The best gift of all is the gift of your time in meaningful presence with others.
These personal actions will combine toward making a restored, healthy planet. Supporting local businesses is better for the earth and the economy. Consider buying locally produced goods to help our small local businesses.

Toys: In a recent study at the University of Toledo, Ohio, researchers hypothesized that “an abundance of toys reduced the quality of toddlers’ play”, and that fewer toys will benefit children in the long-term.”

There is a significant advertising push for us to buy Christmas gifts early, due to supply chain issues. This is a perfect opportunity to re-consider our holiday traditions for gift giving. Consider buying gift cards for services, such as a massage or a restaurant meal.  When giving gifts, think about what the recipients need or something unexpected.  Perhaps a coupon for a night of babysitting, a coupon for yard work help, or maybe they need money to help pay bills.  A card with a note telling someone how important they are to you could be the best gift they receive. Orake a contribution to a charity and let your recipient know you made this as their Christmas gift.

SCARCE, located at 800 S. Rohlwing Rd. (Rt. 53) (Unit D) in Addison, has a vast selection of donated LPs for collectors of vinyl records-and at a significantly lower price than vinyl record stores. They also carry a large selection of donated DVDs and books curated by a volunteer librarian.

Start a tradition of playing gift bingo: Each person brings a wrapped gift (many in re-usable gift bags) and takes turns selecting them. These gifts could be anything from a jar of pickles or some grapefruits, to a book previously read. It is a fun way to spend the holiday and to give away things that you no longer wish to keep but that someone else could enjoy.

John Oliver is a national treasure. His Last Week Tonight is genuinely informative as well as hilarious (although if you absolutely can’t abide f-bombs, it’s not for you). And although the show is officially behind an HBO paywall, the “main story” each week is made available free on YouTube.

What I like best about the show is that the main story is a single-topic backgrounder or explainer, something we desperately need more of instead of merely “the news”. Oliver blends these with both topical humor and absurdly off-topic asides. Importantly, the topics include neglected issues as well as those related to current news. Some less predictable recent topics include Bankruptcy, Long-Term Care, Sponsored Content, Ransomware, Misinformation, and (quite seriously) Hair. Representing (perhaps) the nerd demographic, here is my recent favorite:

The show’s YouTube page also features shorter web exclusives which are mostly just silly, including everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about Duck Stamps.

Needless to add, highly recommended.

The new dues cycle has begun! As of November 1st of any year, dues payments are credited to the following year. For the first time in many years, we’ve increased our dues slightly. The new structure is:

Individual: $30

Household: $40

 Election Judge/Student/Senior/Disabled: $15

Renew here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ltdo2022

LTDO’s Third Annual (and second LIVE) Oktoberfest was a blowout! Everyone was required to be vaccinated and the weather cooperated permitting abundant ventilation of Alter Brewing’s spacious Barrel Room. Everyone was taking photos with everyone else, and if that ain’t a successful political event then I’m a Ferengi.

Your Lazy Editor did not have time to include more than a smattering of photos, but we’re planning a special Oktoberfest Edition. Want to see your photos in the mix? Please email them to photos@ltdo.org and include identifying information!

We have a big problem in our Democratic circles and I don’t what to do other than to shine a light on it and continue to focus on it as we barrel on to the 2022 election and beyond.  

Our Republican counterparts are outspending us 10 to 1 on good days and 50 to 1 on bad days. “Why?”, you ask. “Because they can”, is both the easy and the hard answer. They are the party of wealth, and for the wealthy, giving money to Republicans is a good investment.

We know we can out-campaign them on any given day on the ground because we are motivated and engaged.  But even ground games need money, and here we fall short time and time again. I know plenty of well-heeled democrats – why are so many so reluctant to pull out their wallets for local races?  How do we motivate them, educate them, encourage them to open their wallets as our opponents obviously have?  

I wish I had the answers.  But we need to start screaming these questions in order to shed the light on this problem.  We have every single seat in DuPage county up for election in 2022; we are currently seeking candidates to fill almost 50 seats in 2022.  These candidates will NOT come with any kind of a war chest; they will look to us, their township organizations, and the county for help.  Training and hand-holding are not enough —  they will need CASH. How are we going to provide it?

Let’s remove the taboos from politics and business — the Republicans seemingly have! Start talking about who and why you donate to with everyone. It’s easy to connect to your newly elected and engaged public officials and rewarding to see immediate results from your efforts when you get involved.