League of Women Voters of Naperville

September Ideas Forum - Civics 101
2022-09-14 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom Meeting
Join us for a discussion on the how-to’s of being an active citizen
You care about our government – local, state, and federal. But are you completely comfortable with the hows and why’s – and the results – of reaching out to your legislators? Do you fully understand the purpose of a witness slip and how to submit one? Do you understand how laws get passed? Do you know the difference between a veto session and a special session in the legislature? Do you understand when passed bills go into effect?
Join us Wednesday, September 14 at 7 pm to find out the answers to these questions and more. Do you have questions of your own you would like answered? Please submit them to lwvnaperville@gmail.com and put Civics 101 in the subject line.
Please register using the link below.

Friday Book Group, August 19 – Madame Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power
2022-08-19 12:30 - 14:00
MADAM SPEAKER is unprecedented in the scope of its exploration of Nancy Pelosi’s remarkable life and of her indelible impact on American politics.
Before she was Nancy Pelosi, she was Nancy D’Alesandro. Her father was a big-city mayor and her mother his political organizer. When Nancy’s mother encouraged her young daughter to become a nun, Nancy told her mother that being a priest sounded more appealing. She didn’t begin running for office until she was 46 years old, with her five children mostly out of the nest.With that, she found her calling. Madam Speaker is unprecedented in the scope of its exploration of Nancy Pelosi’s remarkable life and of her indelible impact on American politics.This event is open to both League members and nonmembers.
Register below to receive the Zoom link. After registering, you receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Register here.

Tuesday Book Group, August 16 - Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power
2022-08-16 19:00 - 20:30

Monthly Ideas Forum – Confronting Gun Violence in Illinois
2022-08-10 19:00 - 20:00
The League of Women Voters has had a strong position on gun safety and gun violence for many years. The League of Women Voters believes that the proliferation of handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons in the United States is a major health and safety threat to its citizens. The League supports regulating firearms for consumer safety.
Jim McGrath, Gun Violence Prevention issues specialist with the League of Women Voters of Illinois, will review interpretations of the second amendment while focusing on current laws and issues on the local level. He’ll discuss proposed bills in Illinois and how to become active in this important issues.
Register here.

Friday Book Group July 15 – The Hardest Job in the World: the American Presidency
2022-07-15 12:30 - 14:00
The Hardest Job in the World: the American Presidency by John Dickerson
From Goodreads:
From the 60 Minutes correspondent, a deep dive into the history, evolution, and current state of the American presidency–and how we can make the job less impossible and more productive for the future.
John Dickerson looks at the history of the American presidency and how the office is altogether different than the job we discuss during presidential campaigns. In campaigns, the presidency is a magical place where the will of its occupant can move the nation. In reality, the presidency is stretched, burdened, and unmatched for the complexity of the modern world.

Tuesday Book Group: The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics by Stephen Breyer
2022-06-21 19:00 - 20:30
The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics by Stephen Breyer
From Goodreads
A sitting justice reflects upon the authority of the Supreme Court—how that authority was gained and how measures to restructure the Court could undermine both the Court and the constitutional system of checks and balances that depends on it.
Stephen Breyer, drawing upon his experience as a Supreme Court justice, sounds a cautionary note. Mindful of the Court’s history, he suggests that the judiciary’s hard-won authority could be marred by reforms premised on the assumption of ideological bias. Having, as Hamilton observed, “no influence over either the sword or the purse,” the Court earned its authority by making decisions that have, over time, increased the public’s trust. If public trust is now in decline, one part of the solution is to promote better understandings of how the judiciary actually works: how judges adhere to their oaths and how they try to avoid considerations of politics and popularity.

Friday Book Group: The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics by Stephen Breyer
2022-06-17 19:00 - 20:30

Tuesday Book Group: Kill Switch – The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson
2022-05-20 19:00 - 20:30
Kill Switch – The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson
From Goodreads
Every major decision governing our diverse, majority-female, and increasingly liberal country bears the stamp of the United States Senate, an institution controlled by people who are almost exclusively white, overwhelmingly male, and disproportionately conservative. Although they do not represent a majority of Americans—and will not for the foreseeable future—today’s Republican senators possess the power to block most legislation. Once known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” the Senate has become one of the greatest threats to our democracy. How did this happen?
Taking us into the Capitol Hill backrooms where the institution’s decline is most evident, Jentleson shows that many of the greatest challenges of our era—partisan polarization, dark money, a media culture built on manufactured outrage—converge within the Senate. Even as he charts the larger forces that have shaped the institution where he served, Jentleson offers incisive portraits of the powerful senators who laid the foundation for the modern Senate, from Calhoun to McConnell to LBJ’s mentor, Richard Russell, to the unapologetic racist Jesse Helms.

14th Congressional District Republican Primary Candidate Forum
2022-05-19 19:00 - 20:30
Join Us

Thursday, May 19

7pm by Zoom Meeting
Hear from the Republican Candidates running for the Illinois 14th Congressional District
All official candidates have been invited:
Scott Gryder, Mike Koolidge, Jack Lombardi, Jim Marter, Jaime Milton
Sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Naperville, The League of Women Voters Aurora Area,and The League of Women Voters of DeKalb County
The Candidate Forum is free and open to all, but registration is required.

Register for Candidate Forum

How a Candidate Forum Works
All candidate forums are run by trained, non-partisan moderators. Equal time is given to all candidates to answer each question.
The candidates will have two minutes to present an opening statement, in turn, alphabetically.
Questions will be chosen in advance by the League for appropriateness and relevance from those solicited from League members as well as community members. The moderator will ask questions in rotation so that each candidate will have the opportunity to be the first to answer. Candidates will each have up to two minutes to answer each question.
After the questions are completed, each candidate will have two minutes to provide a closing statement, in turn.
No surrogates are permitted to participate. An uncontested forum, that is, one with only one candidate, is not permitted.

Tuesday Book Group: Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein
2022-04-19 19:00 - 20:30
Are our polarized political institutions driving our political system towards crisis?
From Goodreads:
Discover how American politics became a toxic system, why we participate in it, and what it means for our future–from journalist, political commentator, and cofounder of Vox, Ezra Klein.
In this groundbreaking book, Klein shows how and why American politics polarized around identity in the 20th century, and what that polarization did to the way we see the world and each other. And he traces the feedback loops between our polarized political identities and our polarized political institutions that are driving our political system towards crisis.

Friday Book Group: Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein
2022-04-15 12:30 - 14:00

The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
2022-04-09 19:00
Join the League of Women Voters of Naperville for a live virtual tour of The Legacy Museum in Montgomery Alabama. The museum is situated on a site in Montgomery where Black people were forced to labor in bondage. It is only blocks from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, and steps away from the rail station where tens of thousands of Black people were trafficked during the 19th century. After the virtual tour we will hear about EJI’s legal and racial justice work and there will be an opportunity for participants to ask questions and share reflections.
Register in advance for this event HERE.
Watch this video to learn more.
