My compliments to you and Indivisible (Invisible?) LaGrange/LaGrange Park for the “expose” you did on Tim Vlcek, a candidate for Lyons Township High School District 204 school board (“LTHS board candidate attended Awake Illinois workshop in Jan., News, March 1). It was brilliant, something you might expect out of Pravda.
As you wrote, Mr. Vleck is associated with “Awake Illinois” And as you put it (with my comments inserted in parentheses):
“Awake Illinois is a Naperville-based organization that got its start opposing mask mandates (now apparently deemed worthless) in schools and describes itself as a “parental rights” group (why the quotation marks?)
It is a vocal critic of newer approaches of teaching about gender (72 varieties and counting), sexuality (Queer Theory) and race (Critical Race Theory) and other hot-button issues in schools (i.e., a parent’s rights to know the curriculum being taught to their children). It stands for traditional values and its critics (Critics? Who?) describe it as anti-LGTBQ+.
Of course, the genesis of your article was largely derived from an anonymous email from the “Indivisible LaGrange/LaGrange Park” … ”a left-leaning pro-Democratic Party group” (some might call it “woke” or Socialist or even worst).
“Candidate Tim Vlcek’s anti-teacher and anti-LGBTQIA social media posts reflect Awake’s values, and Indivisible vehemently and absolutely disavows these positions,” the statement said in part. “Any candidate that espouses these positions — and/or any candidate that allows themselves to be aligned with candidates that spout these positions — is not fit to be on any school board.”
Hmmm? If the anonymous Indivisible LaGrange/LaGrange Park said so it must surely carry some weight. So much so that you should give this group a weekly opinion column like the Kosey Corner. They could call it the “Indivisible LaGrange/LaGrange Park Neighborhood Watch. Here they could provide the names, addresses, places of work, even telephone numbers of all those who disagree with their political views.
Of course, the “Indivisibles” must maintain their anonymity, so they need a pseudonym, a nom de guerre, so to speak. I suggest they sign off as “Madam Defarge” as in Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”
Anyway Mr. Skolnik this was a very eye-opening article, not only on Mr. Vleck, but also on the evolution of the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark, and perhaps the current state of “journalism” in general. Thanks for hearing me out and I hope that like in Dickens novel you and I don’t meet in a cart somewhere on our way to the guillotine compliments of the Indivisible LaGrange/LaGrange Park.
Bill Marszalec, North Riverside
