Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document Dan Hynes, the state comptroller, had it right when he said recently, “There is a growing sentiment out there among everyday people who normally don’t follow state government that this is ridiculous.” The legislative session, with its childish bickering and frustrating delays, drew a similar conclusion from those who do follow state government. […]

Untitled Document The great 19th-century naturalist John Muir was onstage at New Salem State Park last Sunday, in the person of the actor John Wallace. “The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God,” Muir said, “for they were the best He ever planted.” Muir was there to […]

Untitled Document “The founding fathers warned you!” proclaims the 16-by-8-foot sign that Garret Jordan has erected in his yard on Sixth Street, just south of Springfield Clinic’s construction site. The sign lists some of what Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Madison warned against: Foreign entanglements. Enslaving taxation. Mainstream media. Open borders. Government secrecy. “The price of […]

Untitled Document It was already dry in southern Illinois early this summer when I went down for my class reunion. As a group of us from the Mount Vernon Township High School class of 1967 gathered for lunch before the festivities, somebody said that they’d heard that David’s mother had recently died. She had been […]

Untitled Document The U.S. strategy in Iraq is failing, and it is time for something new. Withdrawing American troops would not leave the vacuum that many suppose or the consequent bloodbath they fear. Getting the United States out would open the door for two other powerful groups to enter and lead the peacemaking effort. One […]

Untitled Document It is August, and all the gardeners in Springfield are harvesting their juicy red tomatoes to take to the state fair. They do this not to compete in the produce judging but rather in hopes they will sight Gov. Rod Blagojevich and take aim at the one they credit the most for the […]

Untitled Document Roland, the editor, recently told me, the senior writer, that he wouldn’t mind having an occasional piece from the Illinois Times archives as a way to mine some of the good stuff that was done way back when. I can arrange that, I said. Let’s see . . . where to begin? Oh, how […]

Untitled Document People who have lived somewhere else are best at understanding how complex and cumbersome Springfield’s trash system is. When Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson lived in Chicago, she simply put her garbage out and it was picked up. No bill, no questions, no problem. That’s the way it works in most cities, large […]

Untitled Document The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies gathered for its 30th annual convention last week in the Left Coast city of Portland, a booming place that prides itself on its light-rail transportation system, green buildings, and progressive politics. It sometimes calls itself the People’s Republic of Portland, boasts that it never voted for Bush I […]

Untitled Document What is wrong with the Illinois legislature? By now many are asking how democracy got broken here and how it can be repaired. A General Assembly session that began with progressive ideas on health care and education — along with rare willingness by the governor and legislative leaders to raise taxes to pay […]

Untitled Document Looking out over the crowd at the Historic Sites Commission’s Mayor’s Awards for Historic Preservation, I began to think that maybe historic preservation in Springfield has reached the tipping point, that magical critical mass where the movement just takes off like an epidemic. At this 15th annual affair, the crowd was bigger than […]

Untitled Document The governor’s proposed gross-receipts tax isn’t as gross as you think. Ohio, Texas, Washington, and other states have each implemented a version of the tax successfully. In those places it provides needed revenues fairly, with no signs of businesses’ failing or fleeing, as the Illinois business lobby warns will happen here. Unfortunately, Gov. […]