25 Comments - VanillaMan - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:10 am: A dear friend who is a special needs teacher for severely challenged children during the day, and battling breast cancer for the third time this decade. She received tough news this past week that her disease has spread. She is a lady who not only helps severely disabled children, she helps other cancer patients through her fund raising, races and many other activities. - OneMan - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:15 am: My son’s science teacher, who coaches track, the science olympiad team, the robotics team, science fair and has an education that would allow her to make much more in the private sector. If it wasn’t for the fair association thing, I would totally nominate her. - Carl Nyberg - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:23 am: == Nominees should be involved in service activities, educational projects, and /or youth programs, and have an affiliation with state and/or county fairs in Illinois. == The way I read this is that nominees must be involved in their county fair or the Illinois State Fair. Doesn’t this disqualify everyone from the big counties in Chicago area? At least everyone who isn’t a politico. Who in Chicago area gets involved with the state fair who isn’t involved because of politics? County fairs just aren’t a big thing in the Chicagao area. I’ve been to county fairs in western Illinois, Indiana & New Hampshire. I haven’t even heard of county fairs in Cook, DuPage, etc. The requirement to be involved in either a county fair or the Illinois State Fair effectively excludes a large number of Illinoisans. It’s not hard to see this exclusion as being racist. What are the demographics of the State of Illinois? African-American–14.7% Hispanic/Latino–16.5% Asian–5.1% Two or more races–1.8% American Indian–0.6% What are the demographics of the people selected for this award in 2014? Since the award criteria effectively exclude the counties where the largest blocks of Blacks, Latinos & recent immigrants live, the award becomes White people celebrating White people. - Anon - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:24 am: I have nothing to do with the state or any county fairs and as such I don’t know anyone who meets all of the qualifications. It seems like they’ve gone out of their way to make it so that the pool of potential Illinoisans of the Day is limited to folks who have volunteered at a fair. It would seem this program is poorly named. It should probably be “Illinois Fair Volunteer of the Day.” That’s what they sound like they’re looking for. - Anonymous - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:41 am: Carl, I have sighted several African-Americans, Hispanic/Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans at the Illinois State Fair over the past 20 or so years. A few were even showing livestock! Are tgey excluded also? The more we like to subdivide people, the more divisive society gets, in my opinion. - Mattman - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:47 am: Rich Miller! - Carl Nyberg - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 11:48 am: Either change the name of the award or open it to all the people in Illinois. - OneMan - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 12:02 pm: Carl, DuPage, Kane, Will and Kendall all have county fairs (I have attended each of them) - Blago's Luxurious Grey Mane - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 12:05 pm: I know someone who was Illinoisan of the Day several years ago, and she had absolutely no affiliation with either a county fair or the State Fair. - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 12:08 pm: Stick to the question, please. Sheesh. - Cheryl44 - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 12:56 pm: I would like to nominate Christopher Koch. - MrJM - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 1:33 pm: “Who would you nominate as Illinoisan of the Day?” I’d nominate Nan Warshaw. Not only is her record label responsible for some of the best music in, of and around Illinois (Bloodshot Records co-owned by Nan and the notorious Rob Miller), her tireless advocacy on behalf of Illinois artists has made this our state a better home for creative types of all kinds. For more than 20 years, Nan has been the living embodiment of the fact that you don’t have to be a sell-out or a bαstαrd to run a successful business in the Land of Lincoln. – MrJM P.S. Get some: https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/ - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 1:34 pm: ===Bloodshot Records co-owned by Nan and the notorious Rob Miller=== It looks like Bloodshot is putting out Tom Irwin’s new album, so I’ll second this nomination. - MrJM - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 1:50 pm: I imagine that there is someone, somewhere who wouldn’t like anything released by Bloodshot — but I’ll bet I wouldn’t like ‘em. – MrJM - MrJM - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 2:02 pm: A Bloodshot playlist “for those folks who enjoy the Mary Jane and who treat April 20th as a righteous holiday.” https://www.bloodshotrecords.com/watch-and-listen/playlists/420-dude (I wasn’t looking at you, Rich. What’re ya paranoid or something?) – MrJM - Rich Miller - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 3:24 pm: I truly thought this would attract a lot of comments. Oh, well. - 47th Ward - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 3:56 pm: ===I truly thought this would attract a lot of comments.=== It’s a cold, damp Monday and all I’ve got is snark on this one. Sorry. - MrJM - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 4:25 pm: Plus and: Doug Buffone, rest in peace. – MrJM - Clapton-Marley Overdrive - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 4:26 pm: Linda Kollmeyer. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 4:34 pm: I nominate Carl Nyberg for his outstanding work to diversify the Illinois State Fair. We could all learn from his leadership. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 4:55 pm: Yeah, I was in the snark column. Apologies. - Mama - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 6:05 pm: “I would like to nominate Christopher Koch.” I second this nomination. - Arnold Ziffle - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 6:44 pm: Would you please open up a snark only version of this question? - Modest Proposal - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 9:33 pm: I nominate D-Rose’s knee doctor. - Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Apr 20, 15 @ 10:45 pm: You would have had more comments/nominees but everyone called in and took the day off. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.