By: Diane Benjamin

Remember the Citizens Summit Normal held a few years ago and has ignored ever since?

That Summit was supposed to be by invitation only, eventually the public was allowed to participate. The opinions of the uninvited were supposed to be ignored, the consultant that ran the event is no longer a Town consultant after he stated all opinions matter.

The Town of Normal has a survey on their website concerning how the millions received from the Feds under the American Rescue Plan should be spent.

Click this link to start the survey: https://elucd.typeform.com/to/hE20nNP7?id=UMDCRYSNQGUJIJKYQFBWWHTFQVICEKKGCTXJCIRZAQJUFIWOVAZMMJAZCEIDCZKANYPEADUXMPFCNHNEHBOGGMGLKPPVXJMKPQGI&latitude=41.8781&longitude=-87.6297

You need to know a few things before you participate. After you choose from the multiple choice answers the Town wants personal information on you:

Zip Code

Age range

Sex

Race

Hispanic/Latino

Type of home you live in

Language you speak

Marital Status

Income level

Employment Status

This data will be used to reach the conclusions the “professional staff” want. They wouldn’t be asking for this data if it was not going to be used to screen out people who think sewage in basements should be a high priority. Spending the millions on streets will also be screened out.

The survey does allow you to skip questions. If you do that, likely all your answers will be screened out.

I wonder if “white privilege” is also being screened? If you are married, white, own your own home, are employed, and are male, are your answers going to be ignored?

Why else would they be asking the question?

If the Town of Normal didn’t have a history of ignoring citizens they don’t agree with the survey wouldn’t be a huge issue. Since they have that history they are suspect. The results will be FOIA’d.

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