The citizens panel gathered to find what it called opportunities for economy in the provision of public services in Springfield and Sangamon County. Upon investigation, they found that the cemetery management was antiquated, that budgeting and accounting needed improving, that information about public agencies ought to be collected and disseminated to the public that pays […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Legislative little me’s
In a country where people of like social class (and thus political views) tend to huddle together like bison in a blizzard, defining the geographical reach of a given legislative district goes a long way toward deciding which party represents it. The unhappy results include uncompetitive races, political stagnation and columns like this one. The […]
Posted inOpinion
Please Mr. Postman
Vachel Lindsay and Sara Teasdale Just when I thought I could learn to forget herRight through the door come a tear-stained letter.– “Tear-stained Letter,” Richard Thompson “We will go out and write poetry in red chalk on the State House walk, where he who runs may read. That will be a conjunction of planets, and […]
Posted inOpinion
Prince of demagogues
Stephen A. Douglas The prospect is in store of two rabble-rousing populists trading insults for the next seven months. Each will try to tap the deep vein of grievance that runs through a middle class convinced that privileged interests (unions or the rich, it hardly matters) have robbed them blind. It’s all too depressing to […]
Posted inOpinion
Home and away
“When I was a boy, I thought Washington Park was a magical place.” PHOTO BY DAVID HINE “He went to places of lost happiness, and increased his misery by beholding the old faces no more, and the old days vanished.” That was Edgar Lee Masters, writing in Vachel Lindsay: A Poet in America about the […]
Posted inOpinion
Shaking up Springfield
Illinois Governor Daniel Walker shakes hands at the Bud Billiken Parade, Chicago, 1973. PHOTO BY JOHN H. WHITE “To those who have grown rich on the public dollar, to those who have won secret grants and contracts, to those in government who put themselves first and the taxpayers second – to you I bring my […]
Posted inOpinion
Honest money
ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS WARE/MCT Am I the only one? Watching the Republican gubernatorial primary reminds me of a homecoming king contest that pits the quarterback whose dad bought him a convertible against the student council vice-president, the swim team equipment manager and the Key Club treasurer. One of them will win, but none of them […]
Posted inOpinion
Demanding answers
Springfield’s power plant is the biggest user of water. This month, City Water, Light and Power announced it would ask the city council to approve updating the water demand analysis done for the department in 1991, the better to assess how best to meet the city’s future water needs. The proposed study will try to […]
Posted inOpinion
Betting with other players’ chips
The downtown block on which stands the old YWCA and little else could become another TIF district. Would that rob Springfield schools, or support them in the long run? Photo BY DAVID HINE This caught my attention while reading the paper the other day – caught my attention in the same way that swallowing something […]
Posted inOpinion
Name-calling
Is it Springfieldian or Springfielder? Many years ago, when the creeks ran clear and deer roamed free in the wooded groves of downtown Springfield, I was leaving Lanphier Park after watching the Springfield Redbirds play a ball game. I ran into IT colleague Ruth Knack and her husband, Bill Knack. Baseball, as its fans will […]
Posted inOpinion
Trial by jury
The United States ended military conscription in 1973, but draft-dodgers still roam the land – ordinary citizens drafted involuntarily into service as trial jurors by the courts. Many objections can be made to the policy of hauling untrained laypeople off the street under threat of fines or prison to decide complex matters of fact and […]
Posted inOpinion
God lets Ingersoll off
Robert G. Ingersoll PHOTO COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION. BRADY-HANDY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION. Atheists don’t expect to rise from the dead, but one famous dead agnostic came up, as it were, when I was reflecting last week on the fear and loathing that atheists excite among some Illinoisans. Attorney Robert G. Ingersoll, blasphemer […]
