About freaking time!!!

Yeah, yeah … Pat Quinn gets the job if Blago gets canned. We know that. But what about Mackaman 2010???

Forget that!!! I mean, he’d be great as mayor again. However, there’s a much more important office for him to take on, assuming Blago gets his just desserts … governor of Illinois!

Mackaman would be the perfect choice. He’s extremely competent, even-tempered and familiar with the intricacies of governance. He did a fantastic job putting Pekin back on the right track after the Lyn Howard debacle. Who better to fix Illinois?

Illinois is experiencing interesting political highs and lows this year. One of our U.S. Senators is elected president, but then our governor is arrested before he can sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.

I “love” this quote in the Tribune from Robert Grant, FBI special agent in charge of the Chicago office:

If [Illinois] isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, it’s certainly one hell of a competitor. Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked.

Isn’t that nice?

Stickers to stem the sale of alcohol to minors? Seriously???

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission is sending representatives throughout the state to place stickers on beer and liquor packaging. The stickers read as follows:

WARNING – Providing Alcohol to Minors is Illegal, Unhealthy & Unnacceptable

Soooo … people didn’t know that before?

Please excuse my cynicism, but I think the money for this program could have been much better spent to support enforcement of the current laws and/or treatment of alcohol addiction.  This seems like a farce to showboat in front of the media so it looks like the state is doing something.

Any bets on how soon these stickers start showing up as decorations on the inside of high school lockers?

Does anyone actually think Schock has deep-seated convictions about the 2nd Amendment or an honest empathy with Illinois farmers that compelled him to make these proposals, or is he blatantly sucking up? I know what I’d vote for in that little poll.

The right to smoke ends as soon as the smoke touches another person’s lungs. It’s as simple as that, and it’s about damn time that the law recognized this obvious truth.

The inconsiderate & onerous infliction of a smoker’s deadly habit upon others clearly differentiates smoking from other scions of bad health. The over-indulgence in trans fats and complex carbohydrates by my neighbor in a restaurant does not endanger my health or the health of those that work there.

The dreaded “slippery slope” of “nanny state” regulation that some fear is about as frictionless as fly-paper. The much feared fat bans will die in Illinois as soon as the first Southside Chicagocrat can’t get his favorite kielbasa anymore.

I’ve heard many people say that Chief Illiniwek brings pride and a sense of connection to Illinois’ native heritage. The problem is that people don’t realize the ignorance behind that statement.

The regalia used by Chief Illiniwek was made by Frank Fools Crow, an Oglala Sioux. The Oglala are a branch of the Great Sioux Nation (the Oceti Sakowin – the Seven Council Fires) of the western plains. The dance performed by the Chief at halftime was loosely based on Sioux fancy dancing. Here’s the problem – THE SIOUX NEVER LIVED IN ILLINOIS.

The Illini Confederacy was made up of Algonquin tribes – the Kaskaskia, the Cahokia, the Peoria, the Tamaroa, the Moingwena and the Michigamea. The languages and cultures of these tribes were far different from that of the Sioux. It’s like saying you’re proud of your school’s Chinese heritage … but the mascot is a Japanese samurai.

I’ve also frequently heard this decision decried as a liberal conspiracy and a victory for political correctness. Some have ignorantly claimed that the people of the First Nations really don’t mind Chief Illiniwek – it’s just a few white liberal troublemakers causing all the problems.

That again is ignorance. It doesn’t take much digging to find that both the Oglala Sioux, the nation of the man who made the Chief Illiniwek regalia, and the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, the closest living descendants of the Illini Confederacy, have officially requested that the University of Illinois cease and desist in its use of the Chief Illiniwek mascot. Only after years of protests by these tribes did the NCAA and eventually the University decide to do what’s right.

In regards to Pekin, some might think that the mascot controversy here is over. The Chinks were replaced by the Dragons in 1981 – a horribly late reversal, in my opinion. This town seems to have missed the civil rights movement by over a decade!

Unfortunately the issue is far from settled. The Chink still lingers. Even in my short time here in Pekin, I have heard the old mascot referred to in glowing, reverent terms on numerous occasions. Many a resident has proudly proclaimed themselves a “Pekin Chink.”

Frankly, that disgusts me. At least “Illini” isn’t a blatantly racist term like “Chink.” Don’t you think that this attitude – this pride in a racist past – might be a BIG part of our perception problem??? Outsiders, even close neighbors across the river, still think of this town as P-E-K-K-K-I-N. This “I’m a proud Pekin Chink” chest-thumping just makes it worse!

Be proud of your school. Be proud of your home. Don’t be proud of someone who dresses up in a suit and prances around at halftime … and never, ever take pride in racism.