Mayor’s Row….by Ned Mitchell
What a way to start off the New Year here in Illinois, another special session of the state legislature in Springfield. Once again the reformer/unreformer has struck with lightning speed in calling everyone back to work on his every wish. This time it is the mass transit problem in Chicago and after two multimillion dollar bail outs in the last few months this bunch is broke again. As you well remember the great leader of this state made it look like he had a lot of extra cash lying around when he jumped in to save the day only to later reveal to us that all this money was money that had been set aside for other programs such as coal mining expansion. Now we find out that all of this was only a temporary fix and the problem is still there.
What we have in this state is a very large group of democrats who have no desire to make the tough decisions they were elected to make. It is very difficult to raise taxes on folks or to cut programs and we all know and understand that. Standing behind these leaders who cannot make decisions that might spell doom to their political career are a whole group of other democrats who apparently have no back bone whatsoever as they sit on their hands and do nothing to change the way things are in Springfield.
It just recently dawned on me after listening to a fellow democrat in his 80’s complaining about how the democrat majority in Illinois has done nothing but grant themselves two pay raises and change the primary election date to benefit one person. I have not decided who will get my vote in the democratic primary for President but I am somewhat dismayed that our leaders in this state have changed the whole primary system to benefit Barack Obama in his presidential bid. Really, how goofy is that? And what about all of the other candidates in this state who are running for office? Do we just set them aside and change the rules to benefit one? Or what about the voters who might not yet be fed up with business as usual and want to get out and vote? Is this change good for them or does anyone care anymore?
On top of all of that we still have to deal with the proposed gambling expansion in Illinois. That little problem has turned into one huge problem now that the Governor’s right hand man Chris Kelly has been indicted in federal court. Kelly was the go to guy for the governor the last time we had expanded gambling and look where that has gotten us. Many state legislators that were on board to expand gambling have got to be real nervous now and there will surely be more indictments coming. I am thinking votes will be hard to find to do anything this Governor is proposing especially since he has been exposed as “Public Official A” in the latest series of indictments. It looks to me like the guy is going to have a hard time rounding up friends for his projects.
Somewhere in this mess is the proposed capital bill called “Illinois Works” which is a joke of a name to begin with. Illinois has lost thousands of good paying jobs under this Governor’s watch so I hardly think we can claim to be a state that works! We have many worthwhile projects such as school construction, bridge replacement, road construction and a whole multitude of other things that need done but no money to pay for them. The proposal was to expand gambling and take the revenue from that to pay the loan back on money that was borrowed to fund “Illinois Works”. Whatever happened to elected leaders coming up with viable plans to fund much needed capital projects? Even liberal U S Senator from Illinois Dick Durbin recently admonished our democrat leaders to come up with other means to pay for projects besides the expansion of gambling. Durbin knows and understands that for gambling to make a lot of money, a lot of people have to lose money or that simply will not work.
So you and I will be sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting with baited breath to see what does or does not happen in our great state. Many writers with a lot more political savvy have tried their best to predict the outcome of this group and have been second guessed and out maneuvered every time so it will do me little good to make any wild predictions here for the New Year. About all I can say is hold on to your hats, or more specifically, your wallets as we enter a New Year with the same old clowns performing in the circus!
It is always tough to say goodbye to a friend, especially a friend who also was an employee. City of Sesser police officer Rick McCarty died last week and even though we all knew that Rick was gravely ill, I somehow thought, hoped, and prayed that he would pull out of it. Rick had been diagnosed with a cancerous situation several months ago and had undergone vast treatments to slow the disease down. We were all in hopes that Rick would get good news but that never came and he died from the disease. Rick came to us after retiring from another department and he was just a godsend to Sesser. He had an immense understanding of the public and his years of experience helped him deal with all types of problems here. Rick was a mentor to the younger guys and a huge help in training them for the job they do for us every day. He was always friendly to me and was an expert on all kinds of guns and ammunition. Rick was always the level headed officer who took a lot of abuse from the driving public or those in the heat of a domestic argument. He never lost his cool and if he had to arrest you he did so in a professional manner.
My son Justin just graduated from the State Police Academy in Springfield and is now on duty in District 17 of the Illinois State Police at LaSalle, Illinois. He has been involved with law enforcement for several years now first starting out with the United States Border Patrol and working his way back to Illinois. While we in the family are all extremely proud of Justin and his career choice, I can only hope that an officer of Rick McCarty’s caliber will work with Justin in his new job and help him in a very dangerous occupation. I never heard Rick McCarty complain and perhaps that might be because I was complaining to often about everything for him to have a chance to get in a word. He would listen and think a bit and would say it surely ain’t that bad now and when I stopped long enough to catch my breath, I realized that no, in the grand scheme of things important, my problems or complaints were not serious at all. So farewell to our friend and employee Rick McCarty. To his wife Susan and family, we will always remember Rick in Sesser.
| |
|
