Race for Governor of Illinois

March 20, 2018 is our date for primary elections!  Illinoisans will be selecting their party candidates for governor, attorney general, Congress, the Illinois General Assembly, and others.  Perhaps the biggest question, though, is "Which Democrat will be running against Bruce Rauner for governor of Illinois?"  

You might think it's too early to be worrying about this, but first impressions are everything, as they say, and the inevitable hoary, smeary, weary campaign advertisement blitz is now imminent.  Why not get informed first (in a single article!) so you know what those silly, biased ads are actually talking about.  

So!  To spare you the trouble of wading through a morass of news articles and campaign websites, I've made this handy-dandy comparison chart of where the major candidates stand on various issues.  It is coded as follows:

• Italics – a goal that all three candidates have in common
• Bold – a goal that is unique to that candidate
• Regular font – some overlap between candidates on this goal

If the chart looks too daunting, you can just skip down to my analysis of the race.  Or if you're not in the mood for analysis, you can just skip to the end where I tell you which candidate I like best. :) 

Seriously, though, I hope everyone will find this article helpful and informative, no matter who you vote for!

Men, Women, and Success...5 years later

I started this blog five years ago with a post about gender roles and what I thought were my "unconventional" views on them.  Looking back at it now, it makes me cringe.  Not because I disagree with everything I said in that post, but because I was making the argument that part of the reason that women don't have as many high-powered jobs as men is because women tend to prioritize their personal lives (friends, family, doing things they enjoy) more highly than men do.  I argued that men are more likely to want power and wealth, and so it's okay if there are never quite as many women in positions of power as men.  Five years later, having learned quite a bit more about the world and about the history of feminism, I feel appalled that I wrote this because it so closely resembles the arguments that anti-feminists have made for centuries.  The New York Times recently quoted an article that they published in 1882: 

“‘Literal people may ask, Why, then, does not woman have the right of suffrage?’ it stated. ‘The answer is easy. She does not want it. Of course, it must be admitted that women, or some women, think they want the ballot. But they do not really want it.’”

5 Reasons Why Fruits Basket is (Still) Amazing

Natsuki Takaya's Fruits Basket, published as a series of mangas from 1998-2006 and turned into a one-season anime in 2001, was one of the first anime series that I really fell in love with.  A friend lent it to me my senior year of high school and, though it took me a few episodes to get into it, I quickly went from entertained to hooked.  I watched it every year all through college, sharing it with different friends.  Recently, after a long hiatus, I decided to watch it again and see if the magic is still there.  It is.  

In my upper twenties now, I'm looking at it a little differently and more critically than I did before.  The dialog isn't always super well-written (especially the translation for the English subtitles--read my note at the bottom of the post!), and, yes, it tends to lean towards the melodramatic, but there are still so many things that the show gets right.  

Here are five major things that make Fruits Basket really remarkable. (*There are some vague spoilers, but I don't give away any significant plot points.)

A Guide to Libertyville's April 4th Elections

You've probably seen signs popping up all over the place these last few weeks.  Mayor?  Village Trustee?  School Board?  But who are these people anyways, and what do they do?  Researching all the candidates for local elections can be a big pain, so I've gathered all the useful information that I can find, right here, complete with links and sources!  I've thrown in my own opinion here and there, but you can ignore that if you like.  :)

First, the basics: 

Voting sites will be open from 6am to 7pm on April 4th.  You can also vote early or by mail if you wish.  You can find all the information you need, including where you should vote, right here: https://www.lakecountyil.gov/351/Voter-Power. 

Normally, municipal elections have a turnout of about 5%, so why don’t we see if we can get a few more people out this year?  

Second, a quick list of the candidates:

*Note, if there is only one name listed, they are running unopposed; for the trustees and board members, you are usually voting for several people to fill whatever vacancies are available.

Libertyville (* = incumbent)

• Village President – Terry L. Weppler*, Jeffrey A. Harger
• Village Clerk – Sally A. Kowal*
• Village Trustee – James H. (“Jay”) Justice*, Richard A. Moras*, Patrick W. Carey*, Gary L. Franzen
• District 128 Board of Education – Pat Groody*, Ellen Mauer*, Karin Lundstedt*, Kevin Huber, Jeffery Harte; (for the 2-year seat) Kris Hoult, Mackenzie Thurman
• District 70 School Board – Joshua Gordon, Marc F. Grote, Wendy Schilling*, Chris Coughlin, Tom Vickers*, Timothy P. McGrory, Adam Phillips, Kellen Ronald Merchen
• Township Supervisor – Kathleen M. O’Connor*, Robin M. O’Connor
• Township Clerk – Anne Hansen*
• Township Assessor – Peggy A. Freese*
• Township Highway Commissioner – Marty Neal*
• Township Trustee – Lawrence W. Falbe*, Matthew A. Kovatch, Carol A. August, David Nield*, Terry A. White*

Third, here is what my research has yielded about these candidates. 

Don't Be Shocked

Sometimes I need to remind myself of the obvious things, because they are so easy to forget.  Only two weeks into the Trump presidency, I hear endless shock and outrage that our nation could do such things.  

The outrage is justified. 

But perhaps not the shock.  

I think it’s time to do a reality check for the young, white people of my generation.  Many of us, myself included, have grown up assuming that it’s obvious that all people deserve equal rights, opportunities, and respect.  Yes, we know there are still bigots out there, but laws are in place to protect the rights of minorities, women, etc., and our country is still refining and improving those laws.  President Trump is suddenly casting all that into doubt.  

But here’s the thing.  These rights are not obvious, in any historical sense.  The sense of morality that we grew up with is a really NEW THING—so new that our own parents grew up in a time when these ideas of equality were neither obvious, nor popular.  The laws guaranteeing equality, which may seem like ancient history to anyone born after 1980, are brand-spanking new.  

Let’s spend a minute thinking about the rights that we may have taken for granted:

People should all be given the same rights and opportunities.

The Civil Rights Act, which officially desegregated America and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, passed in 1964 after a decade of organized, mass-protests.  It was followed by the Voting Rights Act (1965), which overrode state and local laws that had prevented African-Americans from voting.  
 

That was barely over fifty years ago.  

People of different races should be allowed to marry.

2017 marks the 50^th anniversary of the nationwide legalization of interracial marriage in the United States!  Mr. and Mrs. Loving had been arrested, fined, and then kicked out of their native Virginia for violating the state’s “Racial Integrity Act” which prohibited marriage between a white and a non-white.  In the aptly-named case Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court struck down all bans on interracial marriage.  

Children with disabilities should have access to quality public education.

To quote from my Human Learning and Development class:

“Until the 1970s, most U.S. public schools either refused enrollment to children with disabilities or inadequately served them.  This changed in 1975, when Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, required that all students with disabilities be given a free, appropriate public education.”

Incidentally, this is what Hillary Clinton was fighting for back in the 70s.  

Eugenics and forced sterilization are BAD.  That’s Nazi stuff. 

Actually, the US had eugenics programs before the Nazis, and we kept doing it even after WWII.  An estimated 65,000 Americans were sterilized under these state laws between the 1920s and 70s—mostly poor women of color who were deemed “feeble-minded” or “promiscuous.”  Eugenics laws were upheld in the Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell in 1927.  Most of these laws were repealed in the 1970s.  Even so, there was a recent case in California in which 146 female inmates were sterilized without proper consent between 2006 and 2010.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sterilization-united-states_us_568f35f2e4b0c8beacf68713

http://www.msnbc.com/all/eugenic-sterilization-victims-belated-justice

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/unwanted-sterilization-and-eugenics-programs-in-the-united-states/

 

You cannot ban people from the United States because of their beliefs.

The McCarren-Walter Act (1952) banned anyone who was believed to be a Communist from entering the United States and also allowed for the deportation of Communists.  President Truman vetoed the bill, calling it “un-American” and “inhumane,” but Congress overrode the veto.  The act remained in place until 1965. 

~~~~~~~

My point is, these assumptions we make about human rights—that we consider basic, fundamental, obvious—are anything but.  They are revolutionary.  They are new.  They are fragile.  We are the first generation in American history to grow up with these assumptions. 

So be outraged.  Be outraged that Trump and the Republicans are threatening rights that so many people died and protested and suffered for.  Be outraged that our country is now sinking lower on the scales of justice.  

But don’t be shocked.  After all, you can’t honestly assume that laws which have only been around for 40 or 50 years will be permanent.  They could disappear as quickly as they came.