About 80 people or so were milling about at the August jobs rally at the DeKalb Square on the corner of 4th and Lincoln Hwy. Across the street, standing all by himself, was the conservative Ted McCarron. He was holding a sign that said cut taxes. Various signs, custom made by the event supporters suggested dumping the Tea Party into the Kishwaukee River, among other non-flattering ideas.
A similar number of people were in attendance for the September DeKalb County Tea Party breakfast meeting at the Spring Grove Family Restaurant in Genoa. According to a Facebook post by McCarron, “the woman who showed up with the British accent who commented about the historical differences between the Dems and the GOP is a local left-wing activist, as were the friends she brought along.”
It’s not funny that both groups claim to be non-partisan because the challenges in front of us require partisan ideology to be set aside. We can’t tax our way to prosperity. We can’t cut our way to prosperity. We, as an all inclusive term, win only through working together. In partisan politics there is win-lose. Win-win solutions are needed.
Honesty is the virtue most needed at this time. Complacent corruption, a truly bipartisan product of Illinois government, has grown to such a level that a person with a PhD in political science told me we should just budget for it and — reluctantly of course — increase taxes to pay for it.
Corruption is all about win-lose. Its scope is just a little more narrow in focus than left-right politics.
Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice and the DeKalb Interfaith Network is holding a press conference and jobs for all rally on Friday October 7th at 5pm in Memorial Park on the corner of North First Street and Lincoln Highway in DeKalb. Dan Kenney is the coordinator of the event and coordinator of DeKalb Interfaith Network. He is also co-founder of the Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice.
“This is a jobs for all rally, but it is also a rally to rebuild the American Dream, the American Dream that was built upon mutual trust among the citizens of our country.” Kenney said in a press release. “We were once a country that pulled together during hard times, now we are pulled apart.”
No civilization can survive large classes of unemployed for long periods of time. Even our best citizens will become distorted and demoralized by accepting support from the public purse and/or private charity. Our youth, who forever tend to see things with short term view, see no future tomorrow or jobs for them today. That’s not to mention aging infrastructure and an ongoing war that will be fought until someone wins.
I googled “Win-win war” and I couldn’t find one.
The American Dream. What does that mean?
I bet Kevin Hendrickson and Dan McIntyre, co-founders of the DeKalb County Tea Party, and Dan Kenney and his friends at the DeKalb Interfaith Network would interpret that dream quite differently. Or, maybe not. They’ve never talked. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if the corner of First and Lincoln Hwy isn’t busier than normal for the Friday night in DeKalb tradition of What Side of the Street Are You On? Honk your horn if you agree.
We don’t have to raise taxes to turn this economy around. We just have to eliminate loopholes that protect hoarders. We don’t have to cut government jobs and services to turn this economy around. We just have to eliminate corruption of public servants to manipulate their use of public funds.
Loopholes and corruption. Talk about it. Identify it. Work together to eliminate it. Those who benefit from it, knowingly or not, feel they are entitled to it. Ask Richard Nixon. Ask Rod Blagojevich.
Working together requires inclusion and honest discussion. Those virtues are non-existent at partisan political rallies regardless of affiliation.
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13 Comments
Are you suggesting John Deere is opening two factories in Brazil to reduce labor costs? Might they be saving shipping costs? Could they be manufacturing product to service South American demand? I don’t know the answers to those questions so I won’t jump on the bandwagon of condemning corporations in general. That would be class warfare in my book.
You had a good turnout tonight. I’m fighting disillusionment. I’m almost ready to write off our generation. Maybe us silver hairs should just step aside and let the youngsters assume the leadership roles. It is they who are being told to temper down their futures. They’re the ones that are being straddled with our debt. And of course, they’ve got to fight our wars.
I can’t see how our generation can be judged by any other word than default. I still can’t believe a PhD in political science would recommend accepting and taxing for a corruption budget.
But I appreciate your efforts. I’d love to facilitate and moderate a forum with you and Kevin Hendrickson. He and I have never met or have we conversed directly. But I have read some of his stuff and he appears to welcome inclusive participation. If you’re willing I guess I could test his words of cooperation.
Thanks Mac. I think better sitting down alone in a room with a keyboard than I do on my feet, but I would participate and give it my best shot.
I share your thoughts on disillusionment. I have bouts of it from time to time. But I feel I have to do what I can to make things better or I couldn’t sleep at night.
In regards to John Deere, I feel that the multi-national corporations are choosing to take their production overseas to increase their bottom line. I know this is part of the corporate charter. However when they are laying off workers here to hire workers there at the lowest possible wages condemning their workers to live in inadequate housing, etc. While they sit on the profits. I think this is where globalization has hurt our economy and hurt the Midwest. I have seen the conditions of factory workers in Kenya and in Nicaragua, in both cases multi-national corporations have built their factories in “Free-Trade Zones” to avoid paying taxes, provide the lowest pay possible without any benefits, no regulations, etc. The people work 12 to 14 hours a day, take an old school bus home to their hut without running water or electricity. I guess what I fear is that the greed for the greatest profit can create human misery. it seems that John Deere, or CAT, or any of the multi-nationals could settle for a reasonable profits and provide a better life for their workers at the same time. But now I have entered into a different kind of delusion.
Again thanks for the space for dialogue, and for keeping up the good fight.
We already tax for a corruption budget and it is about 10% in Illinois overall, higher in Crook County. Mayor Rahm is making some changes and CC President Preckwinkle is trying as well, mostly because both Chicago and Crook County have budgets that are several floors below the basement.
John Deere has a very long history of building factories where the tractors will be used. They have major investment in facilities in Zaragoza, Spain that date back decades.
Brazil’s vehicles run on sugar-based ethanol (I forgot the special name for it). If the farm machinery runs on the sugar-fuel, too, then it would totally make sense to build tractors there. Otherwise, the sugar fuel would need to be imported to the factories, just to see if the machinery works after it rolls out of the factory.
Upbeat but side point.
Was eating at downtown restaurant early in the week and chatting with owner. Because of the Lewis Black performance the owner was putting on more staff for the evening of the presentation.
Last night we went to see Lewis Black, who said the same thing you’ve said here, Mac, only funnier (no offense).
Just before the show started, I overheard somebody behind me explaining to his friends that the money for the new seating at the Egyptian had come out of a TIF fund and why he thought this was wrong.
I was so impressed to hear someone speaking knowledgeably about TIF — who thought it was important enough to talk about — I turned around to join the conversation for a minute before the house lights went down.
Later, when Black was skewering the Republicans, the same person began muttering and threatening to leave and at one point booed really loudly. The feeling I’d had of finding a kindred spirit began to fizzle.
He wasn’t the only one. There was another conservative near the end of our row who did basically the same thing. Then when Black was skewering the Democrats, some of them became stone-faced and disengaged.
Now I’ve got to ask, when exactly did the great American tradition of poking fun at the people in power, no matter what their political persuasion, go out of style? When did we lose our sense of humor to the point that we’re ready to challenge someone to a duel if they dare to say something less than flattering about our side?
You know who was laughing at both sides, though? The young people. That gives me hope.
Like EXACTLY Lynn, and us bigger kidz too.
Black tore it up last night and if you watched him over the last 10 years he has evolved from largely tearing up the Bush2 admin, to a more fair and balanced ripping on both sides. Although he didn’t do his old routine on the Democrats the part of NO ideas and Republicans the party of BAD ideas, and when they rarely work together it gets WORSE! – he made fun of the gridlock and the fact that a Republican president who created the EPA, supported OSHA, and went to China couldn’t run as a Republican in 2012 Republican Party, Richard Nixon.
Fantastic bit shredding the Iphones uselessness as a phone in oversubscribed markets & DROID and apps in general (asking an inanimate object where the best sushi is:)
As to WHEN we lost our sense of humor on politics I’m not sure, but I think it has something to do with the general dumbing down of an America that would actually believe that a Fox news IS “fair & balanced”, and/or that an MSNBC is not biased to Macs point. The flawed duality that there is actually a right or wrong, black or white, Biased or Unbiased, or that complex issues like we face could ever be that simple I think DOES encourage the weaker, less educated, less open-minded to dig into their positions and defend it like it was a life or death issue – in cavemen fight or flight like regression.
I think Black OPENED last night wondering what planet he lived on that our government gridlocks trying to decide WHERE to TAKE MONEY FROM so that we can help victims of natural disaster in our country…followed by the usual F words and groin grabbing, appropriate in that case.
Nice tune Mac man, thanks.
Mr. Black was hilarious, and yes, he skewered both the Democrats and the Republicans, and both groups deserved a good roasting.
Locking Congress up and surrounding those folks with the Army until they figure out how to fix things would be a good start, but . . . .
It has been a long time since any politician or group of politicians made this country great. I would not wait for politicians to clean up the mess. My expectations for politicians are so low that I hope that they will not make anything worse. What made this country great were our inventors, like Thomas Edison.
If making fun of politicians is out of style, then Johnny Carson is rolling in his grave.
How about we start by making DeKalb County Online non-partisan by stopping the pattern of promoting the Tea Party events before they happen, and only reporting on the events of everyone else after the fact? And then maybe devoting more time to what the event was about and less of the whole focusing on the lone dissenter.
Can’t help but notice you failed to mention the name of the “local left-wing activist” and the friends she brought along, but talked about the lone dissenter and the leaders of the Tea Party at length. Keep that bias going Mac!
1. I didn’t attend the tea party event. I copied and pasted the quote from their facebook page. McCarron attended both events and I don’t know if he’s a leader in the tea party.
2. DeKalb County Online has been promoting this jobs rally event since Sept. 30 at 8:44am. I’ll help promote just about any event Dan Kenney is part of because of my personal experience of working with him and the respect that has built.
3. We’ll publish just about any event submitted to us if its local.
4. I am a founder of the Barb City Tea Company. You don’t read me promoting much about that group because the Right Wing Extreme highjacked the effort for national politics. The one I started had nothing to do with national politics and believe me it sure got all tensiony at times sitting between John Anderson and Lynn Fazekas.
4b. My friends participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement are complaining of takeover efforts by MoveOn and the like.
5. I am absolutely biased. I am pro entrepreneurial independent business who are the true job creators and anti-corruption because its destroying America from Main Street to Main Street. Republican or Democrat vote them out until they get it. If you want unbiased reporting try FOX News or NPR, there’s really not much difference.
I can think of three different local left-leaning ladies with British accents who have lots of friends, so I am not sure which one might have been the one present. Mr. McCarron, however, I believe is unique.
Many excellent points, Mac. It’s time to move past partisan ideologies, start working together and focusing on solutions—real solutions. Thanks for your honest and inclusive discussion. Hopefully it will inspire others to abandon their narrow rhetoric for broader possibilities… and join together to start making progress.
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I agree with Michael. We need to focus on humanity and not ideologies. I would hope that most would agree that to end this crisis it will take the efforts of all. What I find encouraging about the Occupy movement is that it seems to be leaderless and not centrally directed by MoveOn or any one else. For that reason alone it may be successful. History has shown that the movements that have been most successful, has been those which arose from those who were suffering most from the oppression. Others may have risen to the forefront of media attention and some organizations may have come along later, but the heart of the movement were the people on the ground in cities and towns all across the map, each doing what was best for the common good in their own efforts. I support the importance of local independent businesses and will always work for their success in any way possible. Jobs are created on the local level by the locally owned and operated businesses. What we are about on the corner tonight is stopping the multinational corporate and banking greed which has a strangle hold on the average working American, the corporations like GE and many others who don’t even pay taxes to the country that built their multinational empires, who don’t pay taxes and leave the burden on the very, now unemployed workers that made their wealth possible. You only have to look west by about two hours to Moline, where John Deere has announced the building of two new factories…not in Illinois, …not in the southern states, not even in the U.S., but in Brazil. Earlier this year CAT announced building three new factories in China. It won’t stop unless we the people of many ideologies come together around the one issue that we should all be able to agree upon, and that is doing what is best for working America and what is best for all America. Thanks Mac for providing this forum for dialogue. If we are going to save our selves we must be able to talk with one another. I stand ready to discuss with any one who cares about truly finding a new way forward, who is willing to think outside the confines of liberal or conservative, outside the boundaries of party, including the tea party.