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Still Waters,
Where They Stand,
By
the Numbers, How We Stack Up,
What’s
Up With That?
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Commentaries
posted do not necessarily represent the opinion of LDN.
Any opinions expressed are those of
the writers.
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The
story that tells the truth
By Mike
Fak
[FEB.
19, 2001] From
the movie "A Few Good Men" —
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Tom
Cruise: "I want the truth."
Jack
Nicholson, in reply: "You can’t handle the truth."
In all
deference to Mr. Nicholson, who is a wonderful actor, I can handle
the truth. So can all of you. I wonder if the governor and the many
so-called advocacy groups for the mentally handicapped can say the
same.
The
stories regarding LDC and its potential decertification and closing
have filled the pages of newspapers in the area for many months.
Pick a day. A headline or a secondary story stating the impending
demise of the state-run facility still meriting front-page coverage
has been as common as frost in January.
[Photo by Bob Frank]
Always
we read about LDC’s problematic history. Always we see inscribed
in print how Gov. Ryan is doing what’s best for the residents
regardless of the rebuttals of the parents of those same children.
Not
once have we been privy to what has, in fact, happened to the
residents who have been transferred out of the century-old facility.
Never once have it been made known to us whether the governor’s
actions truly have been in the "best interests" of the
residents. I have to ask why.
By the
governor’s own mouth we have been told this has nothing to do with
the budget or any other factor than the welfare of the disabled who
have called LDC their home. By the governor’s own words as well as
the ARC, the Equip for Equality people, Don Moss of the Illinois
chapter of United Cerebral Palsy, and the Department of Health and
Human Services, all that is transpiring regarding the closure of LDC
is for the good of the former and current residents. Yet, not one
person, not one agency, has shed the smallest light on what is
happening to those who have been moved.
Equip
for Equality says they only look into situations where they have
received complaints regarding a mentally impaired individual’s
status. That is a remarkable cop-out by the agency. In effect they
tell us they are only interested in the well-being of an individual
until that person is sent somewhere else for the rest of their life.
They then wash their hands of the situation unless they are notified
otherwise. How can this be considered looking out for the residents?
They also have never explained how four other state-run institutions
can have poorer records of negative incidents than LDC, but they
have no time to concentrate on deriding those establishments. Where
is the truth in their actions? Where is the humanity?
[to top of second column in this
commentary]
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To
date 114 residents of LDC have been moved out of the institution to
other state-run facilities. None have been relocated into a
community-integrated home. The reason, of course, is because there
are no such homes currently available nor are there any funds
forthcoming to build such homes right now. The residents, in effect,
have been pulled from the homes they have known for years, and in
many cases their entire lives, and have been dumped into other
institutions, such as Jacksonville, that have a worse track record
than LDC has. Explain the truth in that to me, please.
To
date, reporters have been quick to jot down all that is being said
by everyone involved in this issue. Especially, in my truthfully
biased opinion, if it is negative toward the Lincoln Developmental
Center. Again, to date, I have not read a single account of even one
of the 114 stories regarding residents who have been transferred.
Are
they in fact better off than they were at LDC? How are these special
people doing in their new surroundings? Is anyone interested in
writing about the humanity of the people involved rather than just
the logistics of a "thing" being shut down?
Whatever the truth is, I
will accept it and live with it. I just wish someone in the field of
journalism would seek it out and tell all of us what it is. I don’t
need any more quotes from special interest organizations nor
experts. The story that tells the truth is in the words of the
residents, their guardians and the parents who are facing this
change in their lives forever. I can stand the truth. Now if only
someone will tell us what it is.
[Mike
Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak’s commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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Ryan’s
decision leaves more unanswered than answered
By Mike
Fak
[FEB.
6, 2001] Half
full? Half empty? That is a question that a lot of LDC proponents
are asking themselves after Gov. George Ryan officially gave the
news of a massive downsizing for the Lincoln Developmental Center.
Yes, the news is better than just pulling the plug on 250 residents
and 700 employees… but not by much.
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In
a classic fit of gubernatorial pomposity, Ryan refused admittance to
his press conference to anyone except the waiters. Excuse me, I mean
the reporters. I get those two occupations confused since many in
both occupations simply write down what someone tells them without
asking any intelligent questions regarding the authenticity or
actuality of the words.
Yes,
only reporters were allowed to transcribe the governor’s diatribe.
Of course, why would it be considered proper to let others into the
press conference, such as the parents of residents or perhaps
representatives of the employees? What do they know about what they
want? Gov. Ryan is in charge of their lives as well as their
children’s. He, like the Wizard of Oz, is all-knowing. What a
shame he also is not all-caring.
The
governor says that only 100 residents, moving into
community-integrated homes, will remain at LDC. The homes, at a
great deal of taxpayer expense ($6.25
million to be exact), will be replacing the cottages that already
are set up like a community home. There’s a real savings to the
state. The cottages, as well as the rest of the buildings on the
75-acre plot formerly known as Wyatt’s Grove, are to be used for…
Sorry, no one said what was going to happen to them, and of course,
no one asked.
Perhaps
the state will allow them to deteriorate. That way, in a decade or
so the community homes can be closed because they are adjacent to an
abandoned ghetto. Perhaps they will be maintained by state employees
so that doesn’t happen. But is that a good use of tax money and
manpower either?
Ryan
stated he was downsizing the facility based on the requests of
parents of residents. This, of course, is not true, but no one asked
the governor for a list of these complainants. There has been only
one disparager compared with dozens of parents who want the center
to remain home for their children and wards. Geez, a golden
opportunity to catch the guy in his own stink went right out the
window on Monday.
Ryan
stated that CILAs are the future of mental health care, and of
course they are. But since they are not here yet, and human beings in
a place they have called home all their life are… Couldn’t we do
this gradually over the years? The ARC’s own website states there
are 271,000 Americans waiting for group homes, with 6,800 of them
being in Illinois. How about filling the needs of those waiting for
proper residency before pushing into CILAs those who would rather
live just up the block from these homes.
[to top of second column in this
commentary]
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Continuously
Ryan talked about how terrible LDC was in care to residents. It
never made his conversation that five state institutions have a
higher rate of negative incidence than LDC, including Jacksonville,
where LDC residents have been unceremoniously shipped off to in the
past few months.
Ohhh,
for just a question or two to have been asked about that.
The
governor went on about how LDC has had problems for two decades. I
assume he means receiving high accolades just 10 years ago as a
model health care facility is a problem. Actually if you’re a
governor trying to close a place, I suppose that is a problem. No
comments about this ambiguity in the governor’s statement came out
of the peanut gallery either.
The
papers, of course, followed the verbatim article with negative
quotes about LDC from every organization that has never visited LDC
except for the Free Willy Foundation. What a shame that a quick
blurp by Sen. Bomke that he questioned Ryan’s statement regarding
parental support for the closure was placed in print and then
dropped. Wouldn’t it have been fun to ask the senator if he
believed the governor lied. That would have been a good story to
read.
Gov.
Ryan again promulgated his own agenda by saying whatever he felt
like saying. No one gave the other side a chance to counter his
spurious remarks. Fair and balanced reporting? I haven’t seen it
yet on LDC, regardless of what people in the business say. You see,
in the world I live in, when someone says something stinks, I ask,
"Compared to what?" A fair comparison of all 10 state-run
institutions, which only was briefly touched on by the State
Journal-Register, shouldn’t have taken three months to appear. But
then, at least someone did their homework. Better late than never, I
suppose.
Yes,
this column is pro-LDC. I am not a journalist, you see; I am a
commentator. I have been asking some of the questions, however, that
no one else deigns important enough to bring to this story. I will
until the man in Springfield leaves and LDC stays.
[Mike
Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak’s commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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Scathing
story of state ineptitude
and injustice effectual
By Mike
Fak
[JAN.
30, 2001] Just
when you thought we didn’t have a winter’s precipitation in
Hades to salvage LDC, a story comes to light that should make us all
regather our collective wills and push forward with our objections
to the governor’s "prepaid" decision to close the
center.
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The
budget cuts, some $500 million by the governor, not only placed our
own major employer’s situation in jeopardy but also sounded the
death knell for other such institutions across the state.
One
of the most tragic stories regarding the executive guillotine of
statewide human services had to be the decision to close the
Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education in Chicago. This
facility, primarily focusing on young men and women who do have
basic life skills, was deemed nonessential by Ryan in last month’s
budget-trimming nightmare. The institution, which offered such
services as an education as well as physical and emotional therapy,
with a long-range goal of community placement for its graduates, was
advised that it was to be closed and its students moved to other
suitable area facilities. This is where the story became ugly.
The
Department of Health and Human Services had begun to ship out the
residents before a hearing on a stay by the local union came before
the Cook County circuit judge. The destinations of the residents
were nothing near what had been promised by DHHS. Close to home? How
about a young man being sent 250 miles away from his elderly mother.
Proper facility? How about that same 21-year-old man, who has a high
school diploma and was getting ready for a community home, being
sent to a nursing home for severely handicapped senior citizens. A
nursing home that had no physical therapy program nor means to allow
him to do anything but wait out the rest of his life.
While
this was happening, there wasn’t a word from the ARC, nor the
Equip For Equality coalitions. Too small a cause? Just one small
fish when there is a whole lake full of fish to fry in Lincoln? Who
knows? We haven’t heard from them to tell why they ignored this
human rights issue.
All
seemed hopeless. And then this past week, Celeste Garrett of the
Chicago Tribune brought this scathing story of state ineptitude and
injustice into the public forum with a pair of headline articles
regarding the treatment of the residents of the Chicago center. It
didn’t tell the story of the center, it told the story of the
people involved. The story brought to tens of thousands of
Illinoisans the same type of story that residents and parents of LDC
have been facing with far less notoriety. Did Garrett’s story have
power? You bet it did! Was it the truth? Absolutely. Did it have any
effect on the Chicago institution’s residents? Thank God it did.
[to top of second column in this
commentary]
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In
Tuesday’s State Journal-Register, an article by Jeff Druchniak
sayings that Ryan had reversed his decision to close the Chicago
Rehabilitation Center flashed off the paper like a Roman candle.
The
power of a major newspaper to find the humanity in a story and bring
it to center stage had done more than all the letters and calls and
petitions of hundreds of concerned Illinoisans. In the limelight of
a statewide audience, Ryan and DHHS were shown up as having no souls
nor conscience. The heat was too much even for an I-don’t-care,
lame-duck governor like Ryan to ignore.
The lives of dozens of special souls were given a second chance
because a reporter delved into the body of the issue rather than
just continued to write down what everyone told her. Garrett made a
difference that only someone in her special circumstances could do.
She did more than just write a story. She helped people who needed
help when everyone else just wrote words and then went home.
LDC
is in these same dire straits as the Chicago center was. There is
still one chance, one opportunity to save the institution. All it
will take is one Chicago Tribune reporter or one reporter from the
lawmaker’s digest, the State Journal-Register, to bring out the
humanity of the individuals in this story and give the residents a
chance to live their lives as they would want.
The
story is still lying there on the ground just waiting to be picked
up. Oh for just one white knight to enter the foray.
[Mike
Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak’s commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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By
the Numbers
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Population
estimates in Logan County
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| 30,798 |
Total population,
1990 |
| 15,380 |
Rural population -
49.9%, 1990 |
| 15,418 |
Urban population -
50.1%, 1990 |
| 2,875 |
Projected births,
1990-1998 |
| 2,736 |
Projected deaths,
1990-1998 |
| 3,143 |
Persons below poverty
level - 11.8 % |
| 258 |
Average marriages per
year |
| 135 |
Average deaths per
year |
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Alexis Asher
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| Logan
County high schools: 1960-2000 |
| 1962 |
Middletown
High School consolidated with New Holland |
| 1972 |
Atlanta
High School became part of Olympia School District |
| 1975 |
Elkhart
High School consolidated with Mount Pulaski |
| 1979 |
Latham
High School became Warrensburg-Latham |
| 1988 |
New Holland-Middletown
High School consolidated with Lincoln Community High School |
| 1989 |
San
Jose High School consolidated with Illini Central (Mason City) |
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