Sometimes a Wednesday Journal is mis-delivered and doesn’t arrive in a subscriber’s mailbox. While I can always re-mail a copy, sometimes I just deliver a replacement on my way home or ask a co-worker to deliver on their travels.
On these trips I’ve been enjoying nature’s showcase of chicory growing along the edges of Garfield, next to the expressway, or along Thatcher, or Austin, making a home among corners, cracked sidewalks and along the edge of the road. This blue beauty roots its glory where other plants would feel mistreated, taking advantage of every opportunity, along with its contrasting partner, the delicate Queen Anne’s lace, with its simple white dots on the branched taproot.
Perhaps I have fallen in love with the chicory because of its beauty, its perseverance, its tenacity and its reach, I have spotted it growing in Chicago, in Batavia, in Kentucky, Wisconsin and beyond.
Along my trips throughout Oak Park and River Forest, listening to the national news, with our local newspaper at my side, it is hard not to reflect on our First Amendment, our freedom of speech, the pulse of democracy in this great nation.
Like the chicory weed, our voices take root and grow from every corner across the United States, from sea to shining sea. This little flower, poking up along alleyways and highways, waves a little reminder of American brotherhood and citizenship.
As Oak Park and River Forest take on courageous conversations at a local level, I hope you will take a moment to engage in the community survey offered through Wednesday Journal, your local news source, www.oakpark.com/survey. Your voice and trust are valued and we want to hear from every corner of our community.
Jill Wagner
Reader engagement
and circulation manager
