People need to understand how things work in Illinois. There is something that has come to be known as the Bipartisan Political Combine. It's made up of the Democrat machine and Republicans who are tied to them through political and business connections. It extends from Chicago up to Springfield and Washington--how do you think O'Hare expansion got pushed through and Peotone shelved?--and down into the counties and local taxing districts. Part of that combine is the political machine that ran Kendall County for nearly forty years.
It's a world where there are, in the words of the key witness at the Family Secrets trial, insiders, who grow rich and powerful, and chumbalones, who work for a living, follow the rules and pay their taxes. Eight years ago, we began pulling that corrupt machine out of Oswego by its roots. Needless to say, the adherents of that old machine didn't give up without a fight. Every election since then has been a pitched battle as the taxpaying chumbalones try to take our community back and the insiders try to cling to their political and economic privileges.
The fact is that Pam Parr owes her political career to that machine. She has faithfully done their bidding as a County Board member and as a Republican precinct committeeman. To believe that she would do otherwise as a Village Trustee is incredibly naive.
If we decided to return to the direction before the last six years, all we will be doing will be making our contribution to Illinois' decline into an economic basket case. Already, Illinois is experiencing the loss of one taxpayer every seven minutes. Those folks are not taking their tax payments with them, but also their businesses and jobs out of the state. How much more of that can we endure before the trend becomes irreversible? Do we want Illinois to be a state where our children must leave in order to have a future? We can't reverse it all by ourselves. But the little parts in Oswego and other local communities will roll up into the big parts in Springfield. Those little parts to make a difference. It's all in how we choose to do them.
