Home Delivery |
Contact Us |
Jobs |
Alerts |
News Archives |
Site map |
Log In |
Webmail |
Internet Services |
Mobile
Text size: 
No cure for Springfield politicians' edifice complex?
|
SPRINGFIELD -- Do Illinois politicians suffer from an edifice complex? I couldn't help but wonder that when I was driving down Main Street in my hometown of Galesburg and found myself on the Donald L. Moffitt Overpass. Usually you think of bridges, buildings, parks and other public facilities being named after someone once they are dead -- or at least out of office. But state Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson, is alive and well and still in office. Illinois politicians have a habit of naming things after one another. In case you think I'm picking on Moffitt, I'm not. He's a nice fellow who I genuinely like. But come on, do we really need to be naming things after politicians while they are still in office? I object to this system in which the governing class honors one another by naming things after each other. Other communities have done it, too: -- Jacobs Park in East Moline is named after state Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, and his dad, Denny, who was also a state senator. City officials said Sen. Mike Jacobs helped obtain $2 million, which was used to refurbish and buy new park equipment. -- The Sidney H. Mathias Transit Center in Buffalo Grove was named in 1999 after the village's former president and current state Rep. Sid Mathias, R-Buffalo Grove. -- Kankakee Community College officials named the school's gym the George H. Ryan Activities Center. Ironically while college students are sweating it out in the gym, the convicted former governor's prison job is wiping sweat off gym equipment in the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Another corrupt former governor, Rod Blagojevich, once suggested that the state could make money by selling naming rights of various state institutions. The idea was pooh-poohedat the time, but it would seem a better alternative than naming state facilities after politicians still in office. After all, incumbents already have considerable name recognition. Why bolster their re-election chances further by having their constituents see their names on public buildings? And let's not lose sight of the fact that these buildings and other public amenities are paid for with our money -- not the politicians'. Yes, I'm aware that Abraham Lincoln was a politician and that the state has more things named after him than you can shake a stick at. But the difference is that he was out of office and buried before folks began hanging his moniker on parks, bridges and roads. (The exception of course is the town of Lincoln, Ill., which had the foresight to name itself after Lincoln before he became president.) Interestingly enough, since Blagojevich's impeachment, the state has been busy removing his name and that of his wife from just about everything. Even the wildflowers the state planted along highways no longer are identified as a Patty Blagojevich-inspired project. The Legislature even prohibited paying for a portrait of Blagojevich to hang in the Capitol (like other governors before him). Never mind that fellow gubernatorial felons Otto Kerner, Jr., Daniel Walker and George Ryan didn't lose that honor. But with Blagojevich, they would just as soon wipe away the legacy with the ease of a turpentine-soaked rag on canvass. It kind of reminds me of that scene in the movie the "The Ten Commandments" when the Egyptian Pharaoh confronts Moses and says: "Let the name of Moses be stricken from every book and tablet. Stricken from every pylon and obelisk of Egypt. Let the name of Moses be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man, for all time." It just goes to show you, politicians have always loved to create monuments to themselves. Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse reporter and the journalist in residence at the Illinois Policy Institute; sreeder@illinoispolicy.org. 
|
|
 |
|
||
East moline, IL Details |
|||
Easiest and Best Coffee Cake
(More recipes)
| (More Print Ads) |
Today is Saturday, May 18, the 138th day of 2013. There are 227 days left in the year.
1863 -- 150 years ago: A large variety of children's wagons and gigs have arrived in thecity and are being sold at war prices.
1888 -- 125 years ago: All Rock Island retail houses, with the exception of a clothingstore and a jewelry store, have agreed to early closing hours during the summer months.The store will be closed at 8 p.m.
1913 -- 100 years ago: Baseball enthusiasts in Rock Island are attempting to raise$20,000 to keep the Island City Park open, despite the fact that the city has no franchise inorganized baseball this year.
1938 -- 75 years ago: The organization of a third rural young people's unit will beundertaken tomorrow night at the Milan Presbyterian Church, with Mrs. Mildred K.Wellman, home advisor, and Robert Smith, county farm adviser in charge.
1963 -- 50 years ago: Deere & Co. will begin a "big switch" on its telephone systemMonday morning. The extension numbers of all 1,600 telephones on the firm's EastMoline and Moline exchanges will be changed Monday morning.
1988 -- 25 years ago: East Moline's June Jamboree VI -- Nostalgia Days, will seemlike a '60s revival with the appearance of stars like Bobby Vee, Freddie Cannon, PeterNoone, Turtles, The Grass Roots and Lou Christie. This year's festival has beenexpanded to five days, June 22-26, at the Northeast Park complex.
(More History)