No Lincolns in the Land of Lincoln

We face tough time in Illinois. Our budget crisis has revealed to me that too many of our elected politicians are too worried about their jobs. The right thing to do in this state is a combination of two things: cut spending and raise revenue. You have to do both if you want save our state. Our representatives do not want to be on record to raise taxes and when we read about cuts that are proposed it is usually in the social service area. Maybe we should try cutting some pet projects legislators use to help pick up votes come election time. My point is that our leaders need to take a page from Abraham Lincoln's book.

Lincoln is not only the greatest Illinoisan in our history but also one of the greatest presidents in our nation's history. He spent his entire presidency in crisis. Now I am certainly not comparing our budget crisis to the Civil War. The idea is that if our leaders would step up to the plate as Lincoln did we would find ourselves on the road to recovery. Think of the unpopular things Lincoln had to do. He emancipated slaves in the midst of the turbulent times of a war that had it's causes rooted in slavery. He suspended the civil liberties of many of his own citizens. Bottom line is that Lincoln had guts. The guts that it takes to put a county back on course and in turn make it stronger.

We should challenge our legislators and our governor to be as brave as Lincoln and do somethings that might be unpopular but will help save our state and the people in it.

Worst Job Ever

We have all at some point complained to somebody about our jobs and said that someday we would get out of that place and find something better. The reasons are endless. You may hate your boss, the pay is not good enough, too far to drive or your co-workers just suck. Despite our ramblings, we usually find something that keeps us where we are or at least lets us know that things are not that bad. I recently witnessed the worst job ever being performed and man do I feel foolish for complaining.

While I was eating lunch with my wife recently we observed a strange woman wearing a name tag with two small children by her side meeting with a younger woman who looked pretty rough. Everything about her signaled a troubled life. The younger woman greeted the children and ran off to order their food. The name tag wearing professional sat quietly and even helped get the children sat down to eat. The younger woman payed little attention to her children and even used her cell phone most of the time. I didn't pay much attention to this scenario until my wife pointed out that the name tag wearing professional was a DCFS transporter. It is her job to bring kids to visit their unfit parents (by order of the courts) and take them back when the visit is over.

I will never forget the look on this woman's face. I am in the business of helping kids and the teachers that teach them. My life's work is put young people in a position to succeed and grow into productive adults and it can be tough. This woman's job is to deal with those that fall through the cracks, many of them likely the failures of people like me. I don't know how I could handle her job. I'm going to take back all those days that I wanted to scream because I had a bad day at work and focus on what I need to do help lower her clientele. In some way we all need to help her look for a new job.