EXTRA: Gas prices on the rise. So are the level of complaints we’re hearing

Just a thought as far as people complaining about the price of gasoline going up these days on account of the increase in the state of Illinois’ motor fuel tax.

Remember when gas prices soared this high in Chicago?

Yes, it costs less in surrounding states, which could make for an advantage if one happens to be in a bordering region at the time they need to make a automotive fuel purchase.

SUCH AS MY own circumstance earlier this week when I happened to be in Gary, Ind., and encountered a Mobil gas station charging $2.69 per gallon of gas. Other stations I witnessed in the land of Hoosiers had gas prices ranging from $2.79 to $2.95.

Yet the moment I came back to the land of civilization, the cheapest gas prices I saw were around $3.19 – with motor fuel at name-brand stations costing potentially $3.30 per gallon. With the additional cost that gas usually incurs in Chicago proper, the cost goes up further.

With the gaspricewatch.com website indicating Thursday that gas prices in the city topped at $3.45 per gallon. Much higher than the national average of $2.81 per gallon.

So excuse me (think Steve Martin in the white suit with arrow through his head) if I’m not overly swayed by a story published in the State Journal-Register of Springfield (which the newspaper picked up from the Register-Star newspaper of Rockford) that says prices on the Illinois side of the Illinois-Wisconsin border are now out of control.

An outrage? Not necessarily

THE PAPERS INDICATE gas prices at $2.78 per gallon at stations in Illinois, compared to $2.61 per gallon just north of the state line in Wisconsin.

My point is there are more drastic price differentials than what this paper is trying to pursue as evidence of an outrage. Things are worse elsewhere.

And as far as my own situation, I don’t know I’m willing to make the trip to Gary every time I need to fuel an automobile. It was a circumstance that benefitted me that one day.

Now if it turns out that the gas tax revenue increase does NOT benefit all the road repairs and other projects that the state of Illinois alleges the money will go do, THEN we can rant and rage. Until then, those of us with complaints ought to quit showing that we’re more full of gas than our cars.

  -30-

J.E.B. who? It’s now going to be Obama Elementary in Richmond

It’s not new, or particularly newsworthy, that yet another school somewhere in the country has chosen to name itself after the nation’s 44^th president. Heck, there are some 44 schools that already bear the moniker of Barack Obama.

OBAMA: Now has a Richmond school in memory

Yet most of those were new school buildings erected in recent years, and often in places where the locals never would have put the name symbolizing the Confederacy of old on a public structure.

WHICH IS WHAT makes the newly-named Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond, Va. – named for our very own community organizer-turned-U.S. president, all the more unique.

For until now, the school had bore the name of J.E.B. Stuart – who didn’t even live to see the end of the Civil War, but during the conflict between the states was regarded by southern interests as a skilled horseman and cavalry officer and one of the supreme military officials of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Of course, to everybody else, J.E.B. was just some ol’ white guy who once had the nerve to take up arms against the United States. An act of treason, if you want to be literal about it.

All because he wanted to reinforce the “way of life” that the South always proclaimed – the one that kept non-white people in a status of second-class citizenship. As in the South wanted them counted in the population to boost their total but wasn’t about to give them the same rights of white people.

BUT THERE WERE those who subscribed to the theory of “the lost cause” when thinking of the Civil War who were determined to pay tribute to every possible Confederate figure to try to glorify why they fought against the United States.

So the idea that J.E.B. Stuart could get a school named for him? Have generations of children thinking of him as a figure worthy of respect? I’m sure some would argue it no more ridiculous that I went to elementary schools in the Chicago area named for generals George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

But times truly are changing. No matter how much some want to think this Age of Trump offers credibility to their cause, it seems the day will come when we can dump the Confederacy glorification.

STUART: Now just a figure of the past

We now pay tribute at this Richmond school to the first non-white man to become U.S. president – a concept that I’m sure infuriates the Confederacy-backers and probably has them backing Donald Trump’s actions in large part because they seem determined to erase the memory of Obama’s presidential actions.

BUT MAYBE IT’S just the evidence that the Obama legacy just can’t be erased – and that the Trump presidential legacy ultimately is determined to be his failure to undo the actions of recent decades. No matter how much he tries.

Personally, I find the idea that a Richmond high school is making such a gesture. For that Virginia city once served as the capital during those four years the Confederate states tried declaring themselves to be an independent nation.

Now, of course, Richmond is nothing more than a state capital for Virginia – no more important on the national political scene than Springfield, Ill. Our very own state capital city that gave us the figure of Abraham Lincoln.

Who lives on bigger than any of those grey-clad Confederates who touted the concept of ‘states rights’ not so much because they wanted separate nation-states but because they didn’t want anybody else interfering with their ability to back certain acts of immorality with the rule of law.

TO THE PEOPLE who still, to this day, try to justify the Confederacy, I’m sure the idea of an Obama School in Richmond is the equivalent of phlegm being hocked into their collective face.

Do we need more Lincoln Schools in South

But to the vast majority of us, it’s a sign that we’re finally, long-overdue, ready to move on from the mess that bogged down our nation some 150-plus years ago, and which some continued to tried to fight for during the following century-and-a-half.

Besides, just think of the mental chaos to be created for future generations who try to justify Confederate rhetoric while explaining the existence of Obama School.

While the memory of James Ewell Brown Stuart fades further into the past. Seriously, with all those names, it’s no wonder people just called him “Jeb.”

  -30-

Fixing up the governor’s mansion; that’s Rauner’s one kept promise

If we’re going to be fair, we have to acknowledge the one accomplishment of Bruce Rauner’s time as Illinois governor – the state completed a necessary rehabilitation project of the Governor’s Mansion, work that was desperately overdue.

The governor's mansion -- old enough Abe Lincoln would remember it

The repairs needed to the structure that dates back to 1855 were so extensive that Rauner and first lady Diana actually had to move out of the official state residence provided for our governor.

FOR THE PAST two years, the Rauners have used the state-owned house that is part of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield as their official residence. While more spacious (4,000 square feet) than what is essentially an apartment on the top floor of the mansion, it doesn’t quite have the aura of the structure in downtown Springfield located a block from the Statehouse.

Close enough that I remember the sight of then-Gov. Jim Edgar routinely walking to work every morning that he needed to be in the Capitol Building.

Definitely a step up from the livestock barns of the fairgrounds, whose aroma could carry over to the director’s house (built around 1945) if the winds were blowing the right way.

But the governor and first lady got to return to the mansion that had some $15 million spent on upgrades including a new heating and air conditioning system, a new roof (the old one leaked badly) and a new entrance.

RAUNER: Will he get credit for rehab?

FOR WHAT IT’S worth, many of the problems with the aging structure became apparent during the years of Pat Quinn as governor.

Not that I’m saying Quinn & Co. trashed the place.

But like any structure, constant upkeep is necessary to ensure the building doesn’t rot away. During those Quinn years, there often were higher financial priorities that had to be placed ahead of the official mansion.

Particularly since during the Quinn years, state government undertook a very pricey rehabilitation of the Statehouse itself. The structure dating back to 1877 had its own share of problems that needed to be fixed.

QUINN: Will he get blame for condition?

BECAUSE OF THE structure’s age and historic significance, there are certain standards that have to be met. Certain details that must be fulfilled.

Meaning the expense became so high that many people complained. Just think how much more they would have ranted and raged if Quinn had tried to proceed with a mansion upgrade?

Which is why I think Rauner deserves some praise for getting the mansion project done. Particularly since he managed to put together a group of private donors who took an interest in the building’s historic significance and came up with the cash to get the needed work done.

Which became obvious on Monday, as Rauner himself could be seen carrying boxes of personal possessions into the rehabbed mansion.

A PART OF which will include a display of some of the historically significant people who worked there on behalf of the people of Illinois.

No word on how prominent such as display will be about The Rauner Years – which thus far are much more significant for all the things that didn’t happen and the degree to which partisan politics have dominated the way government worked.

The degree to which people will place the blame on Rauner for the inability of things to get done will depend largely on one’s own ideological leanings and whether one wants to “Blame Bruce!” or “Blame Madigan!” for everything that is wrong in Illinois these days.

The official Rauner residence the past two years

Although one has to admit that if fixing up the mansion is Rauner’s one significant achievement as governor, then something is significantly wrong with the way our state operates and the fact that we seem willing to tolerate such lack of activity from the officials doing “the People’s business.”

  -30-

Let’s just honor everybody with statues on the Illinois capitol grounds

The “Christmas Tree bill.” It was a phrase I always particularly detested from my days back when I covered the Illinois Statehouse scene.

Do we really need Thompson ...

The term applies to a piece of legislation that gets so many people adding on their pet projects to the original idea (usually completely unrelated) – in hopes that all the other things give political support to something that might not gain political favor if it stood all on their own.

WHAT I AWAYS hated about the phrase was the cutesiness of it; as though people were trying to legitimize the idea of piling on so many unrelated items onto one bill so to force approval of something that many might detest.

But that is the reality of our government – the concept that some people feel they’re entitled to “get” something for themselves in exchange for their political votes.

If you think about it too much, it really is greedy. As well as legitimizing some fairly worthless legislation.

This was the thought that crossed my mind when I read a recent report in the State Journal-Register newspaper of Springfield – one that told of efforts to pass a bill calling for various statues to be erected on the Capitol grounds. Technically, Christmas Tree bills relate to the state budget, so this isn’t one. But it certainly shares the spirit.

... or Harold Washington along ...

THE MEASURE STARTED out with the desire by some to have a statue set up to honor the memory of one-time President Ronald Reagan. He may have lived the bulk of his life in California (and served as a governor there before moving up to the federal level).

But Reagan was born in Dixon, Ill., lived one year of his childhood in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, and attended college in Eureka, Ill. – before leaving the Land of Lincoln for an adult life elsewhere. Let’s not forget his eventual wife, Nancy, was a Chicago native (and a student at the Francis W. Parker School in Lincoln Park).

That has the ideologues amongst us determined to shove his memory down the throat of everybody. To enhance the chance that people wouldn’t vote against it for partisan reasons, there also was a suggestion that another statue be erected to the memory of Barack Obama – the one-time state senator from Hyde Park who eventually rose to the presidency.

... to get a Statehouse tribute to Obama ...

But that’s where the piling on started.

FOR IT SEEMS that some people tried suggesting a third statue – one for James R. Thompson, the man who served as Illinois governor (14 years) longer than anybody else.

That begat thoughts of honoring one-time Illinois State Federation of Labor president Reuben Soderstrom. Others tried throwing into the mix a statue of Harold Washington – a one-time state representative who eventually became Chicago’s first black mayor.

Thus far, it seems that the weight of so much bronze and/or marble is such that it is killing off the entire concept. But the legislator sponsoring the original bill told the Springfield newspaper says it’s natural to include a few extra people in the honors if it means he can get his original intent – which is to make us think of “the Gipper” himself as an Illinois native.

... or Ronald Reagan?

Even though you could argue that Reagan left us Illinoisans behind – unlike Obama, the Hawaii native, who came to us in Illinois and Chicago to achieve his greatness. Similar to Abraham Lincoln – who came to Illinois for an adult life that achieved intense success, which is why his statue on Capitol grounds occupies a prominent place up front.

BUT YOU JUST know the idea of an Obama statue solo would offend some, while others are bothered by the idea of ANY KIND of Reagan tribute.

It reminds me of when the General Assembly some two decades ago renamed a portion of Interstate 88 in the northwestern suburbs for Ronald Reagan. To get others whose memories of Reagan are less than favorable to go along, we got the renaming of the one-time Calumet Expressway for Bishop L.H. Ford. – head of the Church of God in Christ and a man of significance in certain South Side neighborhoods.

FORD: His freeway a Reagan toll road trade

Although as I remember it, even then the Legislature passed separate bills – with all the Reagan backers expected to go along and vote for Bishop Ford as well. Our state government, hard at work!

The end result being all these years of radio traffic reports every morning talking of the latest congestion on the Bishop Ford Freeway. And at least a few wiseacres responding with, “Who?”

  -30-

Baseball back in Chicago, and Sout’ Side plays off a Springpatch delicacy

I know there are the hard-core fanatics who think that going to a ballgame and getting something to eat means ordering nothing more than a bag of peanuts and/or a hot dog. If they really want to splurge, maybe they’ll go for a polish sausage.

A capital take on the 'horseshoe'

Which is why I found it amusing when Major League Baseball conducted a food festival earlier this month in New York, where each of the 30 ball clubs felt compelled to feature what they consider to be a unique item their concessionaires sell at the ballpark.

FOR THE CUBS, the featured food was a hot dog. As in served “Chicago-style” with tomatoes, that glow-in-the-dark pickle relish and sport peppers (and absolutely NO ketchup!!!). Which might offend some sensibilities that the Cubs would try to claim such a common food item as their very own.

But the White Sox may be the ball club that came up with something unique.

As in their featured foot item was the “South Side horseshoe,” a sandwich that is considered a variation of that dining “delight” unique to the Illinois capital city of Springfield.

Personally, I have to admit that during the seven years I worked and lived in Springfield, I only once ate a horseshoe. I didn’t think it much of a big deal. In fact, I think it a sign of the lack of a capital cuisine that THIS is considered the unique dining experience (that and chili, which the locals insist on spelling “chilli” sold at “chilli parlors” that Chicagoans most likely would think of as dives).

White Sox offering up a fancier take on the horseshoe

SO TO SEE that the White Sox are adding to their food menu (albeit only at the concessions stands that service the private boxes – the riff-raff sitting in the allegedly cheap seats won’t have easy access) a horseshoe variation makes me want to chuckle.

Particularly since my comprehension of the White Sox version of the sandwich is that it will have Italian sausage and giardiniera, in addition to the French fries and beer sauce that a Springfield-type horseshoe would have.

I suspect that many a Springpatch-type will look at the White Sox’ take on the horseshoe and dismiss it as high falutin’, and way too overly fancy. Others might think it is tampering with the capital’s attempt at culture and cuisine.

Cubs offer a high-priced hot dog

So will be White Sox be selling a “real” horseshoe at the ballpark this season – beginning a week from Thursday when they have their home opener against the Detroit Tigers?

LIKE I SAID previously, I had a horseshoe once when I lived in Springfield, and what I had was turkey on toasted bread with the fries piled on top and the cheesy beer sauce poured on thick. Hamburger or ham are popular alternatives to turkey.

I know of people who think horseshoes are something special who contend that it’s the beer sauce that makes all the difference between a delicacy and an unhealthy pile of slop.

In the case of the White Sox, they’re supposedly using Modelo-brand beer to create their sauce for the sandwich. Whether that makes a difference, I don’t know. But because Modelo is the “official import beer of the Chicago White Sox,” the ballclub feels compelled to promote it.

Old-school red hots at the ballpark

All I know is it will be amusing if the Springfield horseshoe actually catches on at White Sox games. Or if it winds up being dismissed as yet more evidence of the unsophistication of the Illinois capital city.

FOR I’M SURE it will wind up being more adventurous than the Cubs offering up hot dogs. Even if they use the real Vienna beef brand of wieners, I don’t doubt that the Cubs’ take on a hot dog with everything (“dragged through the garden,” so to speak) will wind up coming off as second-rate to the hot dog one can buy at any corner stand.

Particularly when one compares the dollar or so for a hot dog in the real world, compared to the $6 one will have to pay at Wrigley Field.

One-time star now a sandwich

But ballpark food caters to a captive audience, and we wind up paying the high prices for everything (in my case, $9 for a Minnie Miñoso-branded “Cuban Comet” sandwich) in order to experience the thrill of a competitive ballclub trying to do proud by our city.

Anyway, baseball is back for this season (the White Sox start out in Kansas City, while the Cubs ‘do’ Miami), and I’m bound to try to get out to a few games this season. Sitting down by the foul pole in those cheap – by modern standards – seats, where maybe we can compare the merits of a Sox-style horseshoe.

  -30-

EXTRA: Rauner "gettin' his kicks" down Route 66; or at least a part of it

I’m sure it’s meant in part to make our governor, Bruce Rauner, be some sort of regular-guy. Riding his motorcycle along the one-time Route 66 to Springfield, Ill., with stops along the way.

Illinois' governor riding his motorcycle Saturday along the old U.S. Route 66. Photo provided by state of Illinois

Rauner has made his third such trip on Saturday, with his ride supporting Illinois veterans’ organizations and the Honor Flight of Illinois. During his trip, he made stops in Dwight, Lexington and Lincoln, before finally arriving at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield Saturday night.

NOW I SUPPOSE it’s a noble-enough cause to make the ride to draw public attention to military veterans’ groups, along with police officers and firefighters and other public safety workers who are called upon in emergency situations to protect the public in crisis situations.

I just have to nit-pick one detail. Rauner began his motorcycle ride on the old Route 66 in the western suburb of Countryside (which is suburban Cook County).

Yet anybody who knows anything about the old Mother Road knows that the far eastern end of the old 66 was in downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue at Jackson Street.

That’s what the “down to St. Louie, to Joplin, Mo.” portion of the “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” song refers to.

Route 66 marker remains in shadow of former Sears Tower. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

DOES OUR GOVERNOR really want to exclude Chicago from his trip? Does he think we have no veterans who’d like support?

Or maybe he just thinks Chicagoans would see through his stunt to appear to be a part of the “common man?” Or he just wants to appear amongst people who might actually think seriously about voting for him come November '18.

  -30-

Obama ‘farewell’ tour begins Wednesday; there’s nothing more to it

OBAMA: Bringing back memories?

Let’s be honest.

The reason Barack Obama is coming to Springfield, Ill., on Wednesday is to begin the series of stops across the nation that will occur during the next year that are meant to provide a guide as to what the president wants his legacy to be perceived as.

IT KIND OF reminds me of the last couple of months of the Richard M. Daley stint as mayor when Hizzoner, Jr., literally made an appearance in each of the city’s 50 wards so he could boast of some local achievement.

I still remember when he visited my own native 10^th Ward – a stop at the site of the old Wisconsin Steel Works where my maternal grandfather once worked plant so he could brag about a new industrial plant that was being developed there.

No real news, but it was a touchy-feely moment meant to inspire mayoral good will.

That’s the same thing we’re going to get on Wednesday at the Statehouse. Barack Obama will reminisce a bit about his days as a state legislator, then (according to his aides) will offer up a speech meant to encourage political bipartisanship – something that definitely is lacking in Springfield these days.

OF COURSE, THERE wasn’t much in the way of bipartisanship back when Obama was a legislator either. The president’s early days in the state Senate were as part of a minority caucus that then-Senate President James “Pate” Philip went out of his way to treat as irrelevant.

Then, Obama became a significant member of the Democratic majority that Emil Jones used his presidency to let Republicans know what political payback felt like.

In short, the idea of a bipartisanship speech from Obama is too much of a stretch to take seriously. In all honesty, his presidency has been even more ideologically tainted than either those of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

Although that was largely because Obama came into a situation where the opposition party was determined to work to make his presidency a failure. Bipartisanship in the Obama years never had a chance.

Who'd have thought a century ago that someone like Barack Obama could set foot on these grounds as president?

THE ONLY THING that ever really could be accomplished was that the nation got a taste of what Chicago experienced back in the mid-1980s when a majority of the City Council was determined to thwart then-Mayor Harold Washington’s every governmental desire.

Maybe the Congressional types of the past eight years have been more subtle in expressing their bigoted motivations. But the sentiment was the same.

Of course, there’s one other political motivation for having the president speak in Springfield on Wednesday – it comes right after the primary in New Hampshire. Now as I write this, I don’t know who “won.”

But I’m sure there are people prepared to say that, regardless of what the electoral results turn out to be, it represents a repudiation of the Obama presidency. Without a trip to Springpatch, Obama would have to actually come up with answers to dopey questions.

INSTEAD, OBAMA WILL try to get away with talking the moral high ground of political bipartisanship, claiming he wants to work with everybody and it is their own reluctance to do so that has prevented any lasting change from occurring during the past eight years.

It is with all this in mind that I have to laugh at those people who are getting all worked up over the way in which Obama’s address to the General Assembly, to be given in the Illinois House of Representatives’ chambers, is so overly staged.

The capitol won’t be open to the public. Only certain people will even be allowed in the House chambers during the event. News media are being shifted to a separate room where they will watch the event on a television monitor.

There will be an after-party of sorts where people can see Obama – but only if they were pre-invited. In short, it’s a fake event. Completely staged so as to create the illusion of Obama addressing the great unwashed masses.

REAL PEOPLE WILL have to tune in their televisions to whatever local public TV station is broadcasting the event in their part of Illinois. Kind of like a political version of the recently-completed Super Bowl.

Only there won’t be all kinds of inane commercial spots to attract the attention of the politically-clueless. Although there will be all kinds of speculation about who “wins” from the event – Gov. Bruce Rauner, or da Dems?!?

As far as Obama? Heck, he couldn’t even pick the football Super Bowl correctly (he had Carolina beating Denver). What makes you think he can sway our self-absorbed politicos into supporting bipartisanship?

  -30-

Can President Obama bring bipartisanship to Ill. Statehouse scene?

It will be interesting to see what spews from the mouth of President Barack Obama when he returns to Springfield to give a joint address to our state Legislature.

Has it really been eight years?

 We usually don’t get presidents speaking to our General Assembly members so directly, and presidents don’t usually deign to speak to people so low (but who think they’re all important) on the political evolutionary scale.

BUT OBAMA IS a former member of the Illinois Senate (1997 until he got elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004). And the Chicago Tribune reported Friday how the president will make a stop at the Statehouse in Springfield, Ill., on Feb. 10.

Officially, Obama wants to talk to his one-time colleagues (some of whom actually outranked Obama himself back in the old days) about how to work together to build better politics. “One that reflects our better selves,” the Tribune quotes a presidential travel advisory as saying.

I’m sure that some people are going to ridicule the very concept of Obama being the person who can bring people together. Largely because his presidency has been thwarted in so many ways by politically partisan tactics.

He is the one guy that some people of the Republican persuasion (and even a few of the Democratic leanings) will absolutely not listen to! What makes us think that that those people won’t get all worked up with their ideologue fervor to reject anything that comes from Obama’s mouth on that day?

YET OBAMA IS determined to make an appeal on his own home turf – the place where he was once just one of 177 legislators, and one of a few who represented parts of the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods in Chicago.

It would be nice if people would listen to such a message – particularly since my own thoughts and memories of Obama from when I covered him as a legislative correspondent and Statehouse reporter was of a guy who wasn’t the hard-core ideologue that many political people were.

In short, a guy who could easily compromise on issues.

How close did Barack come to matching up to the Man of Steel? Photographs provided by Obama for
America presidential campaign

Which offended his would-be allies in the Democratic and black caucuses who felt he was selling out their core beliefs. And the Republicans who would have preferred a hard-core ideologue of their own fashion in his place.

THE GUY WHO some people were determined to lambast as a socialist and a Muslim and an all-about terrible guy who would have been more than willing to work with them on their pet issues.

That is what has become the Obama presidential legacy, and also a part of the Congressional legacy for our current era. We have a government at the federal level determined to hold out for ideological goals and do nothing for now.

And with the status quo we have had in Springfield for the past year, it seems we’re going to get that same attitude coming to the Statehouse Scene. Whatever shall we do, unless we’re content to have a whole lot of nothin’ going on for the next few years?

So what should we expect seriously to come out of Obama’s trip to the Statehouse, which will bring to our memories that day some eight years ago when Obama used the steps of the old State Capitol building in Springfield (the one that Abraham Lincoln himself would have remembered as the Statehouse) to begin actively campaigning for president.

BACK BEFORE THE Iowa caucuses that gave his campaign an early jolt and made us realize he should be taken more seriously than John Edwards or Bill Richardson or even Hillary Clinton herself!

Will Barack have something serious to say about political bipartisanship? Can he become a voice who helps bring Illinois together beyond the perpetual blame game played by Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago?

Which could be the beginning of a process of bipartisanship for the United States of America as a whole!

Or is this just the beginning of the Obama farewell tour – a way of saying goodbye to the nation; a significant segment of which wishes they could pretend he never existed in the first place?

  -30-

Losing the Thompson Center?

We’re still a long ways away from seeing the Thompson Center state government building in Chicago torn down and turned into an annex of the Trump Building a few blocks away.

Will Bilandic Bldg. have longer legacy than Thompson?

After all, the Illinois General Assembly would still have to sign off on any plan to sell the structure to a real estate developer – who could then tear down the 30-year-old building and erect something else (possibly gaudy) in its place.

CONSIDERING THE CURRENT mood of the state Legislature when it comes to all things gubernatorial, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Democratic majorities that dominate both the state Senate and Illinois House of Representatives were to reject the plan purely out of spite.

It will be disguised by the Chicago-based legislators as a desire to maintain the physical presence of Illinois state government within the state’s (by far) most significant city.

Which actually wouldn’t be a bad reason. For a part of me wonders how much Gov. Bruce Rauner is motivated to take this action by a desire to reduce the level of influence that Chicago has over state government operations.

Take away a building that some view as an alternative work place to the Statehouse in Springfield and make some think that the capital city itself doesn’t matter much.

SCATTER THOSE STATE employees who do need to be Chicago-based around various downtown buildings so they quit thinking of themselves as a force. And you also strengthen the morale of those state workers at the Capitol – who often complain about being dissed by their Chicago-based colleagues.

This intersection won't be as political if Gov. Rauner gets his way

I’m sure that when Rauner earlier this week threw out the suggestion that some Chicago-based employees would have their jobs transferred to Springfield, it burned the bottoms (so to speak) of many state workers who would never accept such a move.

Which could make for a round of hiring to get downstate-oriented workers within state government! Politically, it helps make sense to bolster the level of influence Rauner would have over state government.
 

Remember the 'cocaine' scattered on the floor?

Although in terms of providing actual service to constituents (which theoretically is the only reason government exists to begin with), it’s kind of short-sighted.

NOW AS SOMEONE who once did a two-year stint representing the now-defunct City News Bureau in the press room at the state building (when the structure was only about five years old and also got a tour of by my father back when it was a construction site), I’ll admit I’ll miss the building. The same as I miss the old Sun-Times Building with all its own barge-like lack of style right on the Chicago River.

But I’ll also admit to noticing the level of decrepitness the structure has achieved in recent years. Famed architect Helmut Jahn admits his concept of an urban take on the open-air space under a Capitol rotunda has been allowed to go to seed. I don’t know if I’d feel the same level of sentiment if I had to work there now.

But that doesn’t mean the state shouldn’t have a strong physical presence in Chicago. Although I wonder if this means the Bilandic Building (that houses the appellate and Supreme courts in Chicago) could revert back to its old “State of Illinois Building” status.

With a few stray agencies scattered around the Loop. And most people thinking of state government solely when they visit their local driver testing facility to get their licenses or license plates renewed.

SO PERHAPS IN the long run, it won’t impact many people. Although I wonder what happens when a future governor who thinks a little more long-range than the current occupant of the Executive Mansion does decides Illinois needs its own building in Chicago?

Will we be scouring the city for a location – when the perfect site right across the street from both City Hall and the old State Building is taken by a developer who turns it into an over-glorified shopping center with condos on top?

A historic relic of the future?

And if the Thompson Center really does disappear, then what happens to that black-and-white blob of a sculpture by Jean Dubuffet that has sat outside the structure for decades.

Auction it off to the highest bidder (some overly-wealthy individual who’s willing to buy anything)? Or perhaps move it to the Chicago History Museum – put it in the entrance right before you get to see the dioramas of “historic” Chicago.

  -30-

Lincoln lore lives on; perhaps we could include it in Cinco de Mayo tribute

It has been quite a weekend for those people who get their kicks out of dressing in period fashions and pretending they are re-enacting our history.

For it was 150 years ago Monday that the funeral services were held at Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery to inter the body of then-recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

WHICH MEANS IT was 150 years ago Saturday that the body of Lincoln arrived in Illinois and was on display in Chicago, before taking the final portion of the Lincoln funeral train route to Springfield – pretty much along the same route of towns that now rely on Interstate 55 for their continued existence.

There actually was a replica of the Lincoln funeral train that made the trip this past weekend, giving the historic re-enactors a chance to fully pretend they were gathering for the president’s funeral services.

I can’t say I’m the type who would feel compelled to do such things, despite my own interest in history. In large part because wearing any type of authentic period garb would result in donning itchy, uncomfortable clothing.

Besides, my own girth would make me so much larger than most people of that era. Somehow, I suspect I couldn’t pull off a convincing U.S. soldier trying to escort the presidential casket to the cemetery.

I HOPE THE people who did do such things enjoyed themselves. And that their actions help some people recall the many events of the past four years that were meant to remind us of the Civil War our nation engaged in to maintain the character that was desired by some.

Even though I’m sure there are those amongst us who could easily have adapted if the concept of secession in the name of “state’s rights” had somehow prevailed. We just wouldn’t have known better how much more we’d have as a single nation if the southern states had somehow managed to become their own nation.

We probably would be a pair of mediocre nations in the world that never would have achieved international status had our Civil War had a different outcome.

I was sort of surprised that more in the way of ceremony wasn’t done this weekend at the Calumet City/Hammond border – also known as the Illinois/Indiana state line.

FOR THAT WAS the place where a few years ago local officials insisted in erecting a plaque designating the spot of State Street and State Line Road as the spot where the Lincoln funeral train re-entered Illinois on its route from Washington, D.C., to Springfield.

Although it should be noted that the area near the Indiana Dunes was largely undeveloped then. It now has cities such as Gary and Hammond, Ind., along with Calumet City, Ill. But none of those municipalities existed back then. All of this Lincoln lore makes me wonder what can be re-enacted next.

Perhaps somebody would like to try to re-enact the events that were supposed to take place on Nov. 7, 1876 – a group of counterfeiters hatched a plot to steal Lincoln’s body from the tomb, hide the body by burying it in the Indiana Dunes and demand a $200,000 ransom AND the release of one of their allies from the Joliet Penitentiary.

Not that Lincoln’s remains ever suffered the remains of being buried under lakeshore property enjoyed by generations of future beachgoers. The counterfeiters had big mouths, talked too much, and the Secret Service wound up putting an undercover agent among the gang when they tried to break into the tomb.

THE GANG ESCAPED, but was caught 10 days later in Chicago and ultimately wound up serving a year each in prison. It’s a sordid story that I’m sure most people were never taught about in grammar school history class.

Although I wonder if the Lincoln-motivated re-enactors ought to be trying to do something on Tuesday – which happens to be the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.

That being the day when a Mexican resistance to France’s attempt to control Mexico managed to defeat a French military garrison near Puebla – thereby giving positive motivation to Mexican nationals of regaining their nation’s freedom.

A good part of the reason why they were able to do so was that U.S. support in the form of ties between Lincoln and Mexico President-in-exile Benito Juarez existed. Put a Lincoln twist on Tuesday’s celebrations and perhaps we’d have something more substantial than just a day spent drinking third-rate margaritas.

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EXTRA: Inaugural concert contact w/ people, or 'Bruce can’t dance' coverup

I find myself amused by the idea of an Inauguration concert to be held Monday night in Springfield, and not just because it reduces legendary Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy to the role of a warm-up act for Oklahoma native country music singer Toby Keith.

It reminds me of when one-time professional wrestler Jesse Ventura became Minnesota governor early in 1999 and held an inaugural concert featuring bluesman Jonny Lang and Delbert McClinton, with rocker Warren Zevon also appearing.

BOTH VENTURA AND new Gov. Bruce Rauner gave nearly identical excuses for not having the traditional inaugural ball; both said they felt a concert was something that would appeal to the masses instead of overly-stuffy politicos.

They may be right about one point – as someone who covered the Inauguration ceremonies held for Jim Edgar and George Ryan, the ball in Springfield always struck me as a third-rate attempt at replicating the Inaugural Ball held in Washington for the new president.

And maybe Rauner finds appealing the thought that Keith is a one-time Democratic Party partisan whose conservative ideology has caused him to identify with Republicans in recent election cycles.

Or maybe he just wants to hear “American Soldier.” Personally, I think Illinois could have done better – although I’m inclined to think that perhaps Guy could have been the headliner. That’s just my bias.

ALTHOUGH IF I really had to guess about the motives of Monday night’s events, perhaps it is that Rauner can’t dance all that well and doesn’t want to come across as silly-looking while trying to do the foxtrot or tango?

Let’s just hope he doesn’t slap a cowboy hat on to go with his Carhartt jacket and boots from the campaign season – that would come across as more foolish!

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