Mayor’s Row………..by Ned Mitchell
“Fermez la grande bouche” my high school French teacher Mrs. Williams used to say to me. Pardon my French as I am sure I write French no better than I speak French. That statement came to mind last week as I read about Mike Lawrence of the SIU Public Policy Institute and his decision to quit writing a syndicated newspaper column. Lawrence is a well known journalist turned politician and now educator. He is well respected by everyone who knows him including me. I usually found myself on a different page than he was but he did make his points in a manner that was more often than not hard to disagree with. Within the last few months he had taken on that giant miss communicator, the old reformer/unreformer himself and questioned some of the policies of his administration. Low and behold here comes SIU President Glenn Poshard by to see Mike. Poshard has admitted that he discussed Lawrence’s writings with him. That visit was followed by SIU board member Keith Sanders who also brought up the subject with Lawrence. Both Poshard and Sanders have denied telling Lawrence to “shut up”.
Fermez la grande bouche in French means to shut your big mouth. So when I was constantly talking out of turn in class Mrs. Williams would say that to me. Other teachers had their own methods for bringing silence to a class room. Mr. Wingo would just tilt his head to one side and just glance in my direction, Mr. Samuels would kind of smile and snicker all at the same time, Mrs. Munday would just tell me to shut up in English, Mrs. Slankard would quietly but forcefully get the message across, all had their methods to get to the same end result. I don’t know for sure if Poshard and Sanders gave Lawrence his marching orders in French or in English, but a visit from the SIU President and a board member got the message across. Mike Lawrence is no longer free to voice his opinion since it does not agree with Poshard’s and Sander’s opinion. You and I my friend, thought we lived in a free country. That depends on who you work for!
I was most happy to see my old friend Abbey Otthauf back at it again defending the reformer/unreformer governor. This time Abbey was sent out to face the firing squad concerning state jobs and how people get hired. All major newspapers in Illinois recently listed a number of politically connected people who have been hired for various state jobs and their salaries. That’s fair as the public has a right to know who is working and how much they are paid. When the press pointed out the political connections these employees had Abbey came to the rescue and defied common sense once again by saying political connections had nothing to do with these people receiving jobs. I thought I might just point out to Abbey that nobody, including her best friend would buy that song and dance. Of course their connections had something to do with getting a job. What are we stupid? Now mind you I did not say anything was wrong with knowing someone or having a political connection that lands a job for anyone of these people on the list. That is how the system works, not only in political circles but also in the private sector. Any coal miner would tell you that a family member could get another family member a job in the mines when we still had them. That is true in most other industries as well. What Abbey should have said was these people were all tested, they were qualified, they were experienced, and yes, they do have connections. Connections are a part of the hiring process but not the main ingredient. That is believable and gets the point across.
Abbey has help in defending the reformer/unreformer when it comes to spin. Rebecca Rausch was out front this week in defending the boss in allegations of another pay to play investigation. A grand jury in Du Page County is looking into contracts that have been awarded concerning the Illinois Tollway Authority. Mysteriously a firm that has hired a lobbyist friend of the reformer/unreformer governor donated over $76,000.00 dollars in campaign cash to the governor. That firm it is now found out got a contract worth $1.1 million dollars. When questions were asked as a reasonable person would think they would be, Rebecca charged out on her white horse and said campaign contributions have nothing to do with contracts. Right Rebecca, you keep telling yourself that because nobody, including your best friend will buy that one either. Abbey and Rebecca have the two worst jobs of anyone I know. Do you think they had connections to get their jobs? By the way, if either of these two offers you a glass of Kool Aid, don’t drink it!
It turns out that I am not the only one who is balking at the governor’s request to borrow $3.2 billion dollars to fund the capital spending bill. The Chicago Tribune terms this part of the “blob that ate Illinois” in a recent editorial. Every major newspaper in the state has questioned the concept here. We are also all in agreement that most of these projects are much needed, we just don’t know and have not been told where the money is going to come from to pay for all of this. Well, we know where it is going to come from, you and I will have to dig a little deeper into our pockets to pay it back as will our children and grandchildren. Three years ago we owed $7.6 billion dollars as a state government and today we owe $20.3 billion dollars and that does not include $40 billion dollars that is owed to the five Illinois pension funds. Three years ago our debt service or payments if you will, cost us over $800 million dollars per year. Today we are paying $1.6 billion dollars per year in debt service. We now have free health care for all kids coming in July, a proposed tax break for parents of college students, and free pre school for all kids age 3 and up. Again, these are all very worth while programs but consider the fact that we are $2 billion dollars behind in paying medical providers in this state right now. We are way behind in funding education in this state right now. So what do we do? We come up with more programs that cost more money. It would be a good idea to pay our bills first and get caught up financially before starting any new programs. The Tribune went so far as to say neither the governor, any of his opponents nor any of the 177 members of the House and Senate should be allowed to talk about flashy new ideas that cost money. This problem is not going to go away.
I was saddened by a recent news story by Ashley Wiehle of the Southern Illinoisan. The story was very well written and talked about Zeigler resident Cindy Craft and her daughter Hope. Cindy lost her job at Maytag in Herrin and is moving back to her native Ohio. This highlights the point I have been trying to make in this column for the past year or so. Folks the economic picture is bleak around here. Our politicians are running all over the state (except coming to Franklin County) and telling us how great things are. We have lost nearly 1,000 good paying manufacturing jobs in a 4 county area in the last 3 months, right here in our back yard. We all know someone like Cindy Craft and we all know that things are not good economically in this state. We are not going to have good economic times again until we demand and receive accountability and action out of those we elect and send off to represent us. I don’t need for anyone to mail me some piece of literature about working families and blah, blah, blah. We, that’s you and I, need for our politicians from the governor on down to quit spewing campaign garbage from both sides of their collective mouths and put a plan in action that will put Illinois back to work. Life is all about choices and we have some to make on March 21st!
If you need us or have a comment or suggestion call 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write to nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org or come by for a personal visit.
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