to have settled for a non-binding resolution, which passed 5-2.
In Springfield, resolutions are rarely worth the paper on which they are written.
In any event, Elgin’s Courier-News had the best headline of four I saw yesterday:
Nonbinding
English-only
goes before
C’Ville board
I assume the paper went to press before the resolution passed.
The Chicago Tribune’s story seemed least accurate:
Carpentersville Oks English-only law
Language ordinance
criticized by mayor
Here’s what the Northwest Herald thought the story was all about:
C’Ville goes English only
Village Board opts for declaratory resolution over ordinance
Finally, the Daily Herald’s headings:
Carpentersville makes English official
But measure in non-binding, so village business still will be multilingual
There was something in the Elgin reporter Ben Lefebvre’s article that I have never seen before. He actually used the word “left-wing” to describe leftwingers.
How about that?
Here’s how he described the Chicago demonstrators:
about 50 members of the left-wing, Chicago-based Emergency Response Network.
I guess you can see some of them in the Tribune’s photograph.
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