By: Diane Benjamin

1)

The smoke from Canada is back:

2)

The company Bloomington hired to do the $750,000 downtown study is all in on DEI. https://www.cmtengr.com/dei/

The report is due in August. The City keeps using recommendations from old outdated reports like Bring It On Bloomington and the Downtown Bloomington Task Force. How many decades will citizens tolerate your tax dollars being used to make downtown a destination? Unless you are in court or going to a bar it never will be.

This DEI study will evidently only include the opinions of stakeholders – not the people forced to fund it.

3)

Committee of the Whole this Monday is cancelled. Yea.

4)

If you missed the press conference in Springfield this week with the 16 year old swimmer who encountered men in the ladies locker room at the YMCA there and was then forced off her swim team because she objected (actually terrified), you need to watch it. Abbigail Wheeler is her name. Her older sister is also a swimmer at the college level, she was forced to share a locker room with Lia Thomas.

I hope you subscribed to Jeanne Ives newsletter. A recap of the event is included this week.

The video is on the Illinois Freedom Caucus Facebook page. They also have a summary on their website: https://illinoisfreedomcaucus.org/il-freedom-caucus-springfield-ymca-succumbs-to-woke-ideology-by-targeting-abbigail-wheeler-for-taking-a-stand-for-truth/

Here’s another story with some video: https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/teens-protest-against-illinois-ymca-locker-room-policy-gains-national-attention/

Abbigail was very emotional when she spoke. Her father also spoke. The Human Rights law does NOT apply to private organizations who can set their own rules on bathroom use. Springfield has family restrooms trans people can use. The men in Springfield claim they are female and can use the female facilities.

What about Bloomington’s new YMCA? They also have family restrooms anyone can use. There are mothers who refuse to use them and instead bring their young sons in the women’s changing room. They should obviously be using the family changing rooms since older women don’t appreciate being stared at. So far I’ve heard no reports of anything worse happening in Bloomington. Anyone?

Biological females of all ages deserve privacy and safety. They deserve their own space. Stand with them! Common sense used to say there are two genders and one can’t be changed to the other. Restore common sense.

5)

If you missed this WGLT interview with Chris Koos, Trail East and West are now dead. https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2023-07-06/normal-studying-homeless-issues-in-uptown

Koos should be thanking his lucky stars the buildings were never built because they would be mostly empty now along with others in Uptown. Has construction started yet on the first floor of 1 Uptown Circle? If Koos going to subsidize more luxury housing?

Uptown now has a homeless problem that could get a lot worse when the underpass is built. Maybe it will be better lit than the streets so people don’t want to sleep there. The next time one of the local leaders calls themselves a progressive, ask them what they are progressing to. It isn’t freedom.

6)

Have you noticed I haven’t been writing as much as usual? I adore working outside in my yard and doing the flowerbeds at church. Mornings are much cooler so I can’t wait to get outside. Hours later I don’t feel like writing. I can’t go outside today because of the smoke. On the bright side my yard is in full bloom and I’ve completed some re-landscaping projects. Too much fun and I’m very grateful for the rain.