Northwest Herald / NWHerald.com • Saturday, February 13, 2016
28
OPINIONS
Kate Weber Publisher
Dan McCaleb Editorial Director
Jason Schaumburg Editor
THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN
Heroin abuse continues terror The Northwest Herald Editorial Board offers this week’s thumbs up and thumbs down: Thumbs down: To the increasing problem of heroin abuse in McHenry County. Two Crystal Lake men died of heroin overdoses three days apart this month. Crystal Lake police have brought charges in both deaths. Heroin and opiate abuse has been on the rise in the suburbs. McHenry County data dating back to 2008 shows 79 percent of overdoses were related to opiates and 44 percent related to heroin. The data shows heroin use is not limited to the fringe of society, as it once was perceived. The average age of the McHenry County residents who have died from a heroin overdose is 33, but there have been teens as young as 17 who have lost their lives. The oldest was 69, according to coroner’s data. Thumbs up: To students from Marian Central, Prairie Ridge and Barrington high schools who earned first-place finishes in the 2016 McHenry County College Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering competition. Kudos to the college and all area students who participated. It’s great preparation for college and good-paying career fields. Thumbs up: To the fourth- and fifth-grade student council members at Coventry Elementary. The students pick a service project to benefit their community every month. For February, they delivered Valentine’s Day cards to seniors at Bickford Senior Living Center in Crystal Lake. Thumbs down: To McHenry County-area service clubs losing members. Lions Clubs from all over McHenry County have struggled to grow membership in recent years, and if the trend continues, the county could end up losing valuable volunteer work. Thumbs up: To On Angel Wings Pet Rescue for the work it does with local pets who are in need of assistance, notably the recent case of 5-year-old shih tzu-mix Meeko, who hadn’t had its fur cut in three years before a recent emergency makeover. Now, after a cut from a groomer at Paws on Pingree, the dog is ready for adoption.
THEY SAID IT “I served alongside Barack Obama in the state Senate and have attempted to work with him during my time in Congress. One thing in particular I’ve noticed about the president is his utter incapacity to be reflective about the weaknesses of his worldview.” – Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam
THE FIRST
AMENDMENT
ANOTHER VIEW
Washington can bring end to voter anger Democratic and Republican party elites have found common ground: panic over what happened Tuesday in New Hampshire. For an antidote to their anxiety, they might consider changing the way they do business in Washington. Voters in both major parties are demanding something, anything different from the dreary gridlock and acrimony they’ve known for much of the past decade. Yet Washington appears impervious to the tremors rattling the presidential campaign. President Barack Obama presented his $4.1 trillion budget to Congress on Tuesday, where it was met with the usual verdict: dead on arrival. The budget, which fleshes out Democratic priorities, is largely a symbolic exercise, since the
White House and Congress struck a two-year spending deal last fall. Republicans are struggling to produce their own budget, and they seem unlikely to realize the dream of returning to an orderly appropriations process. True, there will be no government shutdown, which is something to be grateful for. But it’s hard to find much solace in Washington’s stasis. As usual, Washington’s perpetual antagonists appear to have agreed not to cooperate. Curiously enough, comity was a main theme of the speech Obama delivered to the Illinois state Legislature on Wednesday. “There are a lot of good proposals out there, and we have to work to find ones that can gain some bipartisan support,” he said. In fact, Obama and congres-
sional leaders have shown the capacity to find common ground when it suits them – as they did last fall when the spending deal came together. Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan, taken at their word, actually have more than a few issues on which they appear to have areas of agreement: criminal justice reform, drug addiction treatment, poverty, trade, vocational training, visas for highly skilled workers, even tax reform. If mainstream politicians of both parties are truly alarmed by the rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, and the vague and troubling-isms that each represents, they can address the root cause and actually do something to blunt the insurgents’ advance: Make Washington work better.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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