When I noticed that the City Council was preparing to address the problems of homelessness, I stopped by outside St. John’s Breadline after lunch to ask the poor and the homeless, and those who try to help them, whether they had any suggestions for the city’s leaders. I asked John, a blind man tapping his […]
Editor’s Note
Posted inOpinion
“Small” is beautiful
You might assume that the Small Business Administration exists to help, you know, small business — but that would ignore the conniving nature of big business and the weaselly nature of the SBA. Of course, the Bush administration constantly poses as the champion of America’s small enterprises. The head of SBA recently bragged that the […]
Posted inOpinion
Subsidizing a criminal
Even when a big corporation is caught red-handed in an illegal scam to steal billions of dollars from taxpayers, the Bush administration still can’t resist blowing a sweet kiss to the thieving giant. The Boeing Co. is this particular giant’s name, and it has been a reliable and generous donor to Bush and his Republican […]
Posted inOpinion
How to swing a Sierra club
Nobody likes deals done in secret, or under the threat of a lawsuit, but the substance of the Sierra Club deal with City Water, Light & Power is excellent. It gets Springfield involved in wind energy, as well as promotion of energy efficiency and conservation, while reducing emissions of harmful gases and cutting down on […]
Posted inOpinion
Pumping out more ads
Corporate advertisers are concerned — concerned that there still are a few moments in our lives when we hear no ads at all. Take, for example, when we’re pumping gas. There we are, with our hand on the hose, watching the numbers roll by, and what are we doing? Probably thinking about our plans for […]
Posted inOpinion
Why Democrats lose
Friends, it’s time to take up a collection so we can seek a cure for a tragic disease. The disease is PTS — political timidity syndrome — and it’s epidemic among congressional Democrats. The latest to show the telltale symptoms of this heartbreaking scourge is Hillary Clinton. The New York senator and Democratic contender for […]
Posted inOpinion
Ad creep advances
It’s now officially true: Nothing is sacred. Advertising — the ubiquitous bane of our corporate world — has continued its relentless creep through American culture and has now found its way onto the stage. Yes, having conquered movie theaters, ads are now entering the sanctum of the live theater. I don’t mean the printed ads […]
Posted inOpinion
The Indelible Stain of Gitmo
George W. Bush’s prison camp at Guantánamo Bay is not only a hellhole for the roughly 460 men who’ve been locked down there for four years — it has now also become an indelible, shameful, and spreading stain on our country’s fundamental morality. You and I must no longer avert our eyes from what the […]
Posted inOpinion
Attack by the corporate foxes
While George W. Bush, the Congress, and the media have us looking south to the “invasion” of America by impoverished illegal immigrants or looking east to the “endless threat” to America from hordes of fanatical Islamic terrorists, there’s another, very real but very quiet, siege taking place on our government. It’s coming from within. Far […]
Posted inOpinion
Bill Clinton on his best behavior
“The greatest thing about not being president anymore,” Bill Clinton told our crowd at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies gathering in Little Rock last weekend, “is, I can say whatever the hell I please.” Some of us got our pencils ready. “The only trouble is, you all don’t have to pay any attention anymore.” Many […]
Posted inOpinion
Dennis jerks into action
Stop the presses! A major discovery has been made: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has shown signs of having a pulse! Surprised experts say this might mean that Hastert is not just a bloated papier-mâché political puppet after all — he may have the capacity for independent thought. Dennis — the laconic, doughy, somewhat […]
Posted inOpinion
Springfield’s race history haunts City Hall
Last week’s panel discussion of race relations in Springfield was well under way when Mayor Tim Davlin slipped into the room and sat in the back row, but he was there for the best part. That was when two of the panelists brought history home to the present. University of Illinois at Springfield emeritus professor […]
