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Lincoln Daily News.com
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Lincoln, IL 62656
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To the
editor:
Immediately I looked for the date on
the byline. I wanted to confirm it said May 23rd, not April 1st. I
thought just for a moment it must be April Fools' Day and the AP
story carried by the Chicago Sun-Times that Illinois historic sites
would be closed on Memorial Day was a joke.
The story wasn't a joke. Once again it
seems we are. Illinois with all its problems, with all its foibles,
has now added stupidity to its national resume.
Illinois, the "Land Of Lincoln," the
"Visit Illinois" state, now needs an asterisk next to the millions
of dollars in ads promoting tourism throughout the state and
country. The asterisk needs to denote: "Closed On Holidays."
Fifty-four years of life and still a
story pops up that makes a person believe they have never heard
anything so dumb in all their life.
I scanned my news source pool on the
Web looking for further confirmation of the Associated Press
article. Maybe Jayson Blair wrote the article, I hoped. I could find
nothing in any other Illinois papers to confirm that 25 of the 26
state-owned historic sites would be closed Memorial Day. It seems
the AP wire service story slipped past most newsroom desks.
I believe that is what the director of
the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency was counting on. Something
as important as this would have caused a furor if reported in a
timely fashion. Timely as in before people were on their way to
visit Illinois' historic sites. Illinois newspapers, including the
State Journal-Register in their local activities and events page,
listed their area's historic sites among things to do Memorial Day
as a family. None of the newspapers carried any notification to
potential travelers that the sites would be closed on Monday the
26th.
Did in fact agency director Maynard
Crossland purposely withhold this information until it was too late
for a media backlash or for anyone in state government to tell him
he had best have our historic sites open? In this observer's opinion
that is exactly what happened. An agency that has to face a 15
percent reduction in manpower, just like every other state agency,
decided to get even with the governor and legislature by pulling the
pin on the vacation plans of possibly thousands of tourists.
[to top of second column in
this letter]
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Mr. Crossland didn't even care
to break the story himself. Instead he had agency spokesman
Dave Blanchette give his crocodile tear statement to the
Associated Press. Mr. Crossland no doubt was already gone
with his family for the long weekend. No doubt visiting
another state that decided to be "open" for the holiday.
The
Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency did not even have the decency to
advise potential travelers in their website that plans to
visit all but old Abe's tomb should be scrapped because
Illinois sites would be closed on Monday. Thus many
out-of-state travelers as well as Illinoisans had the
pleasure of driving long distances just to see a "closed"
sign.
I haven't seen this big of a
screw-up since Clark Griswald drove the family all the way
across America just to find Wally World closed for repairs.
The agency's website brags that
three million Americans visit state historic sites every
year. One would imagine that a majority of those travelers
visit during the big three summer holiday weekends. One can
also imagine that many of those travelers finding their
plans canceled without proper notification now have "The
Hell With Illinois" bumper stickers amidst the myriad of
stickers they proudly display on their vans and RVs.
On the agency's website, Mr.
Crossland states he hopes readers find the site "helpful and
informative." Not hardly, Mr. Crossland. Failure to keep
your site posted with up-to-date information voids you and
your agency of claiming any vestige of being helpful or
informative. The only information on the Web page that would
be helpful now is the information that Mr. Crossland has
been fired from his post. It wouldn't hurt to also know if
the governor and legislature knew of this tourism gaffe as
well. It's important to know who to be mad at, you know,
Abe's tomb was open on Monday.
It was the only state historic site that was. I need to hear
from a reader who was there that day. I need to know if they
could sense Abe rolling over in his grave when he heard the
news.
Mike Fak
mikefak@earthlink.net
(posted 5-27-03)
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To the
editor:
I'm glad to see this column ["Serving
in the military," posted in Lincoln Daily News].
After graduating from LCHS in the
spring of 1967, I served in the U.S. Air Force from July 1967 until
October 1989.
Looking back I can see a marked
improvement in the way the military folks are perceived now versus
then. Keep up the good work.
Thomas M. Dickerson
Retired Master Sergeant
U.S. Air Force
(posted 5-17-03) |
. Please send your letters by e-mail to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
or by U.S. postal mail to:
Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656
Letters must include the writer's name,
telephone number, mailing address and/or e-mail address (we will not publish
address or phone number information).
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to edit letters to reduce their size or to correct obvious errors.
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to reject any letter for any
reason. Lincoln Daily News will publish as many
acceptable letters as space allows.
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