In early September an editorial appeared on this page titled “Hefty, hefty, hefty or wimpy, wimpy, wimpy?”
The editorial observed while Mayor Jim Ardis was off on the Memphis-to-Peoria St. Jude Run the city council did not exactly move forward boldly on plans to trim the budget, which was written in red ink.

A new year is here.
With a new year comes opportunity. The challenge with opportunity is embracing it and making the most of it. Here is a list of five opportunities that present themselves in 2010.

There are frightening statistics when it comes to children and reading.
Thirty-eight percent of all fourth graders in the United States cannot read  a simple poem. There are seven million elementary-aged children performing below their grade level in reading.
These children are not all lazy or stupid.

Betty Friedan, whose birthday and date of death both fall on Feb. 4, never really played in Peoria — an unfortunate fact.
In her lifetime, Friedan was a pioneer in the area of women’s rights.
Like many pioneers, she ruffled feathers.
In life, she was not appreciated in her home-town. She was scorned by many, ignored by the majority.

A new year is perched to dawn.
With the new year comes the decision to be pessimistic or optimistic in the new year.
We can be pessimistic or optimistic about a number of things, including the economy, the president entering his second year in office, Gov. Pat Quinn starting another year of his administration and a gubernatorial election, and bitterly cold weather that will cause AmerenCILCO bills to soar.
Pessimists usually have a very vocal element. Whether they constitute a majority is debatable.

One year ago this past week, FBI agents called Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and told him he was under arrest.
That call opened a new chapter of embarrassment in Illinois politics. This is going to be a long chapter, not forgotten anytime soon. It should not be forgotten.

At a political fund raiser last week for Mayor Jim Ardis, there was a large turnout.
There were notable people from politics, the business community and even the judiciary at the event to help build Ardis’ political war chest.
Following a short speech, Ardis answered some questions about Peoria Promise — an initiative Ardis started to assure District 150 students could go to Illinois Central College for two years, tuition-free.

On the day after Thanksgiving it is the Santa Claus Parade that receives all the hype. After a long history the attention is well-deserved.
But, this year’s Yule Like Peoria event deserves some praise also.

Downtown at the Salvation Army’s Sylvia Fites Center, far from the comfortable homes in North Peoria, people shiver in the cold. Their faces are lined with worry, stress, hunger and desperation.
These people stand in line looking for a handout of the most basic of needs — food.
Some are surely victims of their own bad decisions, be it alcohol, drugs or a lack of education. Some of them expect others to provide for them and will never change ... Regardless of how these people came to be standing in that line, the Salvation Army strives to help, and it does so without judgment.

At just about 11 a.m. Aug. 19, the woman we will call Linda, was startled by a sudden loud crash.
She ran from her kitchen and as she approached her front door two men stood in her doorway. They ran.
“I never thought in my life I’d have to live in a house where I’d have to be afraid of opening a window,” she said.

If all the dire talk about the vulnerability of the nation’s electric grid is true, and not political hyperbole, everyone has reason to worry.
However, Americans have every reason to be skeptical about whether what our elected leaders on the national level are saying is accurate.

On Veterans Day, there was no school in District 150 — a day students could sleep in. But, not all did.
Cognizant of what Veterans Day means, two groups of students from Richwoods and Woodruff high schools sacrificed some sleep to recognize the greater sacrifice made by veterans.

In July, former Caterpillar Inc. chairman Glen Barton said a charter school could help stem the tide of people moving out of, or avoiding living in, Peoria.
“I think (District 150) will be a net winner. We believe this will attract back some of the students who left,” Barton said.    
The same message was delivered to the Peoria City Council recently.

If the Greater Peoria Area’s infrastructure  is going to become a priority for the Illinois General Assembly, there is a need for strong voices pushing the area’s agenda. 
Luckily several area chambers of commerce are speaking out for Central Illinois.
State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Cicero), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, came to Peoria Oct. 27 to hear their list of priorities for Central Illinois.

The writer Eric Hoffer could have been speaking of Jim Maloof when he wrote, “The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.”
To this day, Maloof speaks of Peoria with a twinkle in his eye because he is an idealist and a visionary. He knows keenly that opportunities abound here. Maloof knows this because he sought opportunities, created them, benefited from them and inspired others to benefit from them.