The Soapbox: Daily Herald editors offer brief thoughts on suburban topics in the news.

Words to live by

Gloria Golec recently offered memories of her mother, Jean. An infant during World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, teen during the Great Depression and young mother during the polio epidemic, Jean lived to age 93 with a simple outlook "This too shall pass." It got Jean through it all, and such optimism can work for us today as well.

Welcome to the boys club

The Chicago Red Stars women's soccer team this week hired Lindsay Eanet as their public address announcer. She is the first female in that capacity among all Chicago pro teams. It'll be nice to hear a woman's voice in that male-dominated profession. Kudos to the Red Stars for the breakthrough.

There's still a rush hour

If you and/or your family go outside riding bikes or taking walks, and you need to cross busy streets, you may have noticed there's still a bit of a rush hour in the afternoons. Maybe not like the pre-virus days, but there is indeed an uptick in traffic (whereas it's weekend-like at other hours). You still have to be careful out there.

Lift Your Voice

The orchestra teacher at Naperville's Neuqua Valley High School, Greg Schwaegler, is asking musicians across the region to participate tonight in a #liftyourvoice performance. The idea is that everybody will step outside, or maybe in their garage or by an open window, to play the same song at 7 p.m. We can use the harmony.

Lift Your Voice, Part II

But this quote tells you all you need to know about Schwaegler's spirit. "My calling is to be a musician," he said. "I'm going to find a way to make music and I'm going to help create an ensemble of people to make music with. The message is, 'We the musicians also have ways to contribute to the community that are valuable, so it's time for us to share our gifts.'" Bravo!

Work from home forever?

A lot of us at the paper are working from home nonstop, as are so many of you. Now the question in the business world is starting to emerge Can remote working become permanent? We're finding, as we guess many of you are, that some would like that, some won't - and it doesn't necessarily split along introvert-extrovert lines.

Can we do more?

Half of all COVID-19 deaths in the state have been among residents of long-term care facilities - a death rate 50 times the average. You have to wonder if we are doing enough to inspect and to aid with PPE, testing, isolation of the ill and resultant staffing problems.

On the hot air

Set to host a new talk show for Cumulus Media WLS-AM 890, disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is "fired up to speak my mind." Marv Nyren, marketing manager for the station's parent company, says the show "will be messy" and "raw." Hooray. Messy and raw. Just what the country needs more of these days.

Remembering Bill Grams

Condolences to the family of Bill Grams, who with his brother created the Volo Auto Museum. Grams died this week, but his legacy lives on in the museum and in the recent parade of famous cars that brought a smile to kids in the area during the pandemic.