•March 8, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The topic for the week is only a little less depressing than the Illinois budget impasse—the end of life.

My hometown friend Archie, 90, has been a widower for decades. One of his two daughters lives a million miles away; the other passed away some years ago.

I sometimes bump into Archie at the nearby McDonald’s at lunch, alone, chewing absent-mindedly on a hamburger, looking forlornly out the window.

To add injury to insult, at present Archie is suffering a bedeviling case of eczema over much of his body.

“I’m ready to go,” Archie tells me. The bleakness in his voice pitiful, as Archie had for many decades a good, successful life as a small-town merchant, active in his community.

But even if he really wants to go, as it appears he does, how does he do so? The available options are gruesome, it seems. Read More

Dear Sullivan Board of Education:

As I am sure you are aware, on Friday, February 10 at about 3:20 p.m. a bus carrying our boys’ basketball team, cheerleaders, and coaches was involved in an accident at the Bruce-Findlay Road. This was a traumatic afternoon and evening for all on the bus and our school district. I was notified of the accident at 3:28 p.m. and immediately left for the accident scene. Shortly after my departure, I received a call from your superintendent, Mr. Brad Tuttle. Mr. Tuttle informed me that he was en route to the accident scene and that Sullivan School District was taking a bus there.

Upon my arrival, Mr. Tuttle greeted me and told me he would be around for awhile if there was anything I needed him to do. Having a fellow superintendent on scene so quickly was certainly reassuring to me. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate Mr. Tuttle being there to assist our kids and coaches. I wanted you to know how much I appreciate Mt. Tuttle’s response and for providing a bus where our students could go to stay warm.

While the accident was extremely unfortunate, it gives us chance to see the best that people have to offer. The first responders were incredible and took fantastic care of our kids. The City of Sullivan certainly put its best foot forward and was represented exceptionally well by the first responders and Mr. Tuttle. Please accept our sincere thanks.

Sincerely,
Bill Fritcher,
Supt. Teutopolis Community Unit District #50

•••

Do Legalities Disguise Real Reasons for Opposition

Dear Editor,

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6   Could it be that ignorance kills its host?

Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe), died Saturday 2/18 at the age of 69.  When she was 22, unemployed and pregnant in 1969, she sought to have an abortion in Texas where it was illegal. She claimed she was raped. Her case went to the Supreme Court, and the famous 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade determined that throughout the land, abortion would be legal.

Since that time, a number of discoveries have enlightened the world concerning the truth about this case. First, Norma lied. She was not raped. Second, because of medical advances and fetal studies, it has been determined that fetuses feel pain from 20 weeks on and experience a number of functions which scientists consider uniquely human. Third, courts around the country consider violence against a pregnant woman, which results in the loss of a fetus, murder. Fourth, McCorvey herself became a very strong proponent of fetal rights and has spoken around the U.S. against abortion. But the Supreme Court has spoken.

But has the Supreme court ever erred? In 1857 the Supreme Court, by a 7-2 vote, on the famous Dred Scott decision, determined that slaves are property and could not be considered citizens. That decision was overturned with legislation in 1868 by the passage of the 14th amendment. Perhaps the Supreme Court can make mistakes.

Legalities often disguise the real reasons we oppose a practice. The real reason for slavery was keeping power over another’s life for personal pleasure. The real reason for abortion is the same.

Al Rennert
Lovington, IL

•••

Concerns Over Proposed Property Tax Abatement

Dear Editor,

It was with much bemusement and concern that I read your February 22, 2017 front page article “Sullivan School Board Proposes Property Tax Abatement”

This is a non-binding resolution that carries no weight and means nothing. Well meaning, but not worth the taxpayer funded paper it was written on. There will always be an “emergency” or “crisis” for a taxing body to keep floating bonds so that this one percent will never go away. Please note that you will see the word “CRISIS” used by the administration and school district throughout the campaign. In 2017 everything is “CRISIS”.

Also the Sullivan Superintendent states, and I quote: “A one percent county school facility tax COULD generate up to one million dollars revenue a year for the district.”

I would like to also quote the same superintendent from a three page letter he sent home to Sullivan parents just 18 months ago, dated September 2014. “We expect the penny increase (or 1%) in the county sales tax will annually generate approximately $425,000 for our district”

Now my bachelors’ degree from EIU is in Political Science but my math skills tell me that $425,000 is a long way from $1,000,000; I’d say bout $575,000 off. I’m not sure if the school administration is using Al Gore’s “fuzzy math” or “new math” or perhaps this is our best example of “common core math”?

Ask yourself: In the past 18 months has a Super WalMart been built here? In the past 18 months has a new outlet mall been built here? In the last 18 months has a new interstate with exit ramps been built here that will generate an additional $575,000?

Nope!

In another article from the front page of your January 11, 2017 the paper printed “Supt. Brad Tuttle emphasized the board could cut property taxes..” Please note the reoccurring use of the buzz work “COULD”. Let me put it this way: I plan on winning the $400 million-dollar power ball and I “COULD” share it with all of you.

Let’s be clear about this tax question. A sales tax is a REGRESSIVE tax. It impacts poor and the senior citizen of our county the most.

A new tax or revenue stream for a taxing body is like a new source of drugs to an addict. Once hooked, you can’t ever get them off the stuff.

We can support our great school system and its amazing faculty and still oppose this sales tax.

These are not mutually exclusive.

Vote NO …. again on April 4.

Brad Graven
Sullivan High School Alumni

•February 22, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Talking politics over coffee with a former student this past week, the two of us came up with the same thought: We need a new major political party.

Dauntingly difficult, but not impossible.

The Democratic Party is adrift, at best. Its base of African-Americans, government unions and a thin sliver of intellectual liberals doesn’t add up to enough to win national elections.

On the other side, there hasn’t been a place in the GOP for old Eisenhower Republicans like me, who believe in public works, public education and public universities, for many years.

The free-trading, budget-balancing Establishment GOPers have been thrown over by small government Tea Partiers, and all is now confounded by the big spending, big debt populism of President Trump. Who knows where lies the heart of the party, or if it has a heart? Read More

•February 15, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

I was at a desktop computer in a public library recently when the internet went down. The distraught looks of my fellow library patrons stimulated me to wonder how they (and I) would react if a real digital disaster struck.

That same afternoon my New Yorker arrived, carrying a disturbing article about how so many Silicon Valley centi-millionaires and above are making plans for the apocalypse (“Survival of the Richest,” Evan Osnos, Jan. 30).

Osnos reports that as many as half of these entrepreneurs are preparing, for example, by having laser eye surgery (to anticipate loss of access to glasses and contacts). They are also buying luxury condos in underground bunkers in Kansas (I kid you not) as well as whole islands offshore and retreats in New Zealand.

What do these mostly young, very smart, tech-savvy, to say the least, people know that I don’t?

According to Osnos, some worry that their advances in artificial intelligence will result in even fewer jobs for those further down the economic food chain. This might in turn cause the hoi-polloi to bring out their pitchforks and someday storm the redoubts of the one-percenters. Read More

•February 8, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

How many children are home-schooled in Illinois, I asked a school official, to answer an inquiry made of me from a reader?

“We don’t know,” she responded.

“You don’t know?” I said, surprised.

The school official explained that our state is one of maybe a dozen that do not require parents who educate their children at home to let the state know as much.

So we don’t know who is being home-schooled or, much worse, maybe not being schooled at all.

I called an education expert. He said a few years ago a new state senator in Illinois introduced a bill that would have required home schooling parents to register, so there could be some way of telling a home-schooler from a truant. Read More