Merle Widmer has retired from the County Board, but not from politics. Everyone who knows him, and I do, knew he would not go quietly. After a big time losing effort to slow down, if not stop the downtown museum, Merle’s latest diatribe in the local paper was directed at board chairman, Tom O’Neill. O’Neill, a partisan Democrat who is also a city electrician, pulled a Sharon Kennedy stunt by appointing Democrats as chairmen to just about every committee except latrine duty. Kennedy was roundly criticized by the editors at the Journal for her “gotcha politics,” but today’s paper pushers at the left-wing palace on the hill remain quiet. Merle knows “to the victor go the spoils” and Democrats control the board and thus chairmanship and thus who gets committee chairs.
Ability means nothing to O’Neill. The only Democrat chairman who was fair and made appointments on the basis of ability was Bill Prather. He’s gone from the County Board and so is good judgment when it comes to appointments. Merle’s letter was like spitting in the wind, similar to his anti-museum crusade.
KUDOS TO ERIC TURNER
City councilman Eric Turner spelled it out for taxpayers when he let people know District 150 is responsible for a jump in real estate taxes, not the city. But wait. I thought those wise members of the school board were going to save millions by closing Woodruff High School. Not.
THE MASSACRE
I’m a Bradley graduate and a big sports fan dating back to the days when the Braves played at the Armory on North Adams. Until the family experienced major health problems, we were season ticket holders in good times and bad. These are bad times. I just didn’t understand all of the media excitement over Bradley traveling to the home court of the nation’s #1 team and probably home to the best program in college basketball.
Undermanned with or without their three starters, the Braves had no chance against Coach K, but that didn’t mean anything to local print and electronic media. It was like the party General Custer had the night before Little Big Horn.
Watching the game on TV was hard. Very hard. I don’t drink, but wish I did. It could’ve have made it easier. Meanwhile, sports writer Kirk Wessler, speaking before Downtown Kiwanians, says Bradley basketball is in peril and has been for decades due to the school’s failure to build a new campus arena and other modern athletic facilities. He also maintains failure of university officials to allow students to sit close to the court as they do at other colleges has contributed to the program’s lack of success. Hmmm. So that’s why Bradley lost to Quincy and Eastern Illinois at the Civic Center. There’s more appeal for athletes to attend school at Quincy and Charleston, Illinois? Could better coaches, recruiters and players have something to do with the decline?
SPECIAL
REMEMBRANCE
It was cold as hell, but some 175 people gathered December 7 at the Creve Coeur War Memorial to remember the Japanese sneak attack that killed and wounded close to 3,700 Americans at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The speakers were outstanding from Secretary of State Jesse White to Col. William Robertson of the 182nd Airlift Wing to Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Hal Fritz. While my feet were as cold as ice, it was a distinct honor and pleasure to serve as emcee for the second year and to shake hands with America’s heroes while remembering those who have fought and died to protect all of us.
Little media attention was paid that day by the national media for Pearl Harbor and World War II. But on the anniversary of the death of John Lennon the media did all kinds of tributes that went on and on. So now you know who the heroes are to the liberals in the print and electronic media. I’ll salute the foot soldier on D-Day and the Marine at Iwo Jima and the pilot in Vietnam and all the other men and women in the military before the John Lennons of this world.
EXCLUSIVE
You probably haven’t heard about RFID hacking in the media, yet. For some reason, as we went to press, no one in the media has been talking about electronic pickpocketing. Using a special electronic device, people can actually press against you in a crowd and obtain your credit card number including its expiration date. Any card you’re carrying in a purse or billfold can be read, even information on a passport if the card is using RFID. The device is contained in a packet that is about the size of a small laptop computer. While it’s not widely known or used, electronic experts predict it could become a new threat to identity theft. Watch for it to break in the news soon.
MAKING NEWS
WHEN THERE ISN’T
Political gossips John Sharp and Karen McDonald apparently get bored now and then. They struggle to find things to write about in their weekly column in the Peoria Journal each Monday. This was obvious when they wrote and wrote and wrote about the County Board electing a chairman for 2011 as if there would be a contest. Everyone in the Courthouse knew Democrat Tom O’Neill would be re-elected to a second term and Republican Carol Trumpe had no chance. There are 18 County Board members and 10 are Democrats, Duh. Of course, O’Neill won and even Trumpe, a Republican, voted for him in obvious exchange for becoming the choice for vice chairman and remaining as chairman of the Land Use Committee. Some things never change in politics. I’ll repeat my long-time suggestion for Peoria County politicians and taxpayers to do what Tazewell County has done. The County Board chairman should be elected by voters, not politicians. Wherever it’s done, it works. I remember suggesting it at a Republican meeting and the first to object was Carol Trumpe. Too bad. If there was an election by voters, I think Trumpe would win over O’Neill and just about any Democrat. She’s bright, articulate and experienced in county business.
VOTE FOR
CHUCK GRAYEB
Former Councilman Chuck Grayeb has thrown his hat in the ring to serve the city once again. If I could, I would vote for Chuck in a heartbeat for a variety of reasons. He’s intelligent, a dynamic speaker, not afraid to speak openly and honestly, and he has an excellent reputation as an educator. He was and is a strong opponent to the closing of Woodruff High School. Like former District 150 Superintendent Harry Whitaker, Grayeb knows closing Woodruff would not save any money and the decision by school board members was unwise.
Meanwhile, District 150 member Jim Stowell, has decided he wants to be on the City Council. Stowell supported closing a high school, preferably Peoria High. A graduate of Manual, Stowell is a stock broker. Now tell me who knows more about school finances, Harry Whitaker and Chuck Grayeb, or someone who plays the stock market? No bets please.
BAD TIMING
FOR NAMING
On the surface, it appears District 150 has a good fund-raising idea. The district is suggesting citizens can donate money for a specific school room or program and have such named after them. The timing is bad due to the economy. The Peoria Chiefs have failed to get anyone to step forward for the renaming of O’Brien Field for several years and the Civic Center has failed in the same effort for more than five years. There’s another major reason the timing is bad. You’ll recall people on the board like Dr. David Gorenz and others have stated at least one more high school should be closed along with more elementary schools. So donors could make donations for rooms in a school that could wind up closing. Recently, a group of taxpayers was successful in naming the athletic field at Woodruff after Coach Virgil Boucher. A lot of good that effort achieved.
Boucher is dead and so is Woodruff. Now the school district want donors to cough up more money as they secretly discuss the next school closing.
I have a third reason for opposing this fund-raising effort. Where were all of the creative money-making ideas to save Woodruff? Nowhere because the board and other “do-gooders” don’t give a damn about students and their families on the city’s northside. It’s a classic example of educational and community discrimination.
CHRISTMAS PAST
Thanks to Peoria’s WSWT and Bloomington’s Magic 100.7, the radio airwaves were filled during the Christmas season with beautiful music 24/7. For those like me who enjoy the songs of the season, it was wonderful. Even Illinois Central College, on its cable channel 17, played holiday music. It was great hearing artists like Nat “King” Cole, Andy Williams, the Carpenters, Beach Boys and others. I have a question for station programmers.
If these singers are okay in November and December, why not the rest of the year? Best contemporary song and artist, in my opinion, is “Mary Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry, and absolutely the worst, Bruce Springsteen, yelling, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom” —Thomas Jefferson