Still Waters,  Bird’s-Eye View,  the em space,  Where They Stand,
  By the Numbers,  How We Stack Up,  What’s Up With That?

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

[JAN. 14, 2002]  I broke a cardinal rule of journalism Saturday. It’s OK since I’m not a journalist. That rule is someone reporting a story should not become part of the story. Accordingly, I shouldn’t have spoken to the crowd at the LDC rally and then written an article as well as preparing a report for Channel 15.

I understand the concept quite clearly and agree with it just about most of the time. But not this time. Not this Saturday.

The people at LDC, through their union, felt I should be among the political figures, resident guardians and community leaders who were given a few moments to help employees of the beleaguered institution realize that they are not alone in their fight to keep the institution open. If I were asked to speak a thousand times at this rally, I would have said yes just as many.

In the event you feel my observations are now biased or jaded, I will, as always, leave that up to you. This is what I saw. This is what I heard. Most importantly, this is what I felt.

I felt like I had gone back in time to an old fashioned 1960s union rally. Aggressive words used to excite an audience to become part of the rhetoric filled the auditorium that day. To some on the stage, I could sense a discomfort. This wasn’t a quiet "meet the candidates" forum. This was an old-fashioned "You take my job over my dead body" kind of gathering. In 20 years, I have never seen the likes in Logan County.

I sat on stage between more political candidates than you can shake a stick at. There were Mayor Beth Davis and Logan County Board Chairman Dick Logan and Sen. Larry Bomke and Rep. Jonathan Wright. There were even Illinois state Reps. Gwenn Klingler and Dan Brady and Bill Mitchell on the folding chairs around me. Yes, I should say their full names, their party affiliation and where they live, but I feel like breaking another rule of proper reporting today.

Most important in my mind was the fact that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Vallas was there. The man got up and stated for the record that as governor he would fix LDC and keep it open. The political correctness of the statement was, of course, self-serving but the repercussions could be immense. To date no candidate for governor has come out from behind the curtain to even acknowledge the LDC issue. Vallas’ comments may cause those more timid than he to realize a block of voters is awaiting their input now, not come next spring.

[to top of second column in this commentary]

State Rep. Jonathan Wright advised us that a full 96 percent of the reportable observations at LDC ended with positive conclusions. Wright stated that was an A in his book. It is in mine as well. As I sat next to Jonathan I constantly felt bad that he will be lost to us so soon as our state representative.

I listened intently as AFSCME Deputy Director Roberta Lynch reported on how other institutions and community homes in a 50-mile radius have been faring in fulfilling their state-mandated mental health residency requirements. I was shocked to hear of bathrooms with no toilet paper or soap, of defective sprinkler systems and smoke alarms with dead batteries. I listened as reports of poorly trained staff and improper medication safeguards came from her speech. I have always wondered why there has been no comparative analysis made as to how LDC stands among its peers. Here was the telling information I have been so dearly trying without success to obtain myself.

As I listened to Lynch’s report, I became angry at the media. Throughout this entire story, only what has been spoon fed to the press has made the news. Why, I have to ask, hasn’t anyone in the media sought this information out themselves. Isn’t another rule of journalism to ask questions and to seek both sides of a story. Are all the reporters, especially in area television, simply now like waiters, who write down what they are told without a single question or effort to go farther.

I hope others at the rally walked away with the same feelings I did. I can base it on nothing substantive, but it seems that it is becoming "en vogue" for politicians to come to the aid of LDC. That is what it is going to take to keep the center open. We as residents of Lincoln can do just so much. A united General Assembly taking up the cause is the only true means of winning this battle. I think I saw the birth of just that this past Saturday.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

[DEC. 31, 2001]  And so it is that another year has passed. I have always been amazed how a bad day can seem to last forever, yet the year, like an early snow on a warm fall day, can disappear from our lives so quickly.

Again, as always with any year, we have had our moments. Logan County had its share of good and bad, fair and biased. Like all Americans throughout this land we have again fought for our individuality, all the while hoping to be one with each other. For some of us the ledger of life remained balanced, while others found good fortune offsetting those among us who saw better moments, better years in their life’s journeys.

As a nation, we have seen the darkest days in our country enfold before our eyes, yet have gained a sense of pride in our collective humanity and compassion that we long ago forgot ourselves capable of expressing. For just a moment in this country’s life, we realized that beliefs and faith in our system and ourselves could bridge the gaps of political parties, of regions and ethnicity.

On a local level, we found that we could come together as a community to try to save an institution that for 124 years was taken for granted by so many of us.

As with all years there were many stories that are now marked by the scale we call 2001. Each day 33,000 new chapters were added to the lives of those who have chosen to call this community our home. For many of us the stories of 9-11 and LDC took pre-eminence over all the other innumerable moments that created our personal histories.

The World Trade Center attack has to be the lead story in our community this year, even to those of us who were 1,500 miles away from the disaster. The effects, the concept that foreign invaders could take away from us what we had honestly earned and strived for, carried beyond the borders of a city called New York.

At the "Public Expression of Patriotism," perhaps 1,500 of us gathered on the courthouse square to tell ourselves as well as the world that all the protections we have in this great country, although often taken for granted, are not and have never been taken lightly. With dollars and tears and prayers, this community said for all who would listen that we are our brother’s keepers.

[to top of second column in this commentary]

In the days that followed, the concern about whether it is appropriate to burn an American flag was replaced with the issues of where can I purchase one and what is the appropriate way to display Old Glory. The difficult-to-sing "Star-Spangled Banner" was replaced at events throughout the nation with "God Bless America," as those who wish to keep God and country separate stayed their lips as we reassembled our country’s spirit. How many of us sang that song these past few months as we never did before. How many of us wiped the mistiness from our eyes as, gathered with others, we found ourselves feeling special because we help make up the collective called America.

The plight of the Lincoln Developmental Center galvanized this community like no other issue I can recall. Employees, ridiculed and assaulted with lies and half-truths concerning their actions toward their wards, looked to all of us for strength and support. That is what we gave and continue to give. None of us went to purchase assault rifles or formed militias. We didn’t attempt to commandeer an airplane or blow up a building that houses our detractors. As Americans we used the promises of the Constitution to express our opinions. We used the freedoms of speech and assembly to give voice to our words. We used the right to petition and addressed our grievances through thousands of letters to those in power who needed the gentle reminder that they are where they are only by our graces. We learned that in a community that seems to be able to divide on issues as seemingly obvious as whether gold has more worth than manure, that we could in fact come together.

In the year 2001, Logan County learned what Thomas Carlyle knew 150 years ago: "In the midst of my winter, I finally realized there was in me an invincible summer." All of us have an invincible summer. The year 2001 was necessary to make us realize that. How unfortunate that this knowledge had to be purchased as it was.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

A peek back at one of LDN's reader submissions reveals a rather poignant prediction for the year 2001 Prediction for 2001 by Maxine Seggelke

[DEC. 29, 2001]  On Dec. 30, 2000, Lincoln Daily News printed this poem written and submitted by Maxine Seggelke. Her poetic predictions were in response to an invitation to readers for New Year thoughts.

Freezing cold this day

In the month of December;

I predict that this summer

You'll scarcely remember!

We tend to adapt

To situations and weather;

I predict that we'll make it

If we all stick together.

We all came through counting

The chad and each dimple;

I predict the coming year

Should be pretty simple.

The gas may go up

And the Market come down;

But we'll weather it all —

Come through safe and soun'.

We're Americans, you know,

And we are God's own creation;

I predict we'll be proud

Of our country — OUR NATION!

—Maxine Seggelke

[DEC. 29, 2001]  What a year! We no longer think much about the presidential election mess that promises to stain the American electoral system for years to come. We weren’t thinking about our favorite pastimes or much of anything except family and country, and about how much we all need one another, once Sept. 11 came to pass. 

Yet time has passed and significant events have marked the days of our lives. We have had plenty of other good times and achievements as well as struggles to be remembered from the past year. As the start of a new calendar year, now is a good time to reflect on the year 2001 and project on the days to come in 2002.

If you would like to set forth your thoughts, raise a challenge, or simply reflect on these 365 days past send your thoughts to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com. LDN will publish select entries with names (or without at your request.)

[LDN]

[DEC. 28, 2001]  Congratulations to Time Magazine for honoring New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on its cover this week. Unquestionably, the mayor deserves the highest praise for shouldering the greatest tragedy in the history of our country and New York, New York with compassion, dedication and crisis management skills that may never be eclipsed.

But Time’s cover should say “Hero of the Year” rather than “Person of the Year.” By its own definition, Time’s annual “Person of the Year” is the person who most affected events for the year, for better or worse. And, as ghastly as it is to acknowledge it, the unquestionable person of the year by that criterion is Osama bin  Laden. It is clear that our society was changed forever on Sept. 11, and that the agent of change was the leader of Al Qaeda. He changed the way we look at airline travel. He changed the way we look at our own level of vulnerability. He masterminded an attack which will go down in history for not only its death toll but its evil brilliance. It was so effective that it surprised even him, as we learned in the video recently released by the U.S. government.

Time’s previous people of the year have included Adolf Hitler and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, so there is precedent for bitter enemies of the United States to be judged as the person who most affected events that year.

While few would argue that bin Laden is the individual who truly shaped this past year, there are few who are taking Time magazine to task for bypassing the native Saudi whose exact whereabouts are still unknown -- as usual. Rarely, if ever, has American popular opinion been as united. When President Bush said bin Laden was “wanted, dead or alive,” the pacifists and human rights advocates who normally would decry such a stance through press conferences and photo ops were scarce. They knew that the nation could not stomach any sort of mercy or favor being shown to bin Laden.

Time Magazine knew the same when it decided to bypass him. Its editors and management correctly concluded that attempting to sell magazines featuring the man who masterminded the murder of over 3,200 people as its person of the year would be folly. They correctly judged that our collective anger is so passionate, we don’t have the ability or will to give bin Laden any sort of recognition other than that as mass murderer and public enemy number one.

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Almost everyone’s knee-jerk reaction to hearing that someone has been named a person of the year is that he or she did something worthy of honor. When Bill Clinton was named Time’s person of the year, even in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and fallout, there was enough public support remaining for Clinton that public reaction wasn’t universally negative. Enough of Clinton’s policies were the agents of positive change that Time could make a reasonable argument that he was worthy.

Time correctly judged that that would not be the case this time, and also correctly judged that it could not submit a murderer of thousands as its person of the year without permanently damaging the publication’s credibility in the eyes of a focused public. Had Time’s editors tried to argue that bin Laden meets their criteria, they would have been absolutely right, and they would have been the target of scorn and derision from now until the end of time. They made the right call.

[Tom Mitsoff, longtime daily newspaper editor and syndicated columnist]

[DEC. 27, 2001]  In late October the Economic Development Council made public its recommendation to locate a fully improved commerce park in Lincoln. Their proposal has become the topic of mostly well-grounded, healthy discussion. There is also some misguided and/or confusing dialogue taking place. Both are part of the discussion and decision making process. Eventually, one side will prevail.

In an article in Area Development magazine Scott McAfee, community affairs coordinator for Westerville, Ohio, points out that community vision doesn't mean much if the community isn't willing to provide the resources necessary to make it happen.

He suggests that it is very shortsighted for government to say that financial incentives alone should be enough help for developers and potential business partners. He adds that if local government wants developers to invest in the community, then local government has to step to the plate and provide the infrastructure immediately, before any development takes place.

Transportation is almost always the critical component in siting decisions. Transportation routes have always attracted business. Are the routes serving our site(s) in good condition? Are they adequate for future growth?

Housing, education, municipal services, health care, recreational and shopping opportunities, technology, government attitude and local business climate are obviously important to businesses in varying degrees.

A business's exposure to its current and potential customer base is a direct result of location. What is the best location for the most business types? After looking at the various locations in and around Lincoln, using the best available information, listening to advice from other communities who have actually done similar projects, asking advice of site location consultants and paying attention to which location actual prospects preferred, the EDC believes that the north site, the one they are recommending, is the best site.

Is the site the only one for business?  Of course not.  Is it the better site having taken into account all of the variables? The EDC feels it is. Join in the conversation and discussion. Let me know your opinions. After all, in many ways, we are talking about the future of Lincoln and Logan County.

Distribution as an example

"100 Most Logistic Friendly Cities" -Expansion Management, September 2001

# 16 - Chicago

# 19 - St. Louis

# 23 - Indianapolis

# 30 - Quad Cities

#42 - Peoria/Pekin

#44 - Champaign/Urbana

#69 - Rockford

#74 - Bloomington/Normal

#80 - Springfield

And notice where Lincoln and Logan County are in relation to these communities.

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Real estate activity

October 2001:

Residential Properties Sold = 36

Average Selling Price: $ 69,247

Median Selling Price: $ 64,950

Total Market Value: $2,492,900

Range: $ 7, 100 to $ 170,000

Number of permits issued and estimated cost of construction, by jurisdictions

Lincoln

October 2000:       33 permits at $457,370

October 2001:       52 permits at $513,076

Source: Les Last, City of Lincoln

Logan County

October 2000:       7 permits at $135,910

October 2001:       9 permits at $451,000

Atlanta

October 2000:       0 permits at $ -0-

October 2001:       2 permits at $110,000

Source:  Phil Mahler, Logan County RPC

 County labor facts

Bird’s-Eye View

Where They Stand

Where They Stand is a commentary section addressing specific issues in the community. Informed individuals present their position with facts, opinions or insights on the issue. The material is posted unedited, in its entirety, as 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.

Local teacher announces her candidacy for regional superintendent of schools

By Jean Anderson, candidate

[OCT. 31, 2001]  My name is Jean Anderson and I am announcing my intent to be a Republican candidate for the office of Regional Superintendent of Schools for Logan, Mason, and Menard counties.

[to top of second column in this section]

By the Numbers

Alexis Asher

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

Racial makeup of selected Illinois counties

What’s Up With That?

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