News Progress

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

When I was a boy, unschooled local justices of the peace were infamous for working with small-town cops to set up speed traps to fleece unsuspecting motorists. Not a very reassuring introduction to our state’s justice system. Things have improved much since then, yet vigilance and some changes are still warranted.

In 1969, two Illinois supreme court justices were forced to resign for accepting stock in a new bank at bargain-basement prices from a fellow who at the same time was receiving a favorable court ruling from these same justices. Read More

by Dan Hagen
NP Columnist

James Bond’s attitude toward women has been much criticized, but it wasn’t fictional. It matched his creator’s.

Even the melodramatic tragedy characteristic of 007’s relationships with women was prefigured in Ian Fleming’s real life, according to Andrew Lycett’s biography “Ian Fleming.”

Alan Schneider, a U.S. naval intelligence officer who knew Fleming during World War II, noted that women, whether English aristocrats or American officers, all got the same backhanded treatment from Fleming.

“He got bored with them fast and could be brutal about it,” Schneider said. “He had absolutely no jealousy. He explained to me that women were not worth that much emotion. But with it all, he had an abiding and continual interest in sex without any sense of shame or guilt.” Read More

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

I walked recently down the main street of my hometown to the R Bar tavern to try out the new video gaming machines. Not a gambler, I did so for research on this column about why the state of Illinois pushes gambling onto its citizens in such an unseemly way.

The small, dimly lit bar (aren’t they all) has three machines; the maximum is five. They are all electronically tied to the state’s computers somewhere; after all, the state government is operating these games in order to fleece its own citizens out of their money.

Legal gambling is the only state activity in which the state’s citizens must lose in order for the state to generate revenue. Read More

A Welcomed Salute To Service

I wish to relate to you a small observance which took place on November 11, 2013 at Sullivan High School on the lawn next to the building’s front entrance.

A teacher on the high school staff Ms. Becky Lawson, in her visits to Greenhill Cemetery to pay her respects to her neighbors who were buried there, noticed a lonely grave in the area. Inscribed on the stone was the name Corporal Harold Marble, a birth date, and a death date of Dec. 10, 1944. Being an inquisitive soul, she decided on a quest to learn more about the long dead soldier.

Her exploration resulted in information coming from a student in France, contacts with Harold Marble’s cousins and eventually the commemorative service mentioned in the first paragraph above.

Ms. Lawson learned that Corporal Marble had attended school in the Liberty area of the county and high school in Sullivan. He played the coronet in the band and belonged to the Future Farmers of America.

Harold Marble enlisted in the army infantry and was trained as a mortarman. Marble landed in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944 as a member of the 359th infantry regiment, 90th infantry division of General Cortney Hodge’s 1st army.

Marble was killed December 10, 1944 outside of Aachen, Germany while serving his mortar. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

Corporal Marble’s body was repatriated to the United States where it was entered on July 28, 1948, in Sullivan’s Greenhill Cemetery.

Ms. Lawson invited those family members who were living to the service along with her co-teachers, principal Young, as well as student advisory groups. Corporal Marble, after 69 years, was remembered once again.

The students were models of deportment and conduct. They are worthy of recognition. Seeing them in positions of responsibility makes one’s mind rest at ease as to the leadership in the Sullivan community.

Ed LeCrone, Sullivan
2nd Cousin of Harold Marble

P.S. I watched as a man who was attending the junior high school’s tribute to the veterans. The junior high service had not yet begun. The student band at Marble’s service had just begun the playing of the National Anthem. The man stopped, removed his hat and started singing. I ask, ‘Can you find a better community than Sullivan?’

Bewildered From “No Job Left Behind”

As a 1972 Sullivan High School alumni I had the opportunity to read the recent article, “Area Educators and Businesses Meet to Discuss “No Job Left Behind” by Christina Whitford. It left me bewildered.

I am a retired physician who has also been a home-schooling mother, so I do know a little about education, albeit not in the traditional sense. Having taught chemistry and biology to several students, it is apparent that not all children learn in the same way.

In total disclosure, I am the sister-in-law of the recently booted auto mechanics teacher, Joe Scribner. Some of the students who had not done well in “traditional” classes excelled in the auto mechanics class. Some who had been labeled as “trouble-makers” were well behaved, engaged in learning. His class was so popular that the students themselves united to try to save it.

Even so, the superintendent decided that due to financial restraints, the class had to be cancelled. So when I read that, “many local employers and educational leaders met to discuss…how to get a new generation of young employees ready for the workplace…to teach students how to be a successful employee,” I had to marvel.

Upon reading the statement by Stepheny McMahon, executive director of Sullivan Community Economic Development, “We want to make sure each student is taught a marketable skill, has a good work ethic, and good attendance,” I had to ask myself if she had just moved to Sullivan with no knowledge of recent administrative educational decisions.

When I read that, “students having just graduated from high school oftentime have an unrealistic expectation of what the workforce entails and the responsibilities that come along with being an employee,” I had to chuckle. Apparently the powers in charge of the limited monies for the school district felt that putting that money toward Sullivan Singers made more sense than continuing the auto mechanics class. Who is it who really has the unrealistic expectations?

Please don’t misunderstand. I do believe that the arts are quite important; but not at the expense of learning daily living skills. Almost every adult drives a car and must maintain it; not too many adults sing and dance around--at least not in public.

I realize that Superintendent Tuttle was not the superintendent at the time of the decision, but as high school principal and incoming superintendent he was intimately involved, and I also know that every school board member voted in agreement to cancel the auto mechanics class. So I have a suggestion for those citizens of Sullivan who care about the future of local education. Sometimes things seem clearer to those looking in at problems from afar. Next time elections are held I would hope that citizens who actually care about all students will step up to run for the school board. Every one of those school board members who proved that they simply are “yes” votes for poor administrative decisions needs to be replaced. And I hope one of those to step up will be Joe Scribner.

Carol Hopper-Hill
Diamondhead, Mississippi

By Jim Nowlan
Outside Columnist

This spring Illinois legislators will face the issue of whether the state should require labels on foods that have been “entirely or partially produced with genetic engineering.”

The lawmakers will have a difficult time separating the wheat from the chaff on an issue that is generating increased interest nationally, much to the chagrin of Monsanto and a handful of companies that control the hybrid seed market.

There is no middle ground in the debate between the “naturalists” and the big seed companies over the touted evils and virtues, respectively, of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Read More