Politics & Government

Guy’s Republican Primary Endorsements

You might not care what I think but hey, you’re reading my blog aren’t you?  Here are my endorsements in the Republican Primary tomorrow.

US Senate: John Arrington

Forget this nonsense about only Kirk can win, John Arrington is the real deal.  Mark Kirk has let us down as Republicans, he quite simply doesn’t support what the party should stand for.  The most glaring example was voting for the ridiculous Cap & Trade Bill.  Under no circumstances should such behavior be rewarded!   Enough about Kirk though — John Arrington is a Harvard graduate, former alderman and public servant.  He has strong conviction to his ideals and if you haven’t seen him speak you can see him now:

Governor: Adam Andrzejewski

There’s a lot not to like in this contest and one candidate rises to the top and that is Adam Andrzejewski (And-G-F-Ski).  Virtually every other candidate for the Republicans has some baggage he’s carrying with him, I won’t go into it all.  Adam is a self-made man, speaks from the heart and holds to the ideals of liberty.  Everyone he is running against can’t hold a candle to his qualifications.

Lieutenant Governor: Jason Plummer

Another great candidate with the ideals of liberty and who comes from the private sector.  Jason has sworn off drawing salary should he be elected Lieutenant Governor.  How’s THAT for putting your money where your mouth is?  Jason wants to transform this useless office into one that will cut through the Springfield red tape as an advocate for liberty.

Comptroller: Jim Dodge

As much as I admire much about Judy Baar Topinka the last thing we need is someone who has spent most of their life down there.  Jim Dodge has a solid background in holding local public office and is a great choice for Comptroller.

Illinois 8th Congressional District Representative: Maria Rodriguez

If there’s anyone who can beat Melissa Bean it’s Maria Rodriguez.  With solid credentials in local government Maria is another candidate on my liberty parade — committed to limited government and free markets.  She’s a fantastic candidate and our best chance yet of having a candidate who represents our ideals and won’t go lock step with a party line that doesn’t hold them.  I strongly endorse Maria Rodriguez for the 8th District.

Why Mary Jo Kopechne Matters

It’s been forty years since Mary Jo Kopechne died and despite the fact it was before my birth I knew who she was before today. However, many people have no clue who she was, such is the fate of a person’s life and legacy when bulldozed by American royalty, Kennedy style.

There’s little doubt for anyone familiar with my writing that the late Senator Edward Kennedy and I had little in common politically. Aside for an issue here or there his positions have been the polar opposite of mine. That’s not why I’m writing here today although I’m sure many will say it is. While the eulogies and the tributes continue to flow for him I can’t sit back and watch it happen without my say, and that’s what blogs are all about.

This isn’t a political issue for me it’s a moral issue and it’s about getting away with murder. I don’t subscribe to the theories that the end of Mary Jo’s life came deliberately at the hands of Edward Kennedy. We will never know because Kennedy made sure we would never know. However, there is no doubt in my mind the man was not fit to hold public office after what happened in July of 1969. When Richard Nixon resigned the presidency it was for covering up a burglary; Kennedy covered up the loss of a promising young woman’s life.  Why he was re-elected to office again and again over the next forty years is almost more troubling than Kennedy’s actions then.

Edgartown Police at the scene of the crash.

So while those who wish to lionize him will go on about all the great accomplishments he made, the way he wanted to embrace people and raise them up, he did so by holding one down. At the critical moment not only did he turn away, he looked for ways out of it. Even his own friends present tried to talk him out of the cover story he was concocting about Mary Jo driving. Worst of all, the diver who recovered Mary Jo’s body told People Magazine in 1989 that she didn’t drown, she spent the last two hours of her life slowly running out of air that was trapped in the car.  During those two hours Kennedy passed up a home within 100 yards of the crash site with people home and a telephone.  He went back to get his friends to start figuring a way out of the mess including blaming it on her.  He concocted a story about Mary Jo wanting to go back to the hotel and Kennedy offered to drive her despite the fact she didn’t tell any of her friends and left her purse and hotel key behind.

“The Lion of the Senate” as he was somehow dubbed resembled the one in The Wizard of Oz in July 1969 as he was far more concerned with saving his own posterior than Mary Jo breathing her last breaths. Even worse, even after these terrifying events he got up the next morning calm and casual striking up conversations with those in the hotel lobby.  Mary Jo’s body laid submerged aside the Dike Bridge that went to nowhere but a beach.

Even after finally showing up at the police station to own up to being involved (the police already knew that having run the plates on the car) he artfully dodged any serious prosecution as only a United States Senator can.  You or I would have have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  The fullest extent for Kennedy who was driving on a suspended license, left the scene of the accident and did nothing to aid Mary Jo was a suspended sentence.  Despite a judge’s clear findings of a cover-up at a coroner’s inquest the distrct attorney never prosecuted the case.

So, I’m sorry if I am out of line for speaking ill of the dead, I think I’m only following Kennedy’s example and I apologize.  We all make our mistakes in life, to err is human.  To walk away and let someone die? Little could be more inhuman.

Amidst all the talk of the grand and noble things Kennedy said and did there should be some thought put to just how genuine those things were.  Because when faced with the terrible wrong he had done Kennedy greeted his moment of truth by walking away.  Some say it cost him the presidency, it cost Mary Jo her life.

Election Rebuilding

The results are in from yesterday’s election, many races went the way I had hoped, many did not, so let’s rundown the two main area races for my take on them.

Round Lake Area Schools – Board of Education

First off I want to thank everyone who supported Dan, Tonesha and me in the election.  Thank you for returning me to the board I’m very grateful to have your support and will continue working hard to make a difference in CUSD 116.

Obviously this race was closest to me since I was in it.  Despite all the congratulations I have gotten I was very disappointed in the results.  First, to see Tonesha Baker lose, hurt me very much.  Tonesha was the first Master Board Member ever in Round Lake.  Tonesha went out and aggressively got the training when it wasn’t easily being provided and before anyone else.  Most of all Tonesha was always up front and honest with me, never afraid to tell me how she really felt and never told me one thing and did another.  She’s an honest and thoughtful person and an excellent board member, she will be missed.

Secondly, Dan Hartlieb finished a few votes behind me and I was disappointed we couldn’t get the needed votes to take at least two spots.  Dan is someone who’s lived here all his life and is deeply invested in the schools.  I think he would have been an excellent board member.

Tonesha and Dan have both told me they plan to stay involved with the schools and I hope they do so.

If anything the mistakes in this campaign were mine.  First, for not putting the required time into them.  I was too busy with work, board, family, etc to sacrifice the weekends and evenings to be hitting the campaign trail. Our opponents didn’t and were working right through to the final hour, they worked harder.  Second, after a review of the outcomes in many of the races and the techniques used it’s clear running a positive campaign focused on the facts and your accomplishments doesn’t always work.  I thought people would clearly see who was more qualified, who was more invested in the district, who knew what our issues were and who knew what our boardroom looked like more than three months ago.  I was wrong, I won’t make that mistake again.

The campaign is over now and we’ll have a new board member and thus a slightly different board.  The new board will need to rebuild itself, continue to improve and prove that we are ready to take on the reins of leadership ourselves.  We have objectives to meet if the School Finance Authority is going to leave at the end of next school year as anticipated.  We’re going to jump right into working on those objectives right away.

Village of Round Lake

Yesterday the voters sent a clear message they wanted a new direction in leadership for the village, you can’t slice a 2 to 1 victory across the board any other way.  Congratulations to Jim, Joyce, Don, Sonia and Susan for a hard fought victory, you guys deserved it.

I was highly invested in this campaign going months back in fact going back to immediately after the November election.  First I was surveying the field hoping that someone would emerge to challenge Bill Gentes.  When that person was Dan MacGillis I began working with him and Don Newby on their slate.

Contrary to the accusations the two slates decided for their own benefit and for the best chance to defeat Gentes the slates needed to merge.  So then I started working with Jim Dietz and the folks with what became RL United For Change.  I was the webmaster for their site, attended most of their functions and did my best to support this slate because we were in desperate need of change in Round Lake.

I am very pleased that not only did United For Change win, they won in overwhelming fashion signaling a clear message from the Village that things needed to change.  However, that is not to say there weren’t some good and well qualified folks on the opposing slate.  To that I would say each of them made a decision to run with Gentes and thus tied their collective fates to him – that was a mistake.  As I said though there are good folks there and while their decision kept my votes from them I am hopeful we can all move on from this election and work together.

Rebuilding Together

Thus we get to my final topic and that would be moving on from elections together.  Unfortunately local politics is particularly nasty because it’s neighbor versus neighbor in many cases.  The candidates in all the races made their case, some races were won, some were lost.  Now it’s time for us to move on together as the folks have voted.

To that end I am putting this election behind me and will affirm my position to work with anyone who will work with me.  Anyone who is up front and honest with me is someone I can support and work with.  I don’t have to agree with you all the time, there will be times we won’t (and I am certain to let you know about it) but it is rarely if ever personal from me.  I try not to make decisions from a personal viewpoint but at the end of the day I’m only human like anyone else and might be prone to emotion sometimes.   At the end of the day though I would hope that people, whether they agree with me or not, would know that I’m honest and a straight shooter.  I hope we all can work together for our community to make it better for everyone here.

News

An Open Letter To AT&T

Dear AT&T:

To fill you in on where I’m coming from regarding the iPhone 3G S upgrade that you state I have to wait until December 12th to get without paying in full for the phone:

I’m a purchaser of the original iPhone, I didn’t wait in line the first day but I got it the first weekend it was available. I ditched my previous carrier of several years that I was perfectly happy with to get your service as the exclusive carrier for the iPhone. I paid $200 to cancel that contract on top of the $500 I paid for the phone (unsubsidized).

Happy with your wireless service and seeing your new uVerse service available in my area I switched from Comcast to AT&T for my internet, television and phone. My wireless bill is combined with that bill.

I was in line the first day the iPhone 3G came out. That phone was subsidized but I had to extend my contract which I happily did as I was pleased with your service.

I have been pleased with my service aside from a couple of dead spots (all carriers have their dead spots) and have been an evangelist for AT&T and its wireless and uVerse services as providing me good service and value.

Because of me, and people like me, who are using the iPhone and extolling its virtues to others (I know of several people I convinced to get one) you’re able to sell more contracts to go along with all those phones. Market data clearly indicates AT&T has reaped great windfalls from the iPhone having sold over one million of them on the first weekend of the iPhone 3G release alone.

How do you reward me for being an early adopter of your service, paying good money for your services and advocating it to others? You tell me I have to pay $600 for the new iPhone unless I want to wait until December 12.

I don’t expect you to fully subsidize my next iPhone but you could at least come up with a nominal charge to keep me satisfied with your service.

I hear you’re in negotiations with Apple regarding your exclusivity agreement for the iPhone. I wonder how many of us you will be keeping having stuck it to us on the iPhone 3G S if say, Verizon is added as a carrier for the iPhone. I also wonder how long it will take me to call Comcast and get them to cut me a good deal to switch from uVerse.

You alone can answer that question.

Daily Herald | Palatine school plans to expand

Daily Herald | Palatine school plans to expand

As many of you are aware my son attends New Connections Academy in Palatine, it has turned his life and his educational experiences around. There is no other school like it in the area that I’m aware of that specializes in programs for kids who suffer from autism but are high-functioning or have Asperger’s Syndrome.

This is also a great example of where a privately run program has stepped in to fill a void not being filled by the public schools. It’s a well-run facility with an incredible staff making differences in the lives of these kids every day. I’m glad to see more kids will be able to benefit from this program instead of trying to be placed in a program not designed for their disability. Too many times HFA and AS kids are being placed in ED (formerly “BD”) classrooms where they fall under bad influences (think of a child with HFA or AS as a giant button waiting to be pushed by a child with emotional issues). Or they get put in an LOP or similar classroom with students with more profound learning disabilities where they get bored and cause problems.

As the demand for these programs increases they will continue to expand. So if you have a child who suffers from HFA or AS I encourage you to insist on a placement that fits your child’s disability. It is your child’s right under IDEA to be placed in a such a program — the fit that is right for your child not the fit that is right for the school district. There is no greater advocate for your child than you, it’s up to you to insist on the proper placement so I encourage you to go into your next IEP meeting prepared and with the facts on what’s right for your child. By simply going along with a placement that may not be right for your child you aren’t doing him any favors and you’re ensuring there isn’t enough demand for programs like New Connections Academy.

GuyNet

Voices In My Head

I wrote this a few months ago but my life changed 10 years ago today.  By the date it was yesterday but in my head it’s always Labor Day 1999, the day my father died.  I didn’t post it to my blog so I thought I would do it now and remember what was lost ten Labor Days ago.

My dad and me ca. 1973

There are times when I wonder how my life would be different now if my father were still here. On September 6, 1999, my life changed forever because that was the day that God called my hero, my father, home.

When I get selfish I get angry at God for what he took from me that day because I wasn’t through learning what I needed to learn from him. My father, without a solitary doubt, was the most selfless person I have ever known. He was a man that this world does not see much of any more — someone who will give all of himself and expect nothing in return. A co-worker who would chew your butt and then go about helping you do whatever it was you were screwing up. A community servant who spent countless hours doing public works with the Grayslake Jaycess (and having a lot of fun too). A brother who would forgive again and again. A son who would only wish for his own father’s happiness despite how painful the choices he made might have been to him. A husband who loved his wife with all of his being through all the good times and the tough ones. And a father who would walk through the fires of hell for his children and would let loose that hell on any person who would seek to do us harm.

I’m not half the man my father was. I’m a selfish bastard that doesn’t deserve to bear part of his name compared to him. I was a lousy husband, I can be a half-ass father, an ungrateful son and a distant brother. I have few people who I would call close friends because I don’t let them in. I don’t let anyone near me. What my father could do with a smile and a joke I can only pretend to do.

So there are times when I have conversations with my father in my head. Most of the time he’s trying to straighten me out as I’m sure he would if he were still here. Where are these voices coming from? Are they of my design, something that I do totally on my own? Are they recessed programming of my father in my brain, my sub-conscious acting out as what my father was? Or is it his spirit come to visit me in times when I need it, when I feel an absolute and total failure and unable to go any further? I don’t know what they are but I hope they are him.

Life is a series of choices we make every day and for whatever reason as of late I seem compelled to make the quick and easy ones. My father never made the quick and easy choices. Despite being a superb mechanic he always drove the worst car. My father was driving a car with more then 200,000 miles on it and it sang like a top because that’s what he could do with an engine. When he wasn’t satisfied with what he could do with a wrench or the powerful hands that would pound my shoulder when he got home he would do any number of other things.

He spent years in the Jaycees giving of himself and proving to be a very capable leader. He took to the stage always happy to take on any role on the stage or behind it, whatever it did to put on a great show my father was there to do. He was a lousy golfer known to break clubs during trying times but would laugh it all off with a beer when he was through. I suppose that was key to who my father was — he was a man who saw himself as fallible and would then go about making sure that didn’t happen very often.

So perhaps it is a time of choosing for me, time for me to decide that I would do as he did and let go of what pains me and do more to embrace life. I think that anyone who knows me knows that I’m not the same person I was before September 6, 1999. Maybe it’s time to change that as I’m sure he would be the first one to let me know his displeasure with me carrying on about it.

Reconciliation is an interesting word and it’s used in many different contexts but there’s a stronger word than that though, and that word is reckoning.  I think I have been too hot in the pursuit of reckoning and exacting of the punishment that reckoning brings upon myself.  It’s a part of who I am or probably more of what I have become.  Expecting perfection of one’s self you are always certain to fall short.   I think there’s a selfishness and greed in me though that never accepts things as good enough – those I don’t completely let slide that is.

No, reconcile is a much better word and much better place to be. Reconciliation is about accepting the way things have gone and realizing there is no way to change them, only to move forward. It involves the release of pain, the burdens we choose to carry around with us like boulders that we want others to see.

I think those voices are the voices of reconciliation in my head, encouraging me to let go and move forward realizing that tomorrow is another day, another opportunity to further reconcile with myself. Because, after all, I have far more issues with me than anyone else does — it’s time to put down the shovel and climb out of the hole.  It’s time to fill it in and recognize that’s where the hole was but it’s filled now and while I might remember the hole I can still walk across it, jump up and down on it, plant whatever I wish to on it — I can move past it.

I can if I start by putting down the shovel.  Thanks Dad, I love you

An Open Letter To AT&T

Dear AT&T:

To fill you in on where I’m coming from regarding the iPhone 3G S upgrade that you state I have to wait until December 12th to get without paying in full for the phone:

I’m a purchaser of the original iPhone, I didn’t wait in line the first day but I got it the first weekend it was available. I ditched my previous carrier of several years that I was perfectly happy with to get your service as the exclusive carrier for the iPhone. I paid $200 to cancel that contract on top of the $500 I paid for the phone (unsubsidized).

Happy with your wireless service and seeing your new uVerse service available in my area I switched from Comcast to AT&T for my internet, television and phone. My wireless bill is combined with that bill.

I was in line the first day the iPhone 3G came out. That phone was subsidized but I had to extend my contract which I happily did as I was pleased with your service.

I have been pleased with my service aside from a couple of dead spots (all carriers have their dead spots) and have been an evangelist for AT&T and its wireless and uVerse services as providing me good service and value.

Because of me, and people like me, who are using the iPhone and extolling its virtues to others (I know of several people I convinced to get one) you’re able to sell more contracts to go along with all those phones. Market data clearly indicates AT&T has reaped great windfalls from the iPhone having sold over one million of them on the first weekend of the iPhone 3G release alone.

How do you reward me for being an early adopter of your service, paying good money for your services and advocating it to others? You tell me I have to pay $600 for the new iPhone unless I want to wait until December 12.

I don’t expect you to fully subsidize my next iPhone but you could at least come up with a nominal charge to keep me satisfied with your service.

I hear you’re in negotiations with Apple regarding your exclusivity agreement for the iPhone. I wonder how many of us you will be keeping having stuck it to us on the iPhone 3G S if say, Verizon is added as a carrier for the iPhone. I also wonder how long it will take me to call Comcast and get them to cut me a good deal to switch from uVerse.

You alone can answer that question.

Sports

Bears Make Move Of A Lifetime

The long sad story of Chicago Bear quarterbacks has finally come to a an end. Aside from a few bright moments it’s been a lifetime of misery for the Bears for quarterback.

Want some proof?

Frankly, that’s all I need because I’ve waited 37 years for the Bears to go out and sign an elite quarterback. Next thing you know the Cubs will be in the World Series!!

Steve Goodman – Immortal

For those of us in Chicago familiar with the work of Steve Goodman we know that he was so much more than just The City of New Orleans or You Never Even Called Me By My Name. No, Steve was a hard core Cub fan through and through. Shortly before his death he did a promo radio song for WGN that became the current Cub anthem of Go Cubs Go.

However, Steve wrote another song about the Cubs that has a lot more relevance this year as it has for the past 100 years. And it’s this one here. I challenge you to watch it, if you or someone else cries you know they’re a true Cub fan.

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