By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

Illinois has been going through a rough patch. It was not always so. When I was a kid in the 1950s, I was proud to be from Illinois. The state was rich, farming and manufacturing were booming, and we were the crossroads state, with Route 66 and Lincoln highways and long-distance “zephyr” trains connecting in Illinois.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.