‘Grumpy Old Women and Their Wives’ Post By Board Member Draws Ire

JOLIET — A Will County board member said he meant no offense when he posted a quote referring to participants in the Women’s March on Washington as “grumpy old women and their wives.”

“To me it was no big deal,” said Homer Glen Republican Steve Balich. “People are so sensitive these days.”

Balich posted an excerpt of a Dan Proft essay titled “What’s Left of the Left.”

“If we learned one thing from Obama, speechifying doesn’t bring the country together, create jobs or reverse barbaric cultural trends,” Balich’s since-deleted post said. “And so Trump’s unity-signaling Inaugural Address was quickly followed by a protest march of grumpy old women and their wives to which Susan B. Anthony would not have been welcome.”

“I didn’t have to take it down,” Balich said of the post. “I wasn’t breaking any laws.”

Balich said he chose to delete the post because he “didn’t put it up with the idea of making people upset.”

Balich did mean for the post to be taken as “satire,” and said it paled in comparison to the offensive things he saw at the Women’s March.

“Is ‘grumpy old women’ as bad as (a sign saying) ‘I’ll spread my legs for any refugee,’ ‘F-Trump,’ or pictures of women’s personal parts?” Balich asked.

“It was vulgar,” he said. “The whole thing was vulgar.”

Still, Balich did say he apologized to his fellow county board members during an executive session Thursday. Herbert Brooks, the board’s Democratic Caucus Chair, appreciated the gesture.

“I thought what he posted was in bad taste. I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Brooks said, adding that Balich then “did the right thing.”

“He did the right thing,” Brooks said. “He stood up like a man, apologized and took the post down.”

Board member Jacqueline Traynere said she missed Thursday’s meeting and would still like an apology from not just Balich, but also Donald Trump and Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar.

“Nobody’s apologized to me,” said Traynere, a Bolingbrook Democrat.

“We can start with the president of the United States,” Traynere said. “I think he owes me an apology, and every other woman in the United States.”

Balich, Brooks and Traynere all said they received negative feedback from the public about the post. But Balich said he also received calls of support.

“I probably had the same number of bad calls as good calls,” he said.

“Some people are offended,” Balich said. “Some people aren’t offended. Some people don’t care."