Fletcher Farrar

Untitled Document Mayor Tim Davlin has sailed into his second term without distinguishing himself on any single issue. The mayor campaigned as a hardworking administrator with a nice big Springfield-rooted family who cleans up well after tornadoes, and that, coupled with Davlin’s good looks and winning smile, was enough to win him re-election. It is […]

Untitled Document American Christians these days focus almost exclusively on the hope of Easter, but little attention is paid to the events of Good Friday that led up to it. Yet a growing body of theologians is rethinking the death of Jesus. Christian Century put the emerging debate in these terms: “Does the cross belong on […]

Untitled Document Not long after Dan Walker took office as governor, in 1973, I interviewed him in his office in the Capitol. I was finishing a journalism degree at Northwestern while beginning a job with Lindsay-Schaub News-papers, in Decatur, that involved covering the Statehouse. He began by telling me that his office was rather small […]

Untitled Document I thought she had star quality, like Reese Witherspoon, maybe, the way she got up to speak before the audience of some 200 people at the PORA fundraising dinner March 3. She was poised, funny, like when she told about almost getting kicked out of PORA, a little embarrassed by a few details […]

Untitled Document Lying with a needle in his arm and parts of his blood streaming into three separate bags, David Parsons is    donating platelets, which takes longer than   donating whole blood, so he has plenty of time to get philosophical. He says in his line of work he’s rejected by 95 percent of […]

Untitled Document One reason Barack Obama chose the Old State Capitol as the site where he would launch his presidential campaign is the reason it was built there in the first place: It is at the center of the state, in a town of good, honest people. In 1837, soon after Springfield was chosen as […]

Untitled Document Our guide called Vietnam “the land of 10 million motorbikes,” and they all seemed to be zooming down the street between the Lucky Hotel and Hoan Kiem Lake, the centerpiece of old Hanoi. There is no tidy stoplight or crosswalk; pedestrians just step out into the traffic and most survive to the other […]

Untitled Document This time of year, everyone is wishing everyone happiness. In the week after Christmas we all heard, a hundred times, “Happy New Year if I don’t see you.” Cards and e-mails offer hope of a “happy and prosperous new year,” a reminder that the two are not the same. This is all just […]

Now that we finally have President George W. Bush talking about “a new way forward” for the United States in Iraq, it would be good to hear Gov. Rod Blagojevich discuss ways to deal with reality in Illinois. Of course, it took a big loss for the Republicans in the midterm elections to get Bush’s […]

Though I knew how the story turned out, as I read I kept hoping that one of the safety inspection reports on Centralia Coal Co. Mine No. 5 would move somebody to action before it was too late. In the months, even years, before that fateful day in 1947, the state mine inspector sent report […]

I’m ready to look beyond this election to the next, and hope that, with Barack Obama, our team can win the World Series again. The prospect of our senator as a candidate for president is more fun to think about than this dreary gubernatorial race in which the best candidate is, once again, behind in […]

The Springfield underground The three girls danced around in a circle. “I’m so happy we’re together again,” the oldest one said. I realized they were dancing in heaven. There is no place in Springfield closer to heaven on an October Sunday than this sunny cemetery ridge, surrounded by still-green oaks and a few maples, red […]