Mayor’s Row……………by Ned Mitchell
Some of the world’s greatest minds have out of the way places where they go to think. While some go off to a monastery type setting, others go to a mountain top and others might head off to a library. Not that I am among the world’s greatest minds, but I start up the lawn mower and do my best thinking. There is nothing like the roar of that Sear’s push mower of mine to kick in the thinking process. It is just good sometimes to get away from the cell phone and all the worries of the world and just push that mower and think about life. It is uninterrupted thinking except for the occasional passer by who makes another trip around the block just to verify what their eyes are telling them and that is me doing some physical labor! I certainly get some interesting comments!
My latest mowing happened after I had just read the Benton Evening News and the Mt. Vernon Register News. In both those papers United States Senator Dick Durbin was featured making a swing through our area with cash in hand. Of course we are always happy to get the cash and in our instance that cash went to the Franklin Hospital for a very worthy cause. I did not pay much attention to the Mt. Vernon cash handout but something struck me as odd in Durbin’s remarks up there. When questioned about the recent decision of Honda Motors to locate in Indiana Durbin replied that he could see no reason why Mt. Vernon could not in the future land such a factory. His advice was to keep building infrastructure. How out of touch is this guy? Holy Cow, where has this guy been for the past two or three years? Not around here, that is for sure!
Senator, sir, I can see about four huge reasons why Mt. Vernon or Illinois for that matter will have trouble landing a factory such as Honda Motors. Are you so out of touch that you don’t see that Illinois is leading the Midwest as far as job loss? Are you aware that Illinois has lost 225,000 good paying jobs in the past few years? I know the reformer/unreformer says Illinois now leads the Midwest in job creation but I really question where those jobs are and how much they pay. Are they good paying jobs with benefits? If so, list them so we can see where they are at. Back to the reasons why new factories will not locate in Illinois and why existing ones are leaving and going to Indiana. This is so simple it astounds me as to why others don’t see it. The reasons are; higher than average unemployment insurance rates, higher than average worker’s compensation rates, unreasonable real estate tax system, and lastly, the nation’s largest under funded public pension system. Then when you add in the fact that Illinois is now leading the nation in poverty levels even a simple lawn mowing guy like me can figure it out. So why can’t Senator Durbin and other elected leaders figure this out? You don’t need to be a scholar from some prestigious university to figure that one out. I’m about to believe the good Senator from Illinois left his common sense in Washington.
That thought quickly moved on to what Illinois is doing for displaced workers and the concept of attracting new factories and keeping existing ones. I’ll tell you what we are focused on. We are wasting $50 million dollars of our tax money building political playgrounds like the boondoggle shooting range in Sparta. This, in my opinion details exactly where our priorities are. This complex was built as a political pay off to politicians in that area, nothing more and nothing less. It is supposed to create 250 jobs. Now there is a real bargain, $50 million for 250 jobs. Of course don’t count on anyone even remotely qualified going to work there. Out of the 250 jobs, 249 of them will go to political hacks or some politician’s niece or cousin. IDNR officials are already calling the place a huge success saying the operating budget for next year is $1.4 million dollars while the take will be over $3 million dollars. I say they won’t be able to pay the light bill for $1.4 million dollars. To the politicians who created this monster, you keep telling yourself that nonsense, its’ your story so I’d stick with it too. To top all of this nonsense off I found it just really strange that the reformer/unreformer governor was on hand to cut the ribbon. I mean, after all, the guy does not even remotely think anyone should own a firearm of any kind. He has been the most unfriendly governor toward gun ownership of any we have had in my memory. If he is really serious about his new found love of guns, let him explain why Illinois is one of only two states in the country who do not have some form of concealed carry laws. Forty eight states now have some form of concealed carry and Illinois joins Wisconsin in being the only two out of 50 that don’t.
About the time I finished the back yard and headed to the front I rehashed the guilty verdicts of Mayor Daley’s cronies last week in Chicago. The trial in federal court was about the hiring practices of the Daley administration. The charges detailed how unqualified people were hired over qualified people. The whole concept of the government case was that rules were bypassed to hire politically connected people for government jobs. Federal prosecutors made no bones about it the investigations will continue even announcing the widening scope concerning the reformer/unreformer governor’s office. If we can’t see where this is heading we as democrats deserve to lose the next round of elections. One of the jurors summed up the whole case when asked by reporters for a comment. This juror, a truck driver who works hard every day for a living brought it down to where we can all understand what the case was about. He said, “it was just wrong.” “Just wrong”? All of the high priced legal minds in Chicago working on this case trying to tell their side of the story and this common person who sat on the jury explained it in 4 words, “it was just wrong.” I think there are a lot of things in Illinois that are just as wrong as they are in Chicago. Based on what I am reading in the news federal prosecutors agree and are turning their attention to the reformer/unreformer governor and his band of merry men. Me and my lawn mower know of many unqualified political hires in this administration and I am sure the feds know of many more examples. People have been hired based on political connections and not qualifications. Veterans have been bypassed for jobs even though the law requires they be given first consideration. The really upsetting thing to me as a democrat though is after the George Ryan scandals and almost 30 years of republican reign in the Governor’s office, we had a real opportunity to bring about change in this state. We were told it would no longer be “business as usual in Springfield.” What we were not told was that it would be business as usual the Chicago way. The old argument that it has always been that way did not hold water in Chicago and I doubt it will hold water now. People who pay the bills in this state are finally getting fed up with this type of treatment and it is about time. At last count there were 14 federal grand juries meeting on State of Illinois hiring practices. We democrats run the risk of losing the governor’s election based on how we have conducted business the last four years. Sad, sad indeed!
One thing about all that serious thinking while mowing the lawn it does make the time pass rather quickly and as I shut the mower off and headed for the garage I looked over my shoulder and admired how nice the lawn looked. I may not be able to solve any of the State of Illinois problems but I can mow the yard to my own satisfaction and perhaps that is why I am where I am today. The bottom line though is I am happy mowing the yard and working along side others to keep Sesser the really great place it is. Perhaps Senator Durbin and Governor Blagojevich should take up law mowing!
If you need us, give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org we’ll be happy to hear from you!
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