Newsletter Articles

Jacqueline Herrera Giron for 9th Ward Alderman: A Tireless Advocate for Waukegan

April 2, 2015

By Eleonora di Liscia

Jacqueline Herrera Giron is the only Democrat running for 9^th Ward Alderman in Waukegan. She is passionate about her city. She loves Waukegan and is proud of the city she grew up in.

“When I think of Waukegan, I think of opportunities. This is where my parents decided to create their home, to have a better future for their children, for me as an immigrant. For me, it’s a place of opportunity and of hard work. I see potential. There are hardworking citizens who live and care for Waukegan. I see their children going to school and aspiring to the same dreams I did when I first set foot here,” she said.

Jacqueline is exceptionally well-qualified to serve Waukegan as an alderman. She joined her parents in Waukegan when she was seven years old and attended Lake Shore Catholic Academy and Waukegan East High School before graduating from Northern Illinois University. Then she taught first graders while attending law school at night, earning her law degree in 2003 from John Marshall Law School. After graduation, she worked in Chicago as an advocate for immigrant groups before returning to Waukegan.

Most recently, Jacqueline served as director of the Fr. Gary Graf Immigrant Center, Most Blessed Trinity Church. After ten years working for nonprofit organizations, she has now started her own immigration law practice in Waukegan.

“Waukegan is home for me, and I think when you love a place and you identify it as your home, you work for it in a different manner. You work for it with passion and respect, and you look out for its best interests. I think that’s important in the way you approach what you do for the city where you live,” Jacqueline said.

Jacqueline says she learned her Democratic values in Waukegan, as well as “how to be a volunteer, how to knock on doors to participate in democracy.” To that end, Jacqueline has volunteered at her church and at a local hospital. She has served on several nonprofit boards including Center for United Workers, United States Leadership Conference, and Lake County United. She now serves as president of the Waukegan Public Library Board and is proud that the library was recently awarded the National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Jacqueline is a proven leader. Her ten years of experience with nonprofits and her training as an attorney provide her with qualifications that neither the current City Council nor her opponents possess. Her nonprofit experience entailed scrutinizing budgets to cut expenses while maintaining services and creatively seeking new sources of funding. As an attorney, she can more readily interpret the codes and ordinances that the city enacts and find creative solutions to the city’s problems. Jacqueline also has the rare gift of bridging differences which would allow her to help the city council reach consensus on many of the difficult issues facing Waukegan. And as a Latina, Jacqueline understands the issues that affect the many minority groups in this diverse community.

If elected alderman, Jacqueline would focus on building the revenue base “because as homeowners we’re feeling the pain in our pocket because our taxes are going up. There needs to be more work in the development of Waukegan, especially in the 9th ward, so that businesses will come and stay for the long term and invest,” she said.

Jacqueline would also strive to foster the relationship between the city and the school board, in order to facilitate “graduating students at a higher percentage with the skills to attract more businesses and to have a good work force available,” she said.

Jacqueline also wants to make sure that budget priorities don’t threaten public safety. The city was recently forced to cut the neighborhood watch program.

Jacqueline Herrera Giron has the background, experience, and values that Waukegan needs in an alderman. If you can help elect Jacqueline Herrera Giron as 9^th Ward Alderman on April 7, you can contact her campaign at jacklynehegiron@gmail.com or visit her website at www.jackiefor9thward.com.

Translated into Spanish by Jacqueline Herrera Giron

Jacqueline Herrera Giron está postulándose para el Concilio del 9 distrito de Waukegan. Ella se apasiona por Waukegan y está muy orgullosa que se crio en esta ciudad.

Jacqueline dice, “Cuando pienso en Waukegan, pienso en las oportunidades. Este lugar es adonde mis padres crearon su hogar, para un mejor futuro por sus hijos, y yo como inmigrante. Este lugar significa oportunidad y trabajar duro. Yo veo potencial. Aquí hay muchas personas trabajadoras que viven y se preocupan por Waukegan. Yo veo a sus hijos que van a la escuela y aspiran a los mismos sueños que yo tuvo cuando puse un pie en este país.”

Jacqueline es muy calificada y una líder excepcional para ser concejal de Waukegan. Ella se reunió con sus padres en Waukegan a la edad de siete años. Asistió a Lake Shore Catholic Academy y Waukegan East High School antes de graduar de Northern Illinois University. Después fue maestra de primer grado cuando estudiaba derecho por la noche y se graduó como abogada de John Marshall Law School en 2003. Después trabajo duro como defensora de inmigrantes en Chicago antes de regresar a Waukegan.

Recientemente, Jacqueline fue directora del Centro Padre Gary Graf, de la Iglesia Santísima Trinidad. Ahora después de 10 años trabajando para organizaciones sin fin de lucro a abierto su oficina para ejercer leyes de inmigración.

Jacqueline nos dice “Waukegan es mi hogar, y creo que cuando amas algo trabajas para ello en una manera diferente y con mucho amor y respeto. Buscas el mejor interés para la comunidad porque lo quieres.”

Jacqueline dice que ella aprendió sus valores Democráticos en Waukegan, y también “como ser voluntaria, ayudar al prójimo y participar cívicamente en la democracia.” Jacqueline ha sido voluntaria de su iglesia, y comunidad. Ella ha participado en muchas organizaciones sin fin de lucro como Centro de Trabajadores Unidos, United States Leadership Conference, and Lake County United. Ahora es presidenta de la mesa ejecutiva de La Biblioteca de Waukegan y está muy orgullosa de su conocimiento por recibir la Medalla Nacional para Bibliotecas y Museos un mérito reconocido por la casa blanca.

Jacqueline ha probado ser una gran líder en nuestra comunidad. Sus 10 años de experiencia con organizaciones sin fines de lucro y su entrenamiento como abogada demuestra que Jacqueline posee las cualificaciones que necesita el concilió de la ciudad y que no tienen sus contrincantes. Su trabajo requería que ella detallada mente examinara los presupuestos y cortar gastos y al mismo tiempo mantener los servicios y creativamente buscar recursos para mantener los programas. Como abogada, ella puede interpretar códigos y ordenanzas que la ciudad implemente y buscar soluciones creativas para los problemas de la ciudad.

Jacqueline también posee un don de crear puentes cuando hay diferencias que le permitirán ayudar al concilio obtener consenso cuando la ciudad se enfrenta con decisiones difíciles. Jacqueline como Latina entiende los problemas que le afectan a una comunidad de minorías y tan diversa.

Si eligen a Jacqueline para el concilio ella se enfocara en buscar recursos para incrementar los ingresos “porque como dueña de casa yo también siento el dolor en mi bolsa cuando los impuestos suben.” Es necesario trabajar para tener más desarrolló en Waukegan, especialmente en el distrito 9 para que los negocios puedan invertir en nuestra comunidad por el largo plazo.

Jacqueline fomentara relaciones con la ciudad y la mesa ejecutiva escolar, dice que “a si todos trabajan para que haya un porcentaje alto de graduados a si poder atraer más negocios y tener trabajadores con habilidades disponibles.”

Jacqueline quiere asegurarse que las prioridades del presupuesto no ponen en peligro la seguridad del público. Ya que la ciudad acaba de cortar el programa comunitario de la policía.

Jacqueline Herrera Giron tiene la experiencia y los valores que Waukegan necesita en un concejal. Si tú puedes ayudar a elegir a Jacqueline Herrera Giron para Concejal del 9 distrito tu puedes contactar a su campana por correo electrónico a jacklynehegiron@gmail.com o su página web a www.jackiefor9thward.com.

All You Need Is Love…and Tenth Dems

March 10, 2015

Newsletter Articles

By Lisa Radin

When I think of Tenth Dems, The Beatles come to mind — they both rock. We work All Together Now, and I’m proud to be a member. That’s why I’m inviting you to Come Together right now and join the most dynamic grassroots political group around. From Me to You, Tenth Dems provides a very personal link to local and national politics. I’ve learned so much as a Tenth Dems member, and I’ve also met an extraordinary number of interesting and smart folks – a lot more than four fabulous people.

An individual can join, or renew membership, for 2015 for only $35. It’s $60 for a couple and $100 at the Supporter level. We have just moved one of our offices and have more costs than usual to deal with. Every dollar helps!

Illinois’ 10th Congressional District contains portions of both Lake and Cook Counties. We’re Here, There and Everywhere, from Glencoe to Zion, from Des Plaines to Fox Lake, from Lake Michigan to Libertyville. To maintain such a presence, we need your support.

You might be saying to yourself, “Tell Me Why I should become a member of Tenth Dems.” Well, Because. The Long and Winding Road to electing Democrats to local, state, and national office is not easy. Eight Days a Week, Tenth Dems volunteers perform essential tasks, including making phone calls, preparing mailings to voters, and going door-to-door with candidates. Members also write for our newsletter, organize issue forums, work on our website, coordinate our intern program, and serve as our liaison to other Democratic groups that share our political values.

Do You Want to Know a Secret? We know who The Fool on the Hill is, but we can’t just Let It Be. Before the next election,Tenth Dems needs to educate voters across the district about the important issues and the candidates’ records. Our grassroots efforts have been critical to electing Democrats throughout the 10th District and we’re ready to do it again in 2016.

So Help! Sign up today for a 2015 membership. With a Little Help From My Friends, neighbors, and fellow Democratic volunteers, we can help Tenth Dems continue its important work and make Republican control a thing of Yesterday.

For more information about Tenth Dems, go to tenthdems.org, email contribute@tenthdems.org, or call 847-266-VOTE (8683).

Thank you for your support.

A Morning at the Job Interview Workshop

March 9, 2015

Newsletter Articles, Updates

By Dave DuBordieu

For more than five years, Tenth Dems Community Connection volunteers have been facilitating a monthly job interview workshop in conjunction with Waukegan Township’s anti-recidivism efforts. In 2014 the workshop was expanded to include a short unit on job retention. In the following essay, the workshop’s newest volunteer facilitator describes his typical day at the workshop.

After driving up Sheridan Road, winding through the verdant ravines and past the luxurious mansions of Lake Forest, through the picturesque little village of Lake Bluff, beyond the bucolic Crab Tree Farm, and along the woods and fields of the Shore Acres Country Club, the contrast to the rough-and-tumble industrial urban streets of North Chicago and Waukegan is striking. Entering into the nicely furnished conference room at the Waukegan Township Supervisor’s Office feels like a return to a comfortable and typical business setting for a white, middle-class guy. However, as the attendees for the workshop file in, one is instantly reminded of the challenges facing the people outside these walls. Instead of contemplating the nuances of subtle corporate politics in the interview process, we acknowledge the one question of most concern to so many in the room: How do I deal with the felony conviction in my background?

As we begin, the feeling of despair and futility in the room is palpable. Long stares, heads down, dejected and feeling forced to attend, our students sit and wonder what will come next. This is clearly our mission then: to address this mood, to build up these spirits, to unfold these wings, and to get these birds to fly boldly, facing into the wind.

With an odd mixture of school marm and stand-up comic, we proceed through a guided morale-building session. First the school marm: “Sit up straight during the interview! Look people in the eye! Don’t fidget! No gum chewing! No cellphones!” Then the comic: “Smile! I want to see your teeth!” Pointing, “I don’t see any teeth there!” Somebody starts giggling, and it becomes spontaneous. Then it’s on through the details.

We have 10 pages of material to cover, and only an hour to do it, because then we need to get into the Job Retention Workshop, and only have a half hour for that. But before we start anything, we need to get the elephant out of the room. “Who has a felony conviction? Raise your hand.” Three quarters of them do. Then we discuss the critical importance of developing a collection of excellent references—your pastor, a previous employer, a public official—anyone who will vouch that you are a changed person, and of building a resume that backs up that assertion.

Then it’s on to sales training. After all, as we point out, you are all now salespeople, and the product you are selling is yourself. Now here’s how to do it. Line by line we go through it: preparation ahead of time, studying the company, knowing exactly how to get there so you won’t be late, how to smile and make eye contact, getting a business card, repeating the interviewer’s name, knowing what you will say to every question that might be asked, asking knowledgeable and relevant questions, smiling and shaking hands on the way out, and appearing likeable the whole way in and out of the building, a joyful sprite everyone wants to work with. By this time, there is usually quite a bit of smiling and guffawing going on. People are starting to understand they are putting on a show when they go in for an interview, and that they want to become consummate actors in its presentation. And then the icing on the cake: a follow-up thank-you letter.

Then we talk the numbers game: it’s like fishing. You don’t expect to reel in a fish the first time you cast your line. You have to keep tossing it back out, over and over. Since you have one chance in a hundred of getting a job at a given interview, the answer is simple: Go out to a hundred interviews. Then you’ll get that one job. Got a felony conviction? Maybe the other candidates do, too. Do a better interview, and you’ll get the job. Twenty other people interviewed? How many of them were joyful sprites in the office and sent a thank-you note afterwards?

Then we talk about practicing. The handout we have given you is your bible. Study it. Learn it. Practice it – over and over, and over again, at home, with your best friend, spouse, or grandmother, whoever is available. Get all your lines down so they just flow out without you even thinking about it. When you come back from an interview grade yourself against it. What did you do well, and where do you need to improve? We remind them each interview is primarily an opportunity to get better at interviewing. The first one will be horrible. By the time you’ve done 99 you will be a past master at it, and on the 100th you will be so excellent at doing it you will be a shoo-in.

So that is our attempt to motivate. The students always seem much different on the way out: smiling, looking each other and us in the eye, shaking hands, chatting about their plans, and clutching their newly-found batch of directives, off to face those buffeting winds on the outside.

Stand United in the Pursuit of Peace

March 8, 2015

Newsletter Articles

By Karim Pakravan

In his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama reminded us of the importance of the current P5+1 negotiations with Iran on that country’s nuclear program. Yet, hardliners in the U.S. Congress are seeking to derail these negotiations by passing legislation that would threaten new sanctions on Iran. Furthermore, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a cosponsor with Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) of the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2015, shamefully went as far as stating that the President’s comments on Iran sounded like Iranian talking points.

Let’s review the facts: years of negotiations between the P5+1 (the five Permanent members of the UN Security Council—the U.S., Russia, China, France and the UK—plus Germany) finally resulted in an interim accord in November 2013. This Joint Plan of Action (JPA) effectively froze Iran’s nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of fissile material in exchange for limited removal of some economic sanctions. Despite the failure to reach an agreement last November, the JPA has been extended while talks continue. While crippling economic sanctions were an important factor in bringing Iran to the negotiating table, Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani seems also to genuinely want to reintegrate Iran into the global community.

There is no doubt that Iran’s regime is a repressive theocracy that sponsors terrorism worldwide and has a long record of enmity towards the United States and Israel. But we should also consider that Iran is a vibrant and dynamic country of 70 million people, 70 percent of whom are under the age of 30. It is a highly educated population that is the most pro-Western and pro-American in the region. Despite years of repression, the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people remain alive, and this is precisely why Iran’s hard-liners fear an agreement with the West.

Opponents of the current talks claim that they want a deal that will shut down Iran’s nuclear program. However, they deliberately ignore history. No diplomatic agreement can be perfect. Since the 1960s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a number of important treaties in which each side compromised. The key to the implementation of these treaties is verification—to quote the late President Ronald Reagan, “Trust, but verify.” An agreement that severely limits Iran’s nuclear enrichment program and transforms existing and future stockpiles of enriched uranium to uranium rods or ships them to a third party will be the best insurance against any putative path to an Iranian nuclear bomb. The key is once again a strict verification program. Moreover, the reintegration of Iran in the global body politic and economy will empower the forces of moderation, energize Iran’s private sector, and give renewed hope for progress towards democracy to the country’s buoyant civil society.

The alternative to an agreement is not the status quo, but an unraveling of the coalition that America has spearheaded, the empowering of Iran’s hardliners, and ultimately, military conflict. As an Iranian-American, I do not want to see war between my country of birth and my adopted country, both of which I deeply love. Neither do the American people.

Paradoxically, it is those who here or abroad oppose negotiations who are doing the bidding of Iran’s hard-liners, who also oppose any nuclear agreement with the United States and who want nothing more than isolation and conflict. In fact, they have proposed legislation in the Iranian Parliament that would, effectively, achieve the same purpose as the Kirk-Menendez bill—kill the deal. The same people who brought us the Iraq war want to bring us another conflict—remember the neo-con mantra in 2003: “Real men go to Tehran.”
Fortunately, cooler heads have prevailed—for the time being. Only eight Democratic senators are co-sponsoring the Kirk-Menendez sanctions proposal, and they do not want a vote until negotiations have concluded. The Republicans in the U.S. Congress overplayed their hand when Speaker John Boehner brazenly invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on the Iran issue without consulting the White House or his Democratic colleagues. The indignation that arose from this clearly intended disrespectful act has forced increased sanctions supporters to back off on introducing legislation until March 24^th. In any case, President Obama has repeatedly said that he would veto any such legislation.

Conditions for an agreement are here, and the collapse in oil prices has significantly increased pressure on Iran’s beleaguered economy. A good and lasting agreement is one that puts verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear program, one that is enforceable and one with which both sides can live in the long term. It is urgent that Democrats unite at all levels to support President Obama’s diplomatic initiative. The alternative is unthinkable.

Karim Pakravan is an Iranian-American academic living in the 10^th Congressional District and a national board member for the National Iranian American Council.

If Marriage Equality Can Happen In Alabama, the Writing Is Clearly On the Wall

March 5, 2015

Newsletter Articles

by Steven Gan

On Monday, February 9, 2015, solemnization of same-sex marriages commenced in Alabama. Regretfully, some of the jubilation that erupted from this momentous occasion was muted by the actions of Republican Judge Roy Moore, Chief Justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court.

Let me give you a little background on marriage equality in Alabama.

In 2005, the Alabama state legislature passed a bill that allowed the state’s residents to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban all forms of family status for same-sex couples. The amendment passed, cementing clearly discriminatory language into official state policy.

The next year, in June 2006, anti-gay forces in Alabama pushed through a constitutional amendment, the so-called Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment, which excluded same-sex couples from marriage and barred them from attaining any other form of family status. Among other things, the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment prohibited two adults of the same sex from adopting a child together.

Fast-forward to 2015. On January 23, U.S. District Court Judge Callie V. S. Granade struck down the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment to the Alabama constitution as inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of due process and equal protection of law. The successful plaintiffs, two women who were legally wed in California, sued when Alabama authorities relied on the state constitution to deny the petition of one spouse to adopt her spouse’s biological child. Then, on January 27, in a separate case brought by an unmarried same-sex couple who wished to marry in Alabama, Judge Granade struck down altogether the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Shortly thereafter, on February 9, 2015, after the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court declined state officials’ requests for a stay of these rulings, same-sex marriages got off to a very rocky start in Alabama. In response, Judge Moore took the outrageous step of telling Alabama probate judges that they were not bound by Federal Judge Granade’s rulings. Judge Moore instructed the probate judges to continue to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He insisted that any probate judge who issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples would be in violation of Alabama’s state constitution.

Fortunately, within a few days several probate judges saw past Judge Moore’s ignorance, bigotry, and muddled strategy, and judges in 51 of the state’s 67 counties, covering 86 percent of Alabama’s population, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In some of the other counties, officials who felt obliged to follow Judge Moore’s order to withhold marriage licenses from same-sex couples simply stopped issuing any marriage licenses at all.

Now, while I was following the day-to-day developments of marriage equality in Alabama, I watched a couple of television interviews. The one that fascinated me the most was CNN’s Chris Cuomo’s interview of Judge Moore.

As I watched Chris Cuomo try to grapple with Judge Moore’s justification for telling probate judges not to follow Judge Granade’s rulings, I kept thinking to myself, “You can’t argue with a fool!” Judge Moore kept coming up with new theories to defend his position. He first asserted that Judge Granade’s rulings, as a Federal judge, had no priority over Alabama’s state laws. Next, he claimed that our laws are made by God and no one has the power to change our God-given laws, even those created by the Alabama legislature. By the time I finished watching the over 20-minute interview, I was not only thoroughly confused by his logic but also realized how dangerous this Judge Moore is. That he could rock the justice system’s boat the way he has, and still receive the support of many Alabamians, suggests how far Alabama still has to go in dealing with civil rights.

Sadly, this is not the first time for Judge Moore to impose his theological interpretation on American law. In 2003, during his first term as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, he refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments (which he had commissioned) from the Alabama Judicial Building, despite orders to do so from a federal judge. On November 13, 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed Moore from his post as Chief Justice.

The other interview that stood out for me was one with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who said the following about same-sex marriage: “The change in people’s attitudes on that issue has been enormous. In recent years, people have said, ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and we discovered it’s our next-door neighbor—we’re very fond of them. Or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that ‘this is who I am,’ the rest of us recognized that they are one of us.”

It was very reassuring when the United States Supreme Court refused to stay Judge Granade’s rulings.

With Justice Ginsburg’s words in mind, I believe the national marriage equality wedding bells will be ringing

very soon.