I'm in DuPage County. And if you are familiar with Illinois, DuPage County is probably not what comes to mind when you think about progressive activism.
There's a story my father tells. It might be apocryphal, but he insists it's true. He moved to DuPage county from Youngstown, Ohio, in 1958. Originally from a steel town just west of Pittsburgh, he'd gotten a bunch of degrees (thanks to the GI Bill), including one in optometry and a masters in electrical engineering. Having decided practicing optometry was not how he wanted to spend his days, he got a job with Westinghouse, then located in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. At the same time, he'd acquired a wife, a recently widowed woman with two young children, also from the same small town outside of Pittsburgh. She wanted a yard and was intimidated by city driving and city life, so they found a place 18 miles west of Chicago that had, not too many years before, been a pig farm. It was now subdivided and ready for building - single family homes, of course. None of the suburbs were allowing apartment buildings to be constructed. And we all know why.
So he built a home, a four bedroom brick ranch house. And one day, he went to register to vote. Now in the suburb I grew up in, diversity was the option to get pistachio ice cream at the local shop in addition to chocolate, vanilla or strawberry. There were two religions, Lutheran or Catholic. People had heard of Baptists but they would have to meet elsewhere. Likewise the Methodists and Presbytarians. As for those "other" religions, well, not worth mentioning. And so my father, the Only Jew in Roselle, showed up at the local polling place and asked for a - Democratic primary ballot. (or so the story goes....) Like the Baptists, the poll workers had heard of Democrats, they'd just never seen one wander in before. They had to send to another precinct for his ballot.
Have things changed? Yes - and no. Democrats are still a minority in DuPage county - and yet we've elected some to the county board. Religious and racial diversity is improving, especially in some of the suburbs, and the challenger to Rep Pete Roskam garnered over 40% of the vote. We're here. And we need to organize.
We need to reach out to fellow progressives who may or may not be affiliated with activist groups. We need to connect with our neighbors who are hurting in this economy, one that has hit the Chicago area exceptionally hard. We need to get comfortable with going into the city and uniting with progressives and activists there; uniting to make Illinois and the US a place we can feel safe leaving to our children.
So let's share some resources... I'll start with these:
http://www.faithpeace.org/
West Suburban Faith Based Peace Coalition
http://dupagepeacethroughjustice.org/
DuPage Peace Through Justice Coalition
http://www.fvc4pnj.org/...
Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice
http://isd.dupagepeacethroughjustice.org/
Immigrant Solidarity DuPage
"http://foxvalleylabornews.com/...
"About Living Wages Jobs for All
The New New Deal (out of the Oak Park Coalition)
Drinking Liberally (Northwest suburbs)
People's Resource Center (Wheaton)
DuPage Against War Now (DAWN)
Every year, a group of us from the suburbs march in the annual Pride Parade in June, and we support SAGE groups on college campuses in their struggle to make Illinois safe from hate. This year, Illinois' governor signed civil union legislation into effect - things are changing.
Could Illinois be the next Vermont, with a single payer bill passing? We are home to Drs Quentin Young and Anne Scheetz, the former a true American hero along the lines of Studs Terkel - one of the founders of Physicians for a National Health Care Program and the latter a tireless worker for single payers.
We're going to hang together or hang alone in this fight. If you'd rather die on your feet than live on your knees, even if you're living on a tree lined street with (increasingly empty) McMansions, join us! Please share any links or stories of your own.