Mayor's row..by Ned Mitchell
We hope that your Christmas was a joyous one and that Santa brought you all that you need to get by on. From the looks of things it appears that our local, state, and national economy got a real boost from all of the last minute shopping that was done.
Despite my column last week urging readers to not get so stressed out this year, and to enjoy Christmas from a child's perspective, things got out of hand with me. About Wednesday it became evident to me that I had been lax in doing a lot of things that needed to be done. For one thing I am a big Christmas card sender and I had not sent out a card and all of a sudden here it was only three days left to mail cards. Between the family, city hall, my business, and others I like to send a lot of cards out. I spent two nights staying up until the wee hours getting those cards addressed and sent. I am sure the great folks at the Sesser Post Office just loved me dropping bundles of cards in the night drop mail box!
My shopping was completed in time so I had no stress there. In fact on a trip to Marion and the mall on Saturday I became almost child like again as I sat in the food court listening to a choir perform and watching other folks who obviously were not even close to being ready for Christmas. It was quite a site to see as I enjoyed the relaxing music and made myself a promise that next year I was going to get an early start on those Christmas cards!
Now that we have the last holiday down for 2006 it is time to look forward to the next one which is just around the corner. As we welcome in 2007 we need to be mindful of those around us. New Year's Eve has long been known as a time for celebrating the close of one year and the welcoming of the New Year. Folks have many ways of celebrating the New Year. Some get out and about and attend parties or dances. Others go to church and wait for the midnight hour. Others have family gatherings while some of us just hope we can stay up long enough to watch the New Year come in. I have been known to cheat on that and watch it on television as a live broadcast takes place at Times Square which is in the Eastern Time Zone and takes place an hour earlier than ours. Many folks around here cook some sort of bean dish for New Year's Day as that is supposed to bring good luck.
No matter how you celebrate we urge you to do so with reserve. We will be offering people rides home if they have had too much to drink and of course we will give you a free ride to the county jail if you drink too much and try to drive. You see the point here is that while we recognize your right to have a good time we also have a duty to make sure that those you meet on the road also have the right to not get ran over by you. So it is a simple concept that each of us can understand, don't drink more than the legal limit and then try to drive. Sesser is actually small enough that one can easily walk home from anywhere and if you don't feel like walking we will drive you at no cost. Another option is to have a designated driver who does not drink that evening or have a friend to take you home if you have consumed too much alcohol. Lets all be safe rather than sorry!
I have written in this column before about the two court systems we have operating in this country. We have the regular court system that handles all types of cases from civil matters to murders. We also have the court of public opinion and that court more often than not has the opinion that the other court is not doing its' job and I agree.
Hopefully that is coming to a screeching halt in Franklin County. Circuit Judge Loren P. Lewis of Benton recently sentenced a young man to 10 years in prison for driving drunk the wrong way on Interstate 57 and caused an accident that killed another person. In passing the sentence Judge Lewis said "At some point we have to draw the line on people like you, when they get out there and run up and down the roads, so drunk you don't know what you are doing, and killing people and causing irreparable injury to them." Judge Lewis further stated "It just can't be tolerated and this sentence is necessary to deter others from committing the same crime."
I am sure the defendant, 23 year old Peter Heinz of Altamont did not set out that day to get drunk and kill someone. He had a previous drunk driving conviction in Effingham County but was not involved in a fatal accident then. I am certain that Heinz felt bad and was sorry for his actions. He most surely had some sort of remorse.
The other side of this story involves the dead woman who was driving her mini van with her four children on board. Cynthia Delores Watkins, age 31 of O'Fallon was traveling north and meets Heinz who is traveling south in her lane of traffic. Two of Watkins' children were injured. So what is the bottom line here? We have four children this year and every year from now until eternity who have no mother at Christmas because some drunk killed her. They will not have a mother to come to their school programs, celebrate their birthdays, watch them graduate, plan their weddings, or hold her grandchildren. So as harsh as this sentence was, and it is within what the law in Illinois recommends, was it enough? Is 10 years of this young man's life enough to pay for four children losing their mother needlessly? I'll refer that case to the court of public opinion but my thoughts are the creep should be locked away for the rest of his life and the key thrown away. He was given a chance in Effingham County previously and he did not clean up his act. He got drunk and drove again! The mother, Cynthia Watkins did not get a second chance, neither do her children.
Judge Lewis is a very good judge, one that we can all respect and know that he does his job. After attending the swearing in ceremony of newly elected Circuit Judge Melissa Drew I commented to her that if she patterned her time on the bench after that of Judge Lewis, she would have a fantastic career as a judge and would serve the people well. I am thankful for the Judge Lewis' of the world who have the responsibility to hand down sentences and try to deter others from committing crimes against the rest of us. It is a difficult job and not one that I envy in the least.
Speaking of judges, congratulations are in order to our own Circuit Judge Kyle Vantrease as he has been elected by his peers to serve as Chief Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit. So in addition to hearing cases Judge Vantrease will now be in charge of the court system in the Second Circuit. That is an awesome responsibility and Judge Vantrease's peers have spoken about how much they respect his abilities. We are also in agreement and wish Judge Vantrease the best of everything as his career takes on more responsibility.
In the next column or two we will do a run down of events that have happened in our fair city during the past year and give you a hint at what to expect from us the coming year. One thing about it, all of us at city hall are committed to doing the best job we can to make Sesser a better place to live. Of course we will make mistakes, who doesn't? The bottom line is that we learn by our mistakes and we encourage you to get involved and let us know what needs to be done. Working together we can accomplish great things!
Special birthday wishes go to Edna "Nonnie" Harle who turned 95 the day after Christmas. She has been a real asset to Sesser and a booster for all things in her church and community. Ditto also had a birthday the same day and he turned 54!
If you need us, give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.com or P. O. Box 277, Sesser, Illinois 62884.
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