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* What’s up? Keep it Illinois-centric please…

posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 7:45 am

Comments

Congratulations to Terri Hemmert on 50 years at WXRT. It’s Terri Hemmert Day in Chicago. Terri is a rock and roll treasure.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 8:12 am
A reprieve of warmer weather this weekend means lots of yardwork and winter prep for me. How about you all?

Comment by Former ILSIP Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 8:24 am
We’re on 8 full years of crisis governing. Been thinking about that for quite sometime because even the normalcy to policy, budgets, priorities, municipal to state, it’s not that I’m pining for “simpler” times, I was thinking about the political and governing fatigue while at the same time there can’t be any time for rest.

Also, I’m old enough to remember when in all ways it’s said “crisis creates”… leverage, opportunity, choices… with one look I see a state with budgetary normalcy to process, a rainy day fund, positive news and movement in priorities, and then I also say failureS in agencies, challenges with others attacking institutions like health and education, immigration, image problems not fully reflecting the truth while also highlighting needed care…

The mental tiredness that must exist too, the wearing down… I’m not trying to be negative on a Friday, but context matters.

Thank you to all rising to challenges, willing to be out front and look for solutions, tirelessly trying to manage all this… crisis.

Speaking only for myself, I see you, see you trying, but also keep trying, it’s not going to be easy going forward either, but keep trying.

Illinois is at the cusp of all this crisis and doing right and doing good, it’s worth pressing on, and those still trying to figure out the people needed to step up… it’s them, so please hurry.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 8:43 am
Tomorrow starts Speech Team season and I cannot wait.
Not only are the kids great, but they consistently restore my faith in our future.

Comment by Proud Papa Bear Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 9:12 am
OW: I saw a tweet reminding people that Ellis Island used to process 10,000 migrants a day and we were fine.

Nearly every “crisis” we face these days is either intentionally overhyped or entirely made up. It isn’t the world that is negative, it is that certain groups of individuals (of varying interests and goals) are intentionally trying to whip people into hysteria for their own selfish reasons. This could be media people who want clicks, so they only try to scare readers/viewers, or the political folks who want to take personal advantage of reactionary voters.

We as a country, and as a state, have been through far worse than anything currently happening right now. By all accounts we are better off on nearly every meaningful metric today than we have been at almost any point in the past fifty years. Are there areas for improvement? Absolutely. But we need to remind ourselves that the blathering noise being intentionally stirred up is just that: blathering noise.

We can’t let it overwhelm us.

Comment by Homebody Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 9:48 am
===process 10,000 migrants a day and we were fine===

Because those immigrants could go to work immediately. That’s the difference here. If the asylum-seekers were allowed to work, there would be no crisis. Process ‘em and turn ‘em loose, like they did on Ellis Island.

Also, I believe they needed sponsors or jobs here, which we don’t require for these folks.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 10:04 am
( Preface: I apologize for the soap-boxy response to follow. It is Friday and I’m climbing onto my highest horse. )

Rich I agree. That was going to be an additional point I wanted to make, but my post was starting to ramble, so I cut it out.

There are two issues that are interrelated, one historical and one present/forward looking. Basically we’ve spent the last however many decades adding more and more layers of bureaucracy to everything we do, so doing anything the “right” way takes months or years longer than necessary. Whether the bureaucracy was well intentioned is irrelevant at this point. The story is the same for state hiring, procurement, every time studies are required before you can even install a tiny bike lane, or the number of approvals you need to install a business sign in Chicago. Again, whether the intent of the regulations was good or evil is irrelevant at this point. It is all in place.

And now the second related problem is everyone in a position of power is afraid to do anything about it, lest they step on any toes. Career politicians in particular are so worried about upsetting their benefactors that they no longer come up with big solutions. Instead they aim for the smallest possible solutions that they hope will be inoffensive, and even those end up getting watered down even further. At a national level we saw this with the Affordable Care Act- start with a compromise position, water it down even more to get conservative votes, and still get none. We see it at a local level with Chicago’s inability to put a migrant shelter ANYWHERE, because no matter what they pick someone will get mad. So instead they do nothing.

I don’t have a solution. Not pretending I do. But this is entirely our creation as citizens and voters. We cannot succumb to the fear mongering that says these are cataclysmic crises that are going to overwhelm us.

These are human created problems, that have human solutions. Anyone who says otherwise is, in my personal opinion, either ignorant or intentionally trying to cower us into giving up, for their own personally selfish reasons.

Comment by Homebody Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 10:17 am
===Nearly every “crisis” we face these days is either intentionally overhyped or entirely made up.===

I don’t agree with all that.

People sleeping in tents when weeks/months to prepare.

Venezuelan crisis is very real, it’s now reaching Chicago neighborhoods.

Women having different rights in different states isn’t made up.

The Rauner aftermath and reconstruction of social services, that fallout and recovery, that part, is very real.

I’ve felt for quite some time the “Ellis Island” model in the vast area known as Texas is needed, but it also needs to be modeled by the parameters of what Ellis Island was … sponsors, work, etc.

===We as a country, and as a state, have been through far worse than anything currently happening right now. By all accounts we are better off on nearly every meaningful metric today than we have been at almost any point in the past fifty years===

Democracy, and the Republic, hasn’t been this fragile since 1859… I’d like to blow off my own thought to that as hyperbole but attempting insurrection to nullify a fair and free election wasn’t seen or a fear going forward in the 70s, 80s…

Which is why I’m grateful for the Illinoisans serving the state and doing the necessary work, and would like those seemingly dragging their feet due to seen shortcomings to realize *they* are the folks that are coming to fix things.

With respect.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 10:26 am
50 years of Aunt Terri! I don’t know how or why lot of older folks…especially women….transition from listening to WXRT & other rocker stations to, oh, say, the Lite, but I would never…. with memories of a party at Aunt Terri’s long ago….

Comment by Amalia Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 10:59 am
Thank you for the Roundups, stories posted let me know if I shoudl get the paper that day. Got today’s Tribune for the Solis story.

Bonus - Editorial Page notes 75 years ago today Tribune printed “Dewey defeats Truman” … complete with the picture of Truman holding up the Tribune. [Sarcasm font activated] The Editorial Page still has that level of accuracy.

Comment by Anyone Remember Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 11:17 am
I honestly wonder what possessed Jonathan Jackson and Lauren Underwood to join the squad to vote against a resolution on campus antisemitism? I am not surprised at Chuy Garcia or Dalia Ramirez sadly - https://twitter.com/IsraelWarRoom/status/1720252576250180089

Comment by Rahm's Parking Meter Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 12:30 pm
==I honestly wonder what possessed Jonathan Jackson and Lauren Underwood to join the squad to vote against a resolution on campus antisemitism?==

That’s not what the resolution was (although it has been framed as such). I followed your link and noticed that the tweet did not provide a resolution # nor a link. The resolution is here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-resolution/798/text

I don’t know why some Congress people voted against it, but I think it is a poorly worded resolution. Among other things, it states that any institution of higher ed that does not issue a statement condemning Hamas and Hezbollah is showing a “lack of regard for their Jewish and pro-Israel students” and “urges the Secretary of Education to direct the Office for Civil Rights to investigate and, where appropriate, take action immediately”.

Choosing to not issue a statement is fine; the issue is incredibly complex and any statement can be easily misconstrued.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 2:39 pm
On government, et al. Read “First Break All The Rules” where it was discovered that innovative gov’t bosses/managers had to break the law to innovate. All the attempts to avoid waste/fraud/abuse didn’t stop them from breaking the rules.

On Cook County property taxes: Just got my Assessor’s Appeal response. They reduced the value from 9,500 to 8,100. On to the Board of Review, since the previous year my home valued at just 4,600, and market value from an attempted sale was 5,500.

Comment by thisjustinagain Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 2:41 pm
==had to break the law to innovate==

I’ve never broken the law but I have skirted policies in order to get things accomplished.

Comment by Demoralized Friday, Nov 3, 23 @ 3:01 pm