Three weeks ago, when Tiffany
Taylor launched an online petition drive
to restore funding to Illinois historic sites, her goal was to gather 1,000
signatures. A graduate student working toward a master’s degree in
historical administration at Eastern Illinois University, Taylor, 24, sent
an e-mail to about 100 people alerting them to her petition. She met her
goal of 1,000 signatures within the first two days.
“At first, it was a lot of people that I know,
but then it was a lot of people I didn’t know,” Taylor says.
“I started getting e-mails from people in England saying they
can’t believe the governor’s doing this. It went all over the
world pretty quickly.”
At press time, it had garnered almost 5,000
signatures, despite being at least temporarily hacked to divert recipients
to an X-rated site. The petition pleads for restoration of the $3 million
that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has whacked from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Taylor plans to present the petition to the General Assembly. You can view
the petition at www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ihpa.
This article appears in Sep 18-24, 2008.
