A jewel for all seasons

Every day, thousands of people drive past, walk through, or gaze from windows at Oak Park’s beautiful-in-every-season, Jen-Jensen-designed Scoville Park.

At this time of year, with the trees leafless and long hours ofdarkness, the World War I monument, titled Peace Triumphant, stands out like a jewel, its luminescence enhanced by the summer’s professional cleaning.

In winter, Peace Triumphant’s smaller “jewels” are the seasonal lights entwining the lamp posts along the walkways. The park is a beautiful sight for a driver, a walker, or a window-gazer.

I am in all these groups, and as I drive, walk, and gaze, I’m grateful to the staf f members ofthe Park District ofOak Park for the beauty and enjoyment they provide.

Pundits like to call raising the debt limit a “par tisan” issue. Raising the debt limit simply means allo wing the U.S. Gover nment to pay debts it has already incurred. For example, we are still paying for Bush’s Iraq War. Paying your debt is not partisan; it is simply ethical behavior. It is ridiculous that the debt limit exists at all. However, the Re publican Pa rty, having failed to win a majority in the Senate or the Presidency, plans to exploit the debt limit to hold the American economy hostage. They want to force unpopular spending changes that they are unable to pass as le gitimate le gislation. This is precisely what they did in August 2011 after they took control of the House while lacking a majority in the Senate or the Presidency.

As the U.S. approached bankruptcy in 2011, Standard & Poor’s downg raded the U.S. credit rating for the first time ever [1]. In October 2013, Re publicans ang ry