Politics still stink

I may as well join the chorus and go on record and say that I think that Governor George Ryan's decision to commute the death sentences for all the prisoners on Illinois' death row to a life sentence is a gross miscarriage of justice. In one fell swoop Ryan's decision rendered the deliberations of 167 trials conducted in the last 20 years worthless. He of omniscient knowledge and heartfelt compassion was compelled to overturn all the decisions made by our judicial system for those death row inmates.

I can't imagine how the families of the victims must feel. Instead of having closure, they must spend the rest of their lives knowing that the murderer of their loved one will be taken care of by the State for the rest of their lives and the justice awarded will never be served.

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous, a University of Illinois professor nominated Ryan for the Nobel Peace Prize. What does commuting the death sentence for 167 convicted murderers have to do with peace? Is killing someone considered a peaceful act? You shouldn't be surprised to learn that this particular professor is an ardent foe of the death penalty. His nomination of Ryan for the peace prize appears to be a political ploy to aid his cause.

Ryan's death row decision will temporarily divert attention away from the fact that the Feds are closing in on him because of his association with those nefarious cohorts of his who have been convicted of trading of driver's licenses for bribes, illegal use of campaign funds and racketeering. Does he really think that this action will make the government more sympathetic towards him? I guess this logic is consistent with the rest of his stone-age politics mentality.

It appears to me that after Ryan leaves office, he will probably join the other Illinois politicians who departed under ignominious circumstances. Ex-governors Otto Kerner and Dan Walker spent time in the slammer for their illegal misdoings. State Auditor Orville Hodge was jailed for stealing funds from the state and when former Secretary of State Paul Powell died they found boxes and boxes of money stored in his house. Like the late alderman Paddy Bauler said of Chicago, Illinois ain't ready for reform either.

Ryan will be remembered for (1) raising license plate fees, (2) fighting off accusations of bribery and misuse of campaign funds, (3) commuting the death sentence for all death row inmates, and (4) awarding cushy, high paying political jobs to his cronies before he left office. What a legacy!

Another example of how rotten politics has become in Illinois was pointed out last week in an article in the Peoria Journal Star. It showed a map of the new congressional districts in Illinois. It looked like an abstract painting that made no geographical sense. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Rep. William Lipinski were in charge of a committee that redrew the congressional district boundaries in such a way as to give the incumbent a definite advantage for re-election. They did this by combining heavily Democratic districts for incumbents who are Democrats and did the same for the Republicans. This redrawing is done every 10 years and explains why U. S. Representative races are usually one-sided in favor of the incumbent.

The final outrage is the high-paying retirement packages awarded to our lawmakers after serving even a few short years in Springfield. Some retired state workers are drawing 2 pensions from the state, one for each department that they worked in. Some of these retired lawmakers are making up to $89,000 a year on their state pension. No wonder our state is going broke. With all the early retirement buyouts that the state is providing, who is going to be left to run the state and who is going to pay for all of these pensions? Meanwhile our school systems are going broke and the state can't even pay its bills on time. I wonder if any of those pension checks are ever late?

I don't have any solutions to the problems we face. The only way we can combat this deterioration in our political system is to get involved in the system. Tell your congressman or your state representative how you feel. Write a letter to this website, the Pantagraph or the Woodford Journal. Run for political office. A good way to start is by filing to run for alderman for next April's election.

Petitions for alderman due this week