Sound Off: It's not a holiday if you're working
The following is what our readers sounded off about this week:
Happy holidays?
I'm outraged. Why do you call Thanksgiving a holiday? Why do you call any holiday a holiday anymore, when employees of stores are forced to work, on Thanksgiving Day in the evening and all through the night? And they cannot be home with families or friends because if they don't show up for work, they will lose their jobs. What happened to a holiday? This is ridiculous. I can't understand what is wrong with all our people anymore. A holiday is a holiday, and stores should be closed, period, until the next day. Whether you open the next day after Thanksgiving at 9 o'clock in the morning, they'll still be there. Stores are getting too greedy, and they're demanding too much on their poor employees who have to give up their time with family and friends. Years, ago on Sunday, no stores were open. That was a day of rest and a day to enjoy your family. Nowadays, well, we've got to be open around the clock. Well, this is getting to be too ridiculous, and I am not shopping on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and I'm not shopping even Saturday. Because all of these stores, I am not going to honor. I will do my shopping during the week, next week, as always. Thanksgiving is a holiday. We should honor any of our holidays, whether it be Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day – they're holidays. Let the people enjoy and be with their families.
Disappointing mall
What a disappointment with the Charlestowne Mall. When the new owners took over a year ago, I thought by now, within a year, we would see some improvements – new stores, a coffee shop in there. Now that the holidays are coming, I guess it's back to Stratford Mall, which is actually very close for us. My kids like to go there. I don't know what the stall is. And now they're having a farmer's market on Sunday. That's not going to bring any business. There's a leasing department in there. That's all that they could come up with? I hope that the Charlestowne Mall does turn around soon. It's a shame. It's nice and warm inside, and there's nice stores, but they need more stores. Come on, Charlestowne Mall, get on the ball.
A complete farce
I was disappointed to read in the paper that the widening project at Fabyan and Randall is not going to be completed now until 2012. It seems that a relatively simple widening project has turned into a complete farce. I think the Kane County Department of Transportation should be embarrassed about this job. And I think whoever was managing this project should be replaced.
A do-nothing president
When President Obama was elected, he promised change and transparency in federal government. Since his arrival in office, the transparency has turned into mud, his lack of leadership has caused Congress to distrust each other. Therefore, nothing gets done. Every time Obama speaks, he blames the GOP, even though the Senate Democrats have not passed a budget in three years. With the debt-ceiling commission failing, where is Obama? Obama is where he has been during his entire time as president – earning frequent-flier miles on Air Force One and not leading the United States. The United States does not have a do-nothing Congress. We have a do-nothing president.
Giving thanks
A big thank you to the wonderful person who sent us in the two Thanksgiving dinners. They were very delicious, and I just wish we knew who to thank.
It's not fair
I knew it was coming, but when I saw the article in Friday's Chronicle about District 303 grabbing more property taxes from homeowners, I couldn't finish eating my cereal. I truly believe that school administrators are from another planet because they obviously are not aware that many homeowners have lost jobs, have had huge pay cuts and are very close to having to sell their homes due to the exorbitant taxes. Yes, Mr. Cauffman, we homeowners have the misconception that if our property values drop, our taxes should go down. How foolish of us to think that our government and its schools are fair.
The wrong Keith Urban
My mother-in-law received an email stating Keith Urban would be at the Sears Centre just outside of Chicago to drop the ceremonial puck for the County Night at the Chicago Express Hockey game. U.S. 99.5, the Chicago country station, was sponsoring the evening. I bought tickets for my wife, my mother- and father-in-law and me to all go to see Keith. We did not care about the game itself. We wanted to see Keith before the big operation on his vocal chords as we are big supporters of his music. Once we found our seats and got prepared for the big drop, we found out it was a big joke and it was supposedly some "other Keith Urban." I tried to discuss this with the Sears Centre staff and US99 and they just laughed and said I should have read the press release. Who reads a press release before attending an event? I understand you cannot do anything about it, but I feel KU should know how his name is being played to try to gain false revenue.
Beautification? Now?
To push beautification at a time when our country is in economic turmoil and there is so much suffering is criminal. The mayor looks out of the windows in his affluent neighborhood and says, suffering, I don't see any suffering, and continues with his beautification programs with taxpayer money. Why should he worry? It's obvious he gets his three square meals a day.
Feeling left out
We have never expected that since moving to the St. Charles area, that we would be so disappointed. The people just around here are where you're from, what profession are you and things of that nature. They talk about their country clubs, their kids that are making A grades, and all that. Even the church that we belong to, a Catholic church, it's the same difference there. I'm so disappointed since we've moved here. I am so glad that we don't have any kids that go to schools because they would get the same thing as what we have from our neighbors. We feel like outsiders here. We are good people. We pay real estate taxes and everything and donate to the church and the blood drive and everything like that. But this is how it is. I realize not all people are like that. But this is what we're coming across. We're sorry we moved here. We would not recommend for anybody to move to St. Charles. Yes, it's family-oriented, but we're just the two of us. I'm glad we have each other because out here, there's nothing.
• You can sound off, as well, by calling our Sound Off line at 630-845-5240 or by sending an e-mail to soundoff@kcchronicle.com.
