Mayor’s Row…….by Ned Mitchell

            Things have been awfully quiet in Illinois for the past week or so.  Could it be that our reformer/unreformer Governor and the legislators are on spring break and too busy hunting Easter eggs to hold any press conferences?  Or could it be merely the calm before the storm?  Our fearless leaders will be back in session this week and hard at work on solving problems in Illinois.

            I read the past week how really dumb we were to move the Illinois primary up by about a month to try and give native son Barack Obama an extra boost in his efforts to obtain the democratic nomination for President.   That was all well and good until other states liked the idea and began jumping on the proverbial bandwagon.  This is another very short sited blunder by the powers that be in Springfield.    The way we passed this law threw us into the giant melting pot of others who wanted the primary date changed to benefit Obama.  The only problem with that is we were so busy trying to keep up with the Jones that we forgot we know how to shake the bushes for votes.  Instead of Illinois being in the limelight we were delegated to the background and consequently nobody really paid any attention to us at all.

            We would have been much smarter had we just left well enough alone and kept our old primary date.  That would have come before the Pennsylvania primary election and after almost everyone else’s election on that day.  If we would have just left the old primary dates intact all of the major media outlets in nationwide would be focused on Illinois right now.  Now our spot in the limelight has disappeared and everyone is focused on Pennsylvania.  It could have been Illinois but thanks to some really fancy footwork by Speaker of the House Mike Madigan and Senate President Emil Jones, Illinois was merely one of many who held a primary on Super Tuesday.  I am having trouble remembering exactly when the last time was that this bunch did something that made any sense.  One thing about it though, it surely has to get better because it is hard to imagine how it could get any worse here in Illinois.

            A big part of the presidential race is being taken up by the Iraq war.  It makes no difference who you like for President, the Iraq war is hitting all of the candidates and they are each individually searching for the right answer.  We are spending billions of dollars a year now on this war and practically everyone in America has an opinion on the subject of this war.  One thing we are not hearing candidates talk much about though is the subject of illegal immigrants or aliens.  This problem is costing me and you a whopping $338 billion dollars each year that it continues.

            Right now in America 30% of all federal prison inmates are illegal aliens.  We are spending in excess of $3 million dollars every day to incarcerate illegal aliens.  Illegal aliens have a crime rate of 2 and one half times that of actual American citizens.  We are spending billions of dollars each year on welfare, food assistance, free lunch, medical care, education, and other costs and pouring it down a giant rat hole to care for illegal aliens living in this country.  For what good reason are we spending this money on this problem?  Surely someone will have a logical explanation.  One thing about it this problem is not going to merely go away.  It will be very interesting to see if any of the candidates comes forward and even mentions illegal aliens and their cost to America.

            We hope that you all had a very nice Easter and that you found all of your Easter eggs that the famous dude known as the Easter Bunny left for you.  Little Carrigan is in a state of mass confusion though as she picks up Easter candy all the while keeping at least one eye open looking for that dreaded giant Easter Bunny.  When she spots the Easter Bunny in a mall or anywhere, she forgets all about the candy and takes off.

            Sesser residents enjoyed a community wide Good Friday church service this year and the special evening was hosted by the First Apostolic Church of Sesser.  Members of the new church on the east side of town along with their Pastor Brad Dunning and his family led the congregation in song to open the service.  Members of the Sesser-Valier Ministerial Alliance took part in the service with First United Methodist Church pastor Harold Quick delivering the evening message.  Pastor Quick used a sign message for his text that he had read on the Apostolic Church billboard last week.  The title of the sermon was “Are you in the way, or are you just in the Way?”   It was a dynamic message and a tremendous evening when all of the churches of the community came and worshipped together. 

            We are privileged to have a very active Ministerial Alliance here in Sesser and one of their most successful programs is the Life-Line food pantry which operates out of city hall.  The offering taken up at the community service was dedicated to the cause of feeding the hungry in the Sesser and Valier area.

            Speaking of Easter, this year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives and only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early before.  You would have to be 95 years old to have seen Easter this early before as the last time it was this early was in 1913.  The next time Easter will be this early will be in the year 2228 or 220 years from now.  The last time Easter fell on March 22 was in 1818 so no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than it was this year.

            In my duties as Mayor I am always on the lookout for things that I see happening around us and as you know am usually pretty quick to point out the things that need to be pointed out.  I am a big believer in the theory that each one of has to be an ambassador for Sesser in order to make our town a better place to live. 

            I noticed one such individual last week taking action that I think speaks well of our city and our Chamber of Commerce.  Our local bank branch manager at Regions Bank, Travis Severin, went out of his way to be nice a few weeks ago to a prospective bank customer that lives north of Sesser a few miles.  In so doing this customer liked the way they were treated and initially moved a retirement savings account to Sesser.  They later moved their business account here and now do all of their business at the Sesser bank.

Here is an individual who saw an opportunity to do his job and land a new customer.  Where we all benefit from this is not only will this person make frequent trips to Sesser to bank, they will also eat at our restaurants, buy gasoline, groceries, lumber products, rent movies, flowers and a whole host of other products and services offered in Sesser.  This is what sets us apart from other small towns, individuals attracting others to Sesser.  What helps one of us helps all of us!