Editorials

Restoration of Trust in Democracy

by Jim McGill, North Pekin

Corruption can be outlawed. Just as laws were enacted enabling it.

However, it will take major changes to even begin to turn it around. It is vital for voters to step up and get incumbents, at all levels, to make those dramatic changes.

Over the years many laws were passed which make it more and more difficult to remove self serving incumbents.

First, idiotic gerrymandering collaborated upon by Representatives from both parties. It violates the principle of providing citizens with the nearest Representative possible. Districts should be compact and minimize splitting each recognized Governmental district. This would take unbiased computerized methods of defining all representative boundaries.

Then, implementing term limits for all offices, whiskers do not make people smarter. One basis for consideration of term limits could be, by using the Presidential limit of eight years for all elected/appointed servants.

The elimination of earmarks used to “buy” votes by incumbents. Perhaps one bill could be prepared for all sweetheart deals and/or Incumbent privileges, then maintaining great efforts in keeping all amendments germane to the original bill, followed by elimination of “Shell Bills”.

Enacting an Act giving citizens a reasonable method to recall incumbents at, all levels, includes judges who issue idiotic rulings, such as, ruling to remove “Christianity” from our traditional way of life, as founded by our forefathers. Or, rulings that enable the perpetuation, with our tax dollars, of immoral life styles.

Re-establish the requirement to have public votes for pay, perks and/or benefits of incumbents.

There are many other examples causing mistrust that need to be addressed. Briefly, a few are: valid separation of church and state; sunset requirements for all programs; allowing “leadership” to sell out to lobbyist by collecting money, then using it to buy elections(and votes) of subordinates. This buying of votes is somewhat obscure by rationalizing, but is well known by Incumbents and most political activists.

Elimination of programs like Tax Increment Financing (TIF) which use tax dollars to shift businesses within the State, County or City. Few if any, get out of state customers because of those TIF shifts. Neither does the TIF law require a reasonable return-on-investment(ROI), nor require the TIF study to include the lost property value caused by those shifts. In Peoria the best example of this may be the John Bee closing and Cub reopening. Neither does the TIF statue require performance bonds to guarantee “pay back” of Tax Money used.

Overcoming these, for the most part, self serving re-election benefits would be a great step toward restoring some of the lost trust/confidence that is sorely needed in our present state.

Finally, one of my pet peeves is, the continual “improvements” in vehicle and worker safety laws without requiring comparable decreases in our insurance costs.

Thoughts on Black History Month

by Dolores Klein, Peoria, IL

On January 20th our first black President was sworn in, one day after the Dr. King Day celebrations. With all the credit due to this towering figure in American Civil Rights History being acknowledged across the country, I was pleased to hear a participant on a panel on CSpan give credit to the role played by the N.A.A.C.P. from its inception on, and in conjunction with Dr. King’s Southern leadership Conference, in the ongoing struggles after King’s death. (I learned some years ago that that organization was formed because legally, the N.A.A.C.P. could not operate in at least one southern state.)

In the Peoria area, many of us have been wishing that our own heroes, John and Cozetta Gwynn, Bill and Doris Miller, among others, could have lived to see this day. All across the country, local leaders like John took the brunt of the dislike (to put it lightly) heaped upon activists demanding desegregation of local restaurants, hotels, schools, etc. I realize now that Gwynn inspired such feelings because he acted as if he were a free man. He put together an integrated board, and inspired those who had been involved in Catholic Interracial Council and other organizations to join him in a determined non-violent rejection of local institutional racism.

A young man from Vermont has been working on a history of Peoria’s Civil Rights Movement for a number of years. Before John Gwynn, we were aware that there were Harry Sephus and others. We hope the work done by this researcher will be available soon. Our children, very young at that time, saw John Gwynn as a hero, and were lucky to be participants in local history.