Last week we had the pleasure of conversing with Tim Thomas and a small group of friends on Zoom. That was enough for us to conclude that Tim is the right person to vote for in the upcoming election for Oak Park Township Trustee, and we would like to tell you why.
As volunteers with Oak Park Mutual Aid for the past many months of the pandemic, we have discovered and appreciate an oft-neglected dimension of Oak Park diversity. That dimension is realized in the broad range of resources available to some people and not to others, often the result of sheer luck or systemic prejudice. Many of our neighbors, already barely making ends meet before the pandemic, have now been pushed by the pandemic below a living threshold that none of us should tolerate. That’s just where Tim and Oak Park Township come into the picture.
As we came to learn with our mutual aid work, Oak Park Township (not the village) is the governing entity primarily responsible for providing social services to residents of Oak Park, so they play an even more critical role than the village now for our neighbors struggling to weather the pandemic. Tim wants to become a township trustee because he knows from his own personal history how important it is to extend a helping hand to our fellow human beings when they need it. He knows where and how the township can help, having already served on its Youth Services Committee.
He knows what the township can do, he understands the people the township can most help, and he grasps the dire necessity of connecting the two right now. This came out in our wonderful conversation with him last week. And that’s why we are going to vote for him and recommend that you do, too.
Dr. Dagmar Schalliol & Dr. Gregory Schalliol, Oak Park
