News

This page will provide news, information and letters to the editor relating to Joan Solms platform or campaign.

Recent Events

See the Home Page for a first hand report of the "Meet Us at LUIGI's" fundraiser. (Pictures available in the photo gallery.)

Letters to the Editor

Comment to Beacon News Open Line
July 20, 2008
Not to Know
Borrowing a title from journalist Edward Ericson, “The People’s Right Not to Know”.

I want to answer Marjorie Colley (7/20/08)

Homosexuality may be a lifestyle for some, but for the majority of people of faith, it is an immoral act. I do not want to hear anyone’s public confession. If my daughter were a prostitute or my son a gigolo, I would not announce it publicly. What some homosexuals want is bragging rights; why else would someone want to be identified by their sexual orientation.

I won’t ask, don’t you tell.
Editor Tribune
July 11, 2008
Obama is Right
Obama thinks all students should learn a foreign language. He is right. What he did not tell us is how he proposes to fund this new program.

As a candidate running for office, I have been making the rounds speaking with everyone who will listen. Speaking with the principals of public and private schools I found there is a 100% agreement as to why a foreign language is not a mandatory subject for 12 years for all children. Lack of funds.

Here is the reality of what I found in two public school districts in Aurora. Between Federal funding, grants and state money one district spends $2,554,739 for English language learners, the majority of whom are Hispanic. For some students the courses of English, reading, math and science are taught in Spanish and gradually transferred over to English. There is no reverse program for English speaking students and if there were can you imagine what the cost would be.

The second school district has a larger Hispanic population and I was informed that the cost runs higher than $3 million. The schools are following Federal policy in implementing these foreign language programs, so don't blame them.

What is not so well known is the fact that government jobs are seeking bilingual persons in their hiring practices. Just before leaving office, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13166, which requires doctors and hospitals to provide interpreters free of charge to non-English speaking patients. In May, Kane County listed 10 jobs for hire. Seven of these jobs wanted a bilingual person. More jobs have come on line seeking a Spanish speaking person.

The truth of the situation is this. We are preparing the newly arrived immigrants with a better opportunity for employment than our U.S. born students. We are at the same time undercutting our own citizens opportunities for jobs, even government jobs. Equal education is not being mandated for all students.

We did not vote for this new system and not everyone is even aware of the changes taking place in society that are being implemented through our schools. Parents should be informed immediately.

I strongly support English as the common language of the U.S. and as the working language for our state and Federal governments.

Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd District
Beacon-News Editorial
May 19, 2008
Pot vs Law and Order
Page 10A of today's Beacon (5-19) reports 22 police Commanders have received death threats from the drug cartels in Mexico. Seven have been killed, 3 wounded, eleven quit and only one remains. For what did they die?

Border patrol agents Ramos and Campion remain in jail for shooting a drug runner here in the U.S. Other border patrol agents have been killed defending our borders against drug terrorists. For what purpose? So the City of Aurora can wink at the law and bring needed revenue into the city coffers?

The bottom line in this issue is us. We, the consumers of illegal drugs, are the real criminals. Any money obtained from drug busts or fines should go to the families of those officers and soldiers killed in the line of duty.

Drug users get my harshest condemnation. It is they who killed the missionary family flying home from South America when their plane was mistaken for a drug transport vehicle and shot down - killing them all.

People use drugs by choice. They know it is illegal. For decades our schools have been educating students on the dangers of drugs to themselves and society. How many babies are born drug addicted and scared for life, both physically and emotionally, because their parents inflicted these drugs on their bodies without their consent. No choice there.

Either we legalize drugs, take the profit out of it, or get serious with punishment for its usage. Drug users should get a life sentence. They should be responsible for the care of those families left parentless their drug usage.. Responsible for the health and welfare of babies disabled for life by drugs used while they were in utero.

I am very passionate about this issue because I have parented some these children. I say thumbs down to the proposed legislation as it now is written. Profiting on the backs of the lawbreakers and the innocent.

Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd District.
Kane County Chronicle & Fox Valley Labor News
Letter to the Editor
I open my letter with a quote from Rep. Chapa LaVia's 2007 Legislative Update on "Education". "Rep. Chapa LaVia worked throughout budget negotiations to ensure the budget included increased education funding. The budget passed by the General Assembly provides an increase of $597 million for education funding, bringing the overall state expenditure to $10.8 billion for education. This is the largest single-year increase for schools in the state's history".

Now open your recently received tax bill and skip down to the line showing the increase for the school districts. Yes, Rep. Chapa LaVia is right. My taxes increased due to this largest increase for schools in the state's history. Is this something to brag about?

This increase isn't about implementing better education for our students, it was payback time to the teachers unions for supporting her candidacy. And they did!

This is only one of three tax increases Rep. Chapa LaVia supported, two more this year. She supported HJRCA, a bill if passed, would have raised the tax rate of individuals earning over $250,000 to 6% or twice the rate imposed upon individuals who earn less than $250,000 beginning in 2008.. The bill failed to pass. History records that countries which have tried taxing themselves into prosperity collapsed. It is a failed solution to our economic problems.

Rep. Chapa LaVia also voted for the increase in sales tax to bailout Chicago's Transportation System. The city will pay an extra quarter percent, while the surrounding collar counties a half cent. Seniors will now get to ride the buses free, but for most of us we would prefer a pass for the toll roads. Another discriminatory practice borne by collar counties.

In a Holiday Special to the Beacon last year Rep Chapa LaVia wrote that she is doing what she can to help seniors. She started out by saying that she has parents "over 65 who are struggling to afford their daily expenses." and she is "committed to helping them". What? To their credit, her parents are very well off. No help needed there, but why lie about it. To get a sympathy vote from the seniors who turn out in large measure on election day I suppose. Such dishonesty doesn't deserve your support.

I have taken the pledge, "no new taxes" so help me God. I have the endorsement of the National Taxpayers of Illinois. Taxes and their reduction is the top item on my campaign agenda.
Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd District
Beacon News Openline
April 27, 2008 - Printed May 4, 2008
The answer to Ron Anderson's comment on "Taxing Church Land Profit" is obvious. The contributions of the churches through its members to society is far greater than what benefait's the state would receive if it were to impose a real estate tax on the church. Or any tax. Church schools in the Aurora area alone must save the state, the taxpayers, a minimum of $20,000,000 in tuition alone pre year. The churches are the Good Samaritan.

Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd district
Beacon News Openline
April 19, 2008 - Not Printed
Thank you Rachael Shattuck (D-Candidate, 49th Distraict) for making my case why Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia should be defeated. Longevity is the problem I have the same problem. My opponent has been in Springfield since 2003, so she too has been part of the problem based on your statement. Based on longevity, 99% of the legislators should go. Real solutions and not just more entitlement programs is what I am hearing from the public.

Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd District
Beacon News Openline
April 4, 2008 - Not printed
Why must every school incident result in a fine on the taxpayers? One of the solutions being suggested in the aftermath of a fight on the bus this week is the installation of cameras on the buses. No, let's install the parents on the buses. Let them monitor their children. The behavior of students on the bus is the responsibility of the paents not the bus driver, the school administrators or taxpayaers. Riding the bus is a privilege, not a right.

Joan Solms, Candidate 83rd District
Sun Times
Reply "School no place for anti-gay shirt"

Letter to the Editor:

Responding to the editorial "School no place for anti-gay" for its' lack of insight into the real problem. Holding your tongue.

The basis for challenging the Texas law regarding homosexuality was privacy. What consenting adults did in their bedrooms was their own business. The courts bought it, but evidently those celebrating the court decision did not understand the basis of their own argument or else they are determined to impose their private intimacies on everyone within earshot.

Years ago adults did not share their bedroom love making with the whole world. I liked it better that way.

At a meeting of the Aurora City Council where testimony was being taken from the public concerning the Planned Parenthood building that was coming to town, three very young women spoke in support of the project. Each shared their sexual lifestyle with those assembled there. None of our business. I don't want to know.

My solution for future encounters like this is to tell the bearer of this news to "shut up". I don't want to have this information foisted upon me. I have right too.

Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd District.
Beacon-News
Parental Responsibility

Letter to the Editor:

Any teen rehab program "must" involve the parents. Not notification, not permission, but involvement and responsibility. And unless one of the parents is dead, or it was an immaculate conception, all kids have two parents. Invitro fertilization is no exception to the rule. These are hard words for some to accept, but the time to reverse direction in dealing with out children is now. Parents need to be involved because often times they are in need of help and direction as much as their children.

When I met with the parents of my foster kids, I could mention that drugs or smoking was bad for their health, but I was "forbidden" to suggest that they needed to change their lifestyle. Morally irresponsible lifestyles cannot be criticized even if they are the reasons for failure to live, work, raise children. We the people, who are forced to support these destructive lifestyle choices with our tax dollars need to demand a change.

Along with responsibility, there is justice. If I am elected I will sponsor a bill that mandates parental responsibility for minor children. My opponent voted against such a bill (HB317). No Fault Divorce laws need to be changed. Surely society has an interest in saving marriages. Laws protecting children born to couples who are not married need to be enacted or strengthened.

In the last 40 years the government at all levels - legislators - individually and collectively, have not acted in the best interests of family life. However well intentioned the programs may have seemed at the time, they have proven to weaken society by eliminating personal responsibility to souses and children. We don't need to continue experimentation in this direction.

Joan Solms, Candidate, 83rd district Email: joansolms@att.net