McHenry County Blog

OK. You got me.

It’s July 3rd.

And it wasn’t sweltering hot.  I found the shade most of the hour and a half 90-something entry parade.

The biggest political entry was Congressman Joe Walsh’s.

He followed Congressman Don Manzullo and his wife Freda, who rode in a convertible.

Between them was McHenry County Sheriff Keith Nygren.  If one did not recognize the Sheriff, one would not have known that he was in the parade.

Last year at parades there were Sheriff’s Department motorcyclists, a snow mobile, a community service vehicle, plus a convertible with identification signs on the sides in which the Sheriff rode.

There was an unmarked gray car that followed with a female officer. I’m not familiar enough with the patch she wore to know if she’s a Sheriff’s Deputy.

Can’t do a story without mentioning the Grand Marshall. After all she is the mother of McHenry County Board member Jim Heisler and Nunda Township Supervisor John Heisler.

Next came the Crystal Lake Lions huge flag. I only wish I had had a higher vantage point.

JA Frate’s Fallen Heroes semi-trailer paid appropriate honor to those who have defended our freedom.

Then the banner of Congressman Joe Walsh came down the hill.

A man with a bull horn said patriotic things.

Next came Congressman Walsh.  He was greeting people along the parade route, the only politician besides McHenry County State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi to do so.

What you see below was not an isolated occurrence.  A number of people made the effort to reach out to Congressman Walsh.

Parents seemed please that Walsh did not ignore the future voters.

Marching music was playing from Joe Walsh’s parade vehicle and a line of girls were marching to its beat.

Walsh saw them and stepped over to clap in time with them.

The Congressman who has had his 8th District reapportioned out from under him did not ignore the ladies of voting age.

Some women were as enthusiastic to see him as the men above.

A blue-shirted lady nearby was not to be outdone. She also grasped Walsh’s hands and told him something.

Walsh was not the only member of the family greeting voters.

His wife Helene was pressing the flesh, too.

The truck from which the sound was coming contained that part of a mariachi band that needed a stable platform.

Ever since I heard my first mariachi band in the 1960′s, I always wished I had enough money to hire them for parades.  He hired the Ranchitos.  I hope he does it for every parade.

But that wasn’t all I noticed in the Joe Walsh contingent.

One of the rejected applicants to replace State Rep. Mark Beaubien, Nick Sauer, introduced himself. Since I didn’t have a picture of him, you can bet I pushed the button.

The Barrington School Board member was waving an American Flag at the end of the Walsh group.

I also spotted past Crystal Lake City Council candidate Mike Shorten.  He is now a  Nunda Township precinct committeeman.

The next political entry was a bicycle ridden by a man displaying signs for McHenry County Board member Donna Kurtz. (She tells me she and her mother, former State Rep. Rosemary Kurtz, were in the parade, but my eyes must have been elsewhere.)

The only County Board member I saw at the parade was Nunda Township’s District 3 member Mary Donner.

Looking very much as if he will be a candidate in the 2012 elections was McHenry County State’s attorney Lou Bianchi.

The political entry was the PTLAG contingent.

The acronym is short for “Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.”  The group is a member of the coalition that convinced the Illinois General Assembly to enact the civil union legislation that took effect June 1st.

The next political group was the Jesse White Tumblers.

Before you get all bent out of shape, do remember that Secretary of State Jesse White did accompany his tumblers in one 4th of July Parade.

Coming near the end of the parade were the McHenry County Young Republicans.

McHenry County State Rep. and GOP Chairman Mike Tryon walked with the Young Republicans.

While State Rep. Mike Tryon marched with the Young Republicans, I didn’t see State Sen. Pam Althoff.

If newly picked State Rep. Kent Gaffney was in the contingent, I did not recognize him.

His new district will contain more votes in McHenry County than anywhere else.  About a third of Crystal Lake is in it.

A surprise addition was West Dundee Village Trustee Allen Skillicorn.

As I look at the contents of the photos, I see a delightful tee shirt.

It says,

“Honk if you hate red light cameras.“

That is relevant to McHenry County because Democrat Jack Franks was one of the sponsors of the bill to legalize this form of highway robbery.

And, although it has no political implications, the South Shore Drill Team brought up the rear of the parade.

The team was worth waiting for.

Almost forgot Crystal Lake’s politicians.

Mayor Aaron Shepley was not present, but City Clerk Nick Kachiroubas was.

So were two of the three women on the City Council, Ellen Brady Mueller and Cathy Ferguson.

And, finally, Councilman Ralph Dawson was seated comfortably in the back of a pickup truck.

Undoubtedly more people will attend the Illinois Minuteman meeting at Crystal Lake’s Holiday Inn on August 25th than would have otherwise because of Monday’s front page story in the Northwest Herald.

Topics which are hot get a lot of comments.

A letter to the editor about the Crystal Lake Gala 4th of July Parade entry from Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) ran up over 250 comments as of Tuesday night.

That’s over 11 days of comments. Most days it was in the top three articles or letters being commented upon and listed on the Northwest Herald’s web site front page.

From the ad the NW Herald is running on its web site, it is actively seeking “eyeballs.”

Pretty much anything that will draw people to its web site is fair game.

The paper has obviously found that homosexuality works.

Now, I guess its editors are willing to find out how hot the immigration issue is.

97 comments as of 10 PM Tuesday night.

For tickets, mail a $10 check made out to the Illinois Minuteman Project to P.O. Box 911, Skokie, IL 60076. For more information, call Illinois Minuteman Project Director Rosanna Pulido at 773-250-3399. Pulido is of Mexican heritage.

= = = = =
The summary and picture of what happened in Waukegan Monday night comes from the Chicago Sun-Times.

Undoubtedly more people will attend the Illinois Minuteman meeting at Crystal Lake’s Holiday Inn on August 25th than would have otherwise because of Monday’s front page story in the Northwest Herald.

Topics which are hot get a lot of comments.

A letter to the editor about the Crystal Lake Gala 4th of July Parade entry from Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) ran up over 250 comments as of Tuesday night.

That’s over 11 days of comments. Most days it was in the top three articles or letters being commented upon and listed on the Northwest Herald’s web site front page.

From the ad the NW Herald is running on its web site, it is actively seeking “eyeballs.”

Pretty much anything that will draw people to its web site is fair game.

The paper has obviously found that homosexuality works.

Now, I guess its editors are willing to find out how hot the immigration issue is.

97 comments as of 10 PM Tuesday night.

For tickets, mail a $10 check made out to the Illinois Minuteman Project to P.O. Box 911, Skokie, IL 60076. For more information, call Illinois Minuteman Project Director Rosanna Pulido at 773-250-3399. Pulido is of Mexican heritage.

= = = = =
The summary and picture of what happened in Waukegan Monday night comes from the Chicago Sun-Times.

As I read the Chicago papers early this week, I didn’t see any reference to the McHenry County Peace Group’s exclusion from Crystal Lake’s 4th of July Parade.

But it turns out that the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays participation in the Crystal Lake Gala Committee’s parade did merit a story, albeit in a homosexual and lesbian publication.

The Windy City Times published an article, complete with photos and links to even more.

The article was even by Tracy Baim—publisher of the Windy City Times.
It says that the march was inspired by last July 16th’s Gay Games Rowing Regatta.

A woman identified as a Catholic mother from Harvard, “who has a lesbian daughter (who lives in Oregon) and a gay and lesbian niece and nephew,” came up with the idea, “inspired by the visibility in the region caused by the Gay Games controversy,” the article says.

The woman, the article says, is driving the car in front of those walking.

Just as at the Gay Games, a Crystal Lake Police presence was noticeable, although I admit to not noticing it until after I looked at the pictures for this story.

While local police rode all sorts of conveyances at the Gay Games Regatta, here they were represented by a policeman on a bicycle.

There was a sign saying, “Come Walk with Us.” The Windy City Times says 15 joined the original 28 marchers.

One woman with a dog waved at me, but my photo of the dog is not nearly as good as the one at the Windy City Times web site.

In the same photograph can be seen a person carrying a sign saying, “We’re a PFLAG Family.”

I asked the woman holding the web site sign for the group to hold it up toward me so I could get a better picture. As you can see, she obliged.

After a little break in the flow, there next was a couple with multi- colored balloons. And another person pulling a little red wagon with balloons attached.

At the back of the group was a rainbow flag being carried, the article says, by her son, holding up one end and her daughter holding up the other end with one hand and her girlfriend’s hand with the other.

The article points out that the contingent was near the end of the parade.

It does not reveal that PFLAG was in front of a Living Waters Lutheran Church float.

And, lest you think PFLAG was at the very end of the parade, here’s what came after it:

• Living Waters Living Church,
• TLS Massage, Ltd.,
• Immanuel Lutheran Church’s marchers (featuring “Old Time Religion at the Pointe” and its elementary school),
• South Shore Drill of Chicago,
• American Taxi, and
• Prince of Peace Lutheran Church’s My Father’s Way Pre-School,

By the way, the two teens leading the Living Waters Lutheran Church contingent were not holding hands.

And, although the back of the church float did have multi-hued bunting, it was in red, white and blue.

One final observation.

The McHenry County Democratic Party Central Committee decided to boycott the parade because the McHenry County Peace Group had been banned for carrying some sign that the Gala Parade Committee decided broke its rules last year.

That, of course, did not mean that Democrats were not in the parade. I found a picture of a car with the license plate PFLAG 1 on the Windy City Times gallery of photos from this year’s parade. Its bumper stickers reminded me of those that were on the car most prominently parked in a handicapped parking space at the Main Beach the day of the Gay Games Regatta last year. John Kerry bumper stickers below their license plates.

It may be the same car with a different license plate and with some new bumper stickers. I wonder if last year’s had an “I (heart) Womyn” bumper sticker, as this year’s did.

All photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them.

As I read the Chicago papers early this week, I didn’t see any reference to the McHenry County Peace Group’s exclusion from Crystal Lake’s 4th of July Parade.

But it turns out that the Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays participation in the Crystal Lake Gala Committee’s parade did merit a story, albeit in a homosexual and lesbian publication.

The Windy City Times published an article, complete with photos and links to even more.

The article was even by Tracy Baim—publisher of the Windy City Times.
It says that the march was inspired by last July 16th’s Gay Games Rowing Regatta.

A woman identified as a Catholic mother from Harvard, “who has a lesbian daughter (who lives in Oregon) and a gay and lesbian niece and nephew,” came up with the idea, “inspired by the visibility in the region caused by the Gay Games controversy,” the article says.

The woman, the article says, is driving the car in front of those walking.

Just as at the Gay Games, a Crystal Lake Police presence was noticeable, although I admit to not noticing it until after I looked at the pictures for this story.

While local police rode all sorts of conveyances at the Gay Games Regatta, here they were represented by a policeman on a bicycle.

There was a sign saying, “Come Walk with Us.” The Windy City Times says 15 joined the original 28 marchers.

One woman with a dog waved at me, but my photo of the dog is not nearly as good as the one at the Windy City Times web site.

In the same photograph can be seen a person carrying a sign saying, “We’re a PFLAG Family.”

I asked the woman holding the web site sign for the group to hold it up toward me so I could get a better picture. As you can see, she obliged.

After a little break in the flow, there next was a couple with multi- colored balloons. And another person pulling a little red wagon with balloons attached.

At the back of the group was a rainbow flag being carried, the article says, by her son, holding up one end and her daughter holding up the other end with one hand and her girlfriend’s hand with the other.

The article points out that the contingent was near the end of the parade.

It does not reveal that PFLAG was in front of a Living Waters Lutheran Church float.

And, lest you think PFLAG was at the very end of the parade, here’s what came after it:

• Living Waters Living Church,
• TLS Massage, Ltd.,
• Immanuel Lutheran Church’s marchers (featuring “Old Time Religion at the Pointe” and its elementary school),
• South Shore Drill of Chicago,
• American Taxi, and
• Prince of Peace Lutheran Church’s My Father’s Way Pre-School,

By the way, the two teens leading the Living Waters Lutheran Church contingent were not holding hands.

And, although the back of the church float did have multi-hued bunting, it was in red, white and blue.

One final observation.

The McHenry County Democratic Party Central Committee decided to boycott the parade because the McHenry County Peace Group had been banned for carrying some sign that the Gala Parade Committee decided broke its rules last year.

That, of course, did not mean that Democrats were not in the parade. I found a picture of a car with the license plate PFLAG 1 on the Windy City Times gallery of photos from this year’s parade. Its bumper stickers reminded me of those that were on the car most prominently parked in a handicapped parking space at the Main Beach the day of the Gay Games Regatta last year. John Kerry bumper stickers below their license plates.

It may be the same car with a different license plate and with some new bumper stickers. I wonder if last year’s had an “I (heart) Womyn” bumper sticker, as this year’s did.

All photographs can be enlarged by clicking on them.