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Still Waters,
the
em space, Where They Stand,
By
the Numbers,
How We Stack Up,
What's
Up With That?
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Police
protect us.
Why don’t we protect them?
Another state law that doesn’t make
any sense
By
Mike Fak
[JULY
16, 2001] The
LDN recently ran an excellent article by Lynn Spellman regarding the
financial plight of Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Spickard. Spickard,
charged with battery and official misconduct while on duty, was
exonerated of the charges by a jury of his peers in less than an
hour. The costs Deputy Spickard faces defending himself are the kind
of expense that for all working stiffs might take years to repay.
That is flat-out wrong.
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There
is the possibility Deputy Spickard didn’t do this whole affair the
right way. Perhaps if he had gone to the County Board and asked for
representation or simply asked the judge to appoint a public defender
to represent him, Spickard would not be facing the monstrous attorney
fees he now is faced with. That, of course, is easy for you or me to
say. We were not facing the loss of not only a job but a career. We
were not facing the possibility of being sent to jail to be among the
very individuals we have spent our adulthood placing in incarceration. Can you
really fault the deputy for erring on the side of caution? I can’t.
I know you can’t either.
The
point that really frustrates me about this whole affair is that a
county officer, while performing his duties, was charged with criminal
malfeasance by an individual and has to personally foot the bill to
prove he acted according to the law. Regardless of the fact that state
law says this is correct, I beg to differ.
Officers,
whether city, county or state, should not have to pay their own court
costs and attorney fees to defend themselves while performing their
duty. Especially after they have been found not guilty.
It
has been brought to light that city and county officers have the
option of purchasing insurance to protect themselves from such
financial duress, but is that the way it should really be? Are we not
asking these people to protect us, place their lives on the line if
need be for lousy pay, and then by Illinois law have the nerve to tell
them: "By the way, if someone brings charges against you that a
jury states are false, you are on your own financially." This is
flat-out wrong.
[to top of second
column in this commentary]
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Now
I want it clear that I am not blaming the County Board for not making
this coverage automatic. I am not blaming the sheriff either for not
making insurance protection a requirement. Who I am blaming is the
Illinois legislature that doesn’t see that officers of the law need
basic, required protection from the expenses brought on by lawsuits,
especially those that are adjudged inappropriate. I am blaming a union
that doesn’t think from Day One that insurance protection in a day
and age of frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit should be a part
of every negotiating session. I am blaming an Illinois governor who
just made a big deal out of awarding medals to many brave Illinois
police officers but also doesn’t think they deserve to have
mandatory insurance protection to prevent what just happened to
patrolman Spickard. I have to ask those award-winning officers how
long an attorney will represent them if the only collateral they have
is one of those medals.
Deputy
Robert Spickard performed his duties on July 29, 1999, as his training
dictated. He was charged with criminal battery and official misconduct
but was found not guilty in the time it takes to eat a sandwich. For
his life to be under financial duress because of this just isn’t
right. It just isn’t.
Tuesday
night the County Board will vote on whether to assist the deputy and
his family with the expenses he incurred due to this lawsuit. It may
not be required by law for them to do anything in this matter.
Regardless of this fact, I hope the board offers at least some
financial assistance. It’s the right thing to do.
[Mike Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak's commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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Promote
the real Route 66
By
Mike Fak
[JULY
12, 2001] I
really liked the question. A viewer on the show wanted to talk about
Route 66. The gentleman asked why Route 66 isn’t the real Route 66
anymore. Not being a native, I was unaware that the real route
actually went through the heart of Lincoln and not around the
beltline as the signs now direct.
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The
question was simple. In the event we are trying to promote tourism,
why don’t we want the nostalgia buffs associated with journeys along
the historic road to go right through town? Secondary thoughts such
as, "Wouldn’t this cause travelers to use our gas stations,
restaurants and other businesses?" immediately came into the
conversation. The caller has a good question. Why don’t we promote
the old Route 66?
The
history of the famous road is not as easy to determine as one would
think. More than 7,000 websites are directed to an inquirer about the
old highway. Many of them are in foreign languages, including Thai,
showing an investigator there is a world interest in this concrete
slab of Americana. A great many of the sites, unfortunately, are
commercial. "Buy this souvenir or that trinket" fills the
Web. Maps on the highway — to be kind, in my words — are poor at
best. Descriptions of the highway’s incredible number of nuances as
it snaked its way across the country are lacking in sufficient detail.
It has been a chore to find what I have, but allow me to share my
initial research with you.
The
original road was 2,448 miles and stretched from downtown Chicago to
Santa Monica, Calif. Crossing eight states and three time zones, this
early 20th century roadway wasn’t completely paved until
1937. Commissioned as a highway in 1926, the route used as many
existing portions of road as possible to link Illinois with
California. It is this meld of old and new that has given Route 66 its
legend. With twists and turns that make no sense except to a 1920s
federal road commissioner, the highway wriggles its way westward like
a drunken sailor.
It
is this nuance that gives the route its charm and attracts the lasting
fondness of nostalgia buffs. Unlike the highways of today, which speed
through or around the cities in this country, Route 66 caused
motorists to actually visit the towns on the way to Santa Monica.
[to top of second
column in this commentary]
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It
seems that in the 1950s, as America began its courtship with haste and
as Eisenhower’s national highway program went into full gear, routes
such as I-55, I-40, I-15 and I-10 were melded into the old route. This
left parts of the original highway, as well as the towns it dissected,
out of the nation’s travel itinerary.
In
fact, one of the route’s primary websites admits that there are
still stretches of the original Route 66 waiting to be discovered.
Talking
to Lincoln residents, I find that it seems we are still aware in this
area of the original road. Coming into town on the north end, by
Kickapoo Street, the road jaunted west on Keokuk until heading
southwest by following Fifth Street until it reached Washington
Street. A left turn snaked the road through the cemeteries and back
out to the service road headed to Broadwell.
This
makes it obvious to an observer like myself that a great deal of our
community and its businesses could become part of the itinerary of
travelers looking to relive a part of America’s traveling habits.
The fact that the original road went past Postville Courthouse as well
as the soon-to-be-refurbished historic well across the street begs us
to ask why Lincoln can’t get at least our part of the historic road
on the maps of perhaps millions of nostalgia buffs.
It
wouldn’t take a lot of time or money. Just a few interested citizens
and a set of road signs are all that is needed. I will be happy to
tell the world on the Web that Lincoln has the original road available
for their travels through our area. In an electronic moment, 7,000
websites and millions of history buffs will know about us.
Isn’t
technology amazing? Perhaps that’s why things such as an old,
meandering, time-consuming highway are becoming lost. Things are
getting easier and quicker, including car travel. I’m not convinced
that they are getting better.
[Mike Fak]
Reply to
Fak
(not for publication):
mikefak@msn.com
Response
to Fak's commentary:
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
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The em
space is a staff writer's commentary section with observations about life experiences in Logan County and
beyond.
—
Mary Krallmann
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It’s not always as late as you think
For a
heart-pounding minute I thought I had overslept to a ridiculous degree on
the very day when it was especially important to be on the job because a
co-worker planned to be gone. When I woke up, the unforgiving red digits
on the clock plainly indicated it was later than late.
 I rushed to
the kitchen to see what time it was there. The same
—
past 2 o’clock.
The thought of a power outage crossed my mind, but the numbers on the
bedroom clock would have been flashing in that case.
By the
amount of daylight, I knew it couldn’t be 2 a.m.; it had to be 2 in the
afternoon.
It was
unthinkable. I remembered impressing on myself the night before that I
must get up and get going when the alarm came on and not treat it as the
usual advance warning with another half hour or so of rest allowed. To
have slept clear through the morning after all that was a major breach of
acceptable behavior.
It was also
an uncomfortably familiar feeling. On Sunday morning I had awakened just
before the alarm but, in momentary confusion, had to assess exactly which
day it was and when I had to get up to do what. Instead of sleeping later
on Saturday, I had followed a more regular wake-up schedule in order to
attend a funeral service, so Saturday felt like Sunday, but the next
morning was Sunday nonetheless and required the same pattern of events
again.
Suddenly the
facts fell into place. I had gotten up early on Sunday as planned, and I’d
been to church — the fourth trip in four days. All the music practice
was done, the funeral was done, the regular Sunday service was done, and
it was still Sunday, not Monday! I had just fallen asleep after eating
lunch.
Relieved
that Monday morning was still hours away, I went back to bed for a while
to think things over.
When I had
turned the corner near the fairgrounds on my way out to church one of the
previous evenings, all the tents in readiness accented the contrast of the
fair and the funeral. As a hymn says, "In the very midst of life
Death has us surrounded."
I’m used
to that concept, reflected not only in the life and death of individuals
but also in the history of communities, organizations and patterns of
living. For me, the sense of nearness to dying is strengthened by the fact
that I’ve spent most of my life in rural and small-town mid-America. An
aging population with fewer young people is the kind of society that I
know.
For me, the
surprise is not so much that there’s death in the midst of life but that
there’s life in the midst of dying.
 I take it as
a given that everyone is going to die. For some it will be sooner and for
some later. It’s just a matter of time. I don’t regard that as an
ultimately gloomy prospect. Heaven is a destination far more wonderful
than the best of fairs.
For the time
being, the amazing thing is that in spite of accidents, illness and
ordinary deterioration, there’s still life. Some people who had young
families 25 years ago are gray-haired grandparents today, but it isn’t
time to write everyone off just yet.
The morning
after the funeral there were people in church. Only one man had been
buried. Although many of the members are retired, a family with 2-year-old
triplets and an older sibling sat upstairs. The bulletin announced that a
new pastor would be installed the next Sunday, and he was on hand to meet
people. The future held promise.
As life hurtles along, sometimes
we get overly concerned about what appear to be negative prospects. With a
re-evaluation, sometimes it’s not too late after all.
[Mary
Krallmann]
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Where
They Stand
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Where
They Stand is a commentary section that poses a question about a
specific issue in the community. Informed individuals present their
position with facts, opinions or insights on the issue. The
following commentaries have been printed, unedited, in their
entirety, as they were received. If you have further comment on the
issue, please send an e-mail message, complete with your name,
address and telephone number to 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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