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Commentaries posted do not necessarily represent the opinion of LDN.  Any opinions expressed are those of the writers.


Things that go bump in the night

[FEB. 28, 2002]  Hey, it’s been a while since I have cleaned out all the notes strewn about my desk. You remember how I told you when I see something that just doesn’t make sense that I jot it down and wait to see if the words eventually cause me in my angst to write a column about them. Sometimes by other stories appearing and taking precedence or, more often than not, a feeling of hopelessness at my wasting time trying to change a world that says no to common sense, I just throw them all away. But… not before I roll them all together into a little "bumps" article. Here are the last few months’ biggest "What the heck is going on?" stories.

Did you see that it took over six hours in delays for people in Utah to get on a plane after the Olympics were over. How about any business taking a person’s money, promising them a specific time to render services and then screw everything up. Would that business survive in the real world? It would if it’s the airline industry living off $5 billion in taxpayer relief funds. Does that make any sense?


Gov. Ryan is all hot at AFSCME because they refuse to submit to a year’s freeze on wages that would help keep their own members’ jobs. Doesn’t anyone remember that last year employees of the Capital Area Career Center took a wage freeze to protect their jobs? Now they are faced with a 20 percent reduction in funding that will send many employees packing. Is the governor’s word really worth believing?

While we are on wages, let’s not forget that the governor, staff and area lawmakers will get their raise of 3.8 percent this next year. Why? They have to take it because the state constitution says they have to. Where did this constitution come from? Mars? The one I know about was written and is continually rewritten by these same individuals. Just say "no" to a wage increase and repeal the rule. Isn’t that the fair thing to do? Or am I just crazy?


How is it that 95 Illinois communities will receive $23.5 million in funds for water and sewer projects but Lincoln isn’t on the list? Don’t tell me this is just going to the big boys. Have any of you heard of just two of these towns? Alexis, Alma, Atwood, Bluford, Buda, Colp, Gorham, Granville. Stop. That’s enough. Ninety-five towns, counties and cities get free funding but not us. Somebody explain this one to me please. (See http://wwww.state.il.us/PressReleases/
ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=
1&RecNum=1717


Three weeks ago the governor said privatization of the food industry in state-run institutions would save the state $20 million next year. Now the official figure is $15 million. Where did we lose $5 million in just three weeks, and why isn’t anyone asking?


 

[to top of second column in this article]

 

What about this craziness that the FDA isn’t checking on imports of meat and poultry to the U.S. to see if they meet quality standards. Are they waiting for "mad cow" or "crazy chicken" to hit us before they get off their duffs and do their job? They also fielded a yearlong trial of companies doing their own inspections to see how that would work. The answer, according to the GAO, is that the findings weren’t conclusive because the FDA didn’t keep proper track of the study nor use other FDA-inspected companies to form a comparison. Did everyone at FDA graduate from the Cleveland school system or what?


Speaking of the GAO. Did you know that the 2000 census came in 355 million under the $4.5 billion budget? What happened to this money? The Department of Commerce passed it out to other agencies that needed more funds than Congress had appropriated for them. Our tax dollars at work again.


Lastly, have you noticed all the vegetarian and animal rights groups now pushing to have their way with us? It isn’t good enough that we carnivores live and let live with these "veggies"? Now most of the world is supposed to be forced to give up all the foods they like because this meager percentage of the population demand that we sit around eating nuts and berries.

They say they are doing it for our health. Why is it then that Americans have a longer life span today than at anytime in the history of the world? If meat and diary products are so bad for us, why aren’t we all dying off at age 25 with a Big Mac and fries clutched in our hands.

I would never tell someone else what they can or cannot eat, so I sure don’t appreciate them telling me. I have compromised a little toward this tofu generation. I only eat bacon or steaks that have come from animals that have died of natural causes or in their sleep. Can’t we all get along? I’ll eat to that.

[Mike Fak]

 

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 


Racial profiling: Let’s look within

[FEB. 23, 2002]  Oh, heck, it won’t hurt to talk about it. Will it?

The Lincoln Courier has carried several articles regarding the claim by Alderman Glenn Shelton that there is racial profiling in this community. Alderman Verl Prather as well as Chief of Police Richard Montcalm have taken umbrage with Shelton’s claim and show records that they believe invalidate Alderman Shelton’s Martin Luther King Day remarks that there is a higher rate of incidence for a black to be pulled over than a white within the city limits.

Jeff Nelson, managing editor of The Courier, wrote a Feb. 6 opinion piece stating he believes that the numbers crunch showing 5 percent of the tickets being issued to the 2 percent of the community that is African-American backs up Shelton’s claim. The same statistics were validated by the Lincoln Daily News in an article on the same date. Comments by readers in letters to the editor claim police officers have "favorite" targets as they patrol and protect. Tough words to be written in small-town community newspapers. Tougher decisions face us to look at the entire situation with honesty.

I look for numbers in a story more than anything else. Numbers, you see, are an exact science. They never lie, they never exaggerate. A number by its very definition is always the truth. We haven’t heard numbers, however, in this issue. We have heard percentages, and percentages, although a distant cousin in the world of math, are a favorite haunt of those trying to take away the reality of mathematics. What I mean is, if there is one incident and it increases to two, the reality is one more such incident has occurred. Percentagewise, however, one could say that the problem has gone up 100 percent.

Sorry if I’m drifting on you, but what I am saying is that I want numbers, not percentages, before I pass judgment either way on the issue. What is 5 percent, and of what? What is 2 percent? I need those facts to sort out my opinion.

And still, after my queries are answered, I believe we need to look past Shelton and the police force and look at ourselves.

Being an officer of the law isn’t a very easy task, especially in a small town. Stop someone and issue them a citation, and immediately you are in the doghouse with that person, their family, their friends. Remain on the force for several years and those animosities, justified or not, can build.

I got nailed for $75 a few years ago by a young cop for not having my seatbelt on. Was I, in fact, guilty? I was. But I still grumble under my breath when I see that patrolman drive by in his squad car. Was the cost of the infraction his fault or mine? Now that the check has cleared and time has healed the financial wound, I can admit the fault was mine.

 

[to top of second column in this article]

I was once profiled. As a 21-year-old I was thrown against a car, frisked and nearly hauled off to jail because I and my rusty old "tater" car were in the affluent suburb of Forest Hills at 2 a.m. Did I look suspicious? Probably. Would I, if I had been in those policemen’s shoes, decide to check me out as well? Again, probably. Did the fact four squad cars pinned me against the curb, frisked me and scattered all the papers in the car about tell me they were overreacting? Still another probably. It took many years for that night to slip off the front page in my memory. Maybe I have gotten mellow in my later years.

Today, more than ever, I realize that the moment you place that police shield on your chest doesn’t automatically remove a person from being a member of the human race, complete with strengths and weaknesses.

It seems that the issue of community bias is falling squarely on the Police Department, and I find that unfortunate. I had the pleasure of being police and fire commissioner 13 years ago when Chief Montcalm tested for the force. Through the years in all my conversations with him, I have never heard a single slur nor disparaging remark come from his lips against anyone due to their race, religion or personal lifestyle. To be honest, I can say that of very few of us, including myself, in this community. The cops I personally know are good people trying to do a job without having their personal lives disrupted by those of us who cannot separate their being a cop from the individuals they are.

I know Reverend Shelton and have always found him to be an honest, forthright individual with a wonderful sense of self as well as an engaging sense of humor. I cannot for a moment believe he has not measured every public comment he has made on this issue.

And so where are we? We are, of course, where every small American town is in these days we live in. We have biases against people of other races. We find those of another religion or lifestyle or handicap too different to not find a moment to tell and laugh at a joke told at their expense. We even look down on others because they are less affluent or more wealthy than we are.

We are so much better than we were 50 years ago as an "accepting" nation, but again let’s be honest. We are still a very long way from needing to go to a trophy store and buying ourselves plaques commemorating our humanity.

Bias in Lincoln? How about everywhere in this world. It’s good to talk about it. Having Shelton or the police force solely under this microscope just isn’t reality. Perhaps we need to take the time to pull ourselves over and check ourselves out. No flashing lights are needed. Just the solitude of a moment’s reflection to look within one’s own heart.

[Mike Fak]

 

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 


By the Numbers

Population estimates in Logan County
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

Alexis Asher


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)

Alexis Asher


Lincoln High School history

1859

Lincoln School District

5

School buildings in 1859

1

"Grammar school" in 1859

1

High school teacher, Mr. January, in 1859

1870-71

Central School opened

1898

High school building started

1900

High school dedicated, Jan. 5

$20,000

Cost of new high school

1920

Election authorized community high school District #404

1958

Dedication of new Lincoln Community High School, 1000 Primm Road, in auditorium, on Nov. 9

Alexis Asher


How We Stack Up


This feature of the Lincoln Daily News compares Lincoln and Logan County to similar cities and counties on a variety of issues in a succinct manner, using charts and graphs for illustration.

Racial makeup of selected Illinois counties

 



What’s Up With That?

 

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