Watching the news yesterday, commentators said what a sad day it was in Illinois for our governor to be impeached.
And I say, good riddance! People seem to talk as if everything was just peachy in our state, and we couldn't possibly have seen this coming.
Are you kidding me? We couldn't see it coming — it's been in slow-motion for months now, if not the past few years.
Yes, it is sad in that yet another of our governors is facing charges of corruption, but the good news is, we are still a state, and a country, which does not allow people to run amok without the possibility of getting caught.
For far too long our state has been the punch line of way too many jokes — do people only know us now as a corrupt state?
These elected officials are tarnishing the names of many of us good Midwesterners.
Now to the present: Gov. Pat Quinn has a lot of work to do. My motto: do the opposite of virtually everything former Gov. Rod Blagojevich did.
Our state is in financial ruin. We're made fun of around the country. We already had businesses leaving our fair state before the recession.
Quinn's task now, I believe, is to pull our state together. For far too long, the emphasis has been on what Blagojevich did or did not do. How can serious work be accomplished when we have a three-ring circus going on?
Blagojevich touted his helping the people who need help. All Kids promoted healthcare for all of the state's children. That's all fine and good, but show me the money.
We don't seem to have money for anything -- even keeping our roads cleaned off and salted as in the past. I hope we won't see more children needing medical care after their parents have skidded off an interstate. (Oh wait, under Blagojevich, that's covered.)
Most importantly, Quinn needs to move into the governor's mansion. We have it there for a reason, which his predecessor obviously could not comprehend.
How can we bring our state's finances under control? A good start would be not flying from Chicago to Springfield and then Springfield to Chicago and calling it work.
If Quinn won't live in Springfield either, I say let the homeless live there. We're probably going to have a lot more of them due to the economy, and they'd be grateful for the free accommodations.
