“We are not the first community to go through this, and we are not the last.”
Ashbey Beasley spoke those words to reporters gathered outside the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan Monday, according to Capitol News Illinois, and it’s difficult to isolate a more searing quote in relation to the guilty plea of the gunman who terrorized the 2022 Highland Park Independence Day parade.
I wrote these words that night:
“It was quite unsettling to be on the fringe of the epicenter – wondering why law enforcement vehicles swerved through interstate traffic, sharing snippets of whatever information our phones yielded and ultimately evacuating the park in Northbrook, for there would be no more baseball – and balance that bewilderment with an odd mixture of survivor’s guilt and staring down the reality of ‘it can happen anywhere.’ …
“For our family, Independence Day 2022 will be the day we couldn’t finish our baseball tournaments. We had dinner with grandparents but no fireworks, then Tuesday is back to normal. Next Wednesday we go to Highland Park for baseball. We will remember, but we’ll move forward, as always.”
The guilty plea spares a little emotion from a drawn-out trial, but there will be victim impact statements at sentencing and then life in prison for the killer. Too many other Illinois towns have their own grim anniversaries.
And together, we all move forward.
CHECK THE NUMBERS: On Monday Comptroller Susana Mendoza announced an addition to the office’s website data sets and portals page focusing specifically on bond debt. In addition to the top line number – as of Dec. 31 Illinois owed $40,424,563,000 in principal and interest payments for general and special obligation bonds – the site also lists bond ratings and progress for paying budget-related bond obligations.
More information is a good thing for voters, and even if some of this data is confusing at first, it’s exactly the kind of detail that is useful when starting conversations with elected officials. Everyone serving in the Statehouse ought to be able to give constituents extra context about these numbers and explain how the obligations influence budgeting priorities. See for yourself at tinyurl.com/ILbonddebt.
DESERT WATCH: The Jan. 29 column discussed the use of desert as a useful political noun to describe regions underserved in various ways: preschool, child care, fresh produce, broadband, emergency medicine and so on. I’ve been meaning to add a new one to the list: attorneys. The Illinois State Bar Association launched its Rural Practice Initiative almost five years ago because of growing concerns about counties with only a few private practice lawyers, but shortages persist. Visit isba.org/ruralpractice for more information on the Association’s efforts and fellowship programs for law students and new graduates.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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