In his appearance at the Presidential Library Tuesday, one of the great liberals of Illinois politics, Abner Mikva, set many of us to reminiscing as he told stories from his 10 years in the Illinois House, 8 years in Congress, 16 years as judge on the federal Court of Appeals and two years as White House counsel under President Bill Clinton. In 1997 he founded a nonprofit, Mikva Challenge, which works on a nonpartisan basis to empower youth to become active in government and politics. When an audience member suggested he work with the wealthy Bruce Rauner to start a chapter here, Mikva said it wouldn’t work. “You have to believe in government,” he said. He said today’s anti-government politicians have lost the old sense that problems can be solved by bargaining over differences to arrive at compromise. Apt words for Springfield in the summer of 2015. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2015.
