Mayor’s Row………by Ned Mitchell
Shock and then sadness settled in concerning the recent deaths of two Chicago children who live in that cities’ Englewood neighborhood. Both deaths came a few days apart and involved young girls in their own homes with their family present. Both came about as a result of gang related gunfire from outside the home. The victims were not the intended targets of the ruthless slayers, they were innocent children killed by stray bullets. It took less than 12 hours for the govern by knee jerk reactionary politicians to jump on the band wagon for more gun control in Illinois. The press conference was called and leading the charge was the reformer/unreformer governor, Rod Blagojevich, Mayor Richard Daley and Senator Dick Durbin. These guys never miss a chance to take advantage of a bad situation, even the untimely deaths of two small children.
That all sounds good and makes great press coverage and campaign commercials, you know guns kill people so lets just get rid of all the guns and then people will not be killed. Not so fast, lets’ look at some facts here. It is a FACT that the guns used in both of these incidents are already illegal to own in Chicago. That did not stop the thugs from owning them however. So now our fearless leaders are proposing to put another gun law on the books outlawing ownership of these types of guns on top of the gun law that is already on the books in Chicago. It is also a FACT that the shooters of these weapons were convicted felons. It is a FACT that we have both state and federal laws on the books today that prohibit convicted felons from having in their possession any type of gun. It is a FACT that the shooters had multiple felony convictions including drug dealing on their rap sheets. The first question that came to my mind is what on earth are these thugs doing out of jail in the first place? It is a FACT that none of the shooters had an Illinois FOID card. This is a law that is supposed to keep guns out of the hands of unregistered owners. I wonder why this law does not work?
Another interesting FACT is that the latest national statistics show that alcohol use in some form caused the deaths of 75,766 people that year in America. Gun violence caused 28,160 deaths during the same year. So you are three times more likely to die by alcohol use than you are gun violence. Interesting! Did we see the reformer/unreformer, Mayor Daley or Senator Durbin call a press conference to denounce alcohol use? Of course not, there is way too much money under the table from the liquor industry and it would disturb too many people to bring up such statistics. Gun violence is a glamorous subject for politicians. When people are killed with guns, especially children, they all jump on the band wagon. Politicians are not alone. They are joined and even promoted by the media. It makes a big story, one that people will read in the paper or watch on the evening news. It gives everyone the impression that our elected officials are out front protecting innocent people from guns.
I can see the argument both ways on gun control. Some folks make a good argument for outlawing high powered firearms. Others make a good point when they point to the constitutional right to bear arms. I suppose you can make a valid point on either side of that discussion. Clearly Chicago has a much different problem with guns than we do down here. We have ample gun laws on the books right now in Illinois and it is a proven fact that either they are not enforced or they simply do not work. People are still getting killed by gunfire in this state. The solution from my liberal minded friends up north is to pass more gun laws. What would be wrong with enforcing the gun laws we already have first?
The FACTS are these two horrible crimes involved convicted felons in possession of a gun. They have been arrested and convicted many times. They did not have the mandatory FOID card. You know what would go a long way in solving crimes like this? The reformer/unreformer governor, the Mayor, the Senator, all need to propose a Three Strikes You’re Out law in this state much like California has. I know it would be a bitter pill for the liberal folks to swallow but I say lock these thugs up and throw away the key. No more probation, no more parole, no more getting out of jail free. You do the crime and you do the time! You are given three chances to stay out of prison. Once you commit the third crime you are put away for life. Another bitter pill for my liberal minded friends to take is the shooters in these two instances should get the death penalty. No if ands or buts about it, they killed two innocent children so they should be put to death and it should not take 20 years to do it. I don’t care if they get the firing squad, get hung, electrocuted, or injected, do them in. We can solve the crime problem in this state. It might not be pretty for a while but it can be done. It could start with our local elected state officials. Hey guys, while you are jumping on the meth problem band wagon, why not propose a Three Strikes You’re Out law in Illinois? Surely if those whacky folks out in California can do it, we can too. It would be something all politicians crave, instant headlines and sound bites on the evening news. Locking people up is expensive and we must be willing to pay the bill but until we do take such hard core action we are going to keep hearing about innocent children being killed by lifetime career criminals. One thing about the death penalty, it keeps a thug from becoming a repeat offender.
Finally the weather is starting to break in our favor and that brings about a lot of work for us at city hall to do. Our street department workers are cleaning out ditches and picking up limbs and winter debris. Water department workers are planning for three water line replacement jobs that must be done by mid summer this year. Our town wide clean up is set for the last week of April. We will be cleaning up the south end of town on April 24th and the north end April 26th. We will be posting and advertising rules of what can and cannot be done on this clean up venture.
First Church of God in Sesser has joined up with a national organization to provide food for hungry people. This is not a free give away program but for $25.00 per month a family can get a lot of food. The food will be brought to town once a month and must be picked up but the value is tremendous. You can contact members Sandy Brown or Jan McLeod at 625-6098 for information. This is another Sesser church with a great idea to help feed our people. It is a great outreach program.
In sick bay this past week, Jim Kelly is home from a brief hospital stay and doing well. Curt Spann is recovering from a stint procedure on his heart and is doing well I am told. Billie Taylor is in Mt. Vernon recovering from a fall in her home. A card or visit would be greatly appreciated by these fine Sesser residents.
Sesser’s Opera House has once again been selected as a site this summer for performances by the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. Only three southern Illinois towns were selected this year, Sesser, Mt. Vernon, and Cairo so we are indeed fortunate. On June 20th there will be a free Klassics for Kids concert at 10:00 am for ages 2-10. That evening at 7:30 will feature the Chicago Chamber Orchestra in concert performing Bach and Mozart with Misha. On June 29th at 7:30 in the evening we will be treated to another concert featuring Mozart’s Don Giovanni. We expect both concerts to be a sell out so once we have ticket information we will let you know. Tickets are $6.00 for adults and $3.00 for senior citizens and children.
If you need us give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write to nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org or mail P. O. Box 277 Sesser, IL 62884.
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