Mayor’s Row……….by Ned Mitchell
Driving to Pinckneyville Friday evening of last week and viewing the countryside as I drove something caught my eye. Passing the Technicolor factory that has had more names than the Bank of Sesser or your local cable television provider, I noticed an empty parking lot. There were no vehicles on the lot! Not too long ago both the front and back lots would have been full of employee’s vehicles. There would have been new SUV’s compact cars, luxury cars, 4 wheel drive trucks, you name it, just about every type of vehicle available and it would have been parked on that lot. This company has moved most of their operation to Tennessee for a more friendly business climate.
Take a drive to Mt. Vernon and you will see the same thing happening there as Joy Manufacturing has moved to another state. Go to Du Quoin and see the empty factory buildings there like Turco or General Henry Biscuit. In a few months look south to Herrin where Maytag is shuttering that huge factory and you will see this epidemic continuing to gnaw away at our jobs and lifestyles in Southern Illinois. Auto manufacturing giant Honda briefly glanced at Illinois a few weeks ago and then quickly said “no thanks” and set up camp in Indiana. Trucking firm after trucking firm have pulled up stakes and moved to Missouri or Indiana.
How does that involve Sesser you ask? Why am I writing about factories that have closed in other towns? At everyone of these empty buildings someone from Sesser worked there. They had children, homes, dogs, cats and family here in Sesser. They bought toothpaste and toys at our Dollar Store. They bought groceries at Sesser Foodland and ate at Subway or The Custard Stand, or Bruno’s. They purchased homes, bought insurance, paid taxes, paid a water/sewer bill, bought gasoline, in other words they had money to spend and that helps our economy. Consider others in the area who had to drive through Sesser to get to their place of work. They purchased food and gasoline on their way through Sesser to get to work or on the trip back home. Now that those jobs are gone, who is left to pay the bills?
That brings me to the part that bothers me the most in all of this. Everyone of these factory executives have publicly stated they are moving out of Illinois due to unfriendly business decisions made by our state’s elected officials. It is easy to blame the reformer/unreformer governor as I often do but there are others involved here. How about every State Senator and State Representative who sit around fiddling while this state burns? Folks we are in a crisis here and nobody is doing anything about it! Where is our leadership in this state. The company CEO’s are singing as if in a choir all on the same page. They without question say they are leaving Illinois due to high worker’s compensation rates, unfair and out of control property taxes, high unemployment taxes and the nation’s largest unfunded pension deficit that someone has to pay back.
That leads me to another question, just who is running this state? That my friends troubles me a great deal. It is the democrat party that is running this state lock, stock, and barrel. Being a democrat this troubles me even more. We should be addressing these issues and we are not. We are turning away from the tough decisions when it comes to job creation and retention. I know our reformer/unreformer boasts about all these new jobs created, but I ask, where are they at? How long can elected democrats ignore Southern Illinois? This area four years ago was very generous to this Governor and of all people who understand the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” philosophy, he needs to get his head out of the sand and call this for what it is and that is a crisis that is ruining families and lifestyles.
The publicity machine is running overtime selling the AllKids health insurance program. This program is for kids who have no health insurance. I submit to you that if we had decent paying jobs with benefits these kids would not be without health insurance and would not be living below the poverty level. Most of their parents would have jobs and would be paying taxes and this state would be able to pay their bills. Can we just turn Illinois into the nation’s largest welfare state? Don’t get me wrong, I do believe government has an obligation to help those who cannot for one reason or another help themselves. I differ with my republican friends a great deal on these types of programs. We also have an obligation to set the business climate to where it will attract jobs instead of pushing them away to other states. Democrats have the opportunity to lead in this state by example and bring back the jobs that we are losing on a daily basis. It is high time our elected democrats in Springfield took a good look at Southern Illinois and what is happening to our job base down here. I’ll even volunteer to talk to the reformer/unreformer in a civil manner and give him a heads up on what the problems are. I would even be the driver on a tour of shuttered factories and tell him the story of someone from Sesser who used to work there and how their loss is OUR loss.
While I am on the subject of factories and jobs, a full page ad in Time magazine caught my eye last week. Hyundai has a full page ad touting the national pastime in America, baseball. A few years ago that could have been Ford, Chrysler or GM, you know the apple pie folks promoting the American national pastime of baseball. Now it is manufacturing giant Hyundai.
The wife and I have purchased two cars this year. The first purchase was a Chevrolet HHR that I found to be made in Mexico. The second was a Dodge Magnum that had the engine made in Mexico, the transmission made in Germany and the car made in Canada. Now what is wrong with this picture? How does one make an engine in Mexico, a transmission in Germany and bring other parts from all over the world and put that car together in Canada and come out? If I wanted a ham sandwich would I start in Sesser and buy the ham, go to Mt. Vernon for cheese, then to McLeansboro for bread and then to Marion for mustard? Of course not, that sandwich would be too costly and take too much time. We have gone from the American big three auto manufacturers promoting baseball to foreign conglomerate Hyundai doing it for us. What is next, apple pie being promoted by Hyundai? That would not surprise me in the least. Motherhood will be next right after apple pie!
I call him the flip flop bandit and that is the guy who was caught red handed stealing from a parked car in Sesser last week. He and his cohort managed to get away on foot but he lost his flip flops, a size 12 in the process. We had over 50 cars burglarized but we were able to recover most of the missing goods because the thugs were spotted before their pick up service made the rounds and got the goods. These culprits will be caught in the near future as they are getting too bold in their activities. If you know of anyone missing a size 12 pair of flip flops, give us a call. We hate for our thieves to be running around bare foot. We will see to it that once they are caught and sent to prison that we the taxpayers will furnish them with a new pair of Nikes, it is the least we can do!
We hope you had a nice quiet 4th of July and were able to spend quality time with family and friends in a safe environment. We strive hard to make Sesser just that place and invite your comments and suggestions at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org
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