There’s an old East African proverb that states that “When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”
Likewise, when powerful politicians fight, the poor and disenfranchised are the ones who tend to suffer most.
Take, for instance, the ongoing budget impasse in Illinois. For the past nine months, wealthy Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and powerful Democratic godfather House Speaker Michael Madigan have been engaged in a political game of chicken in which neither is willing to compromise.
Madigan’s solution is to tax the wealthy, while Rauner’s preference would be to cut millions in funding from human service programs. The result: a political stalemate which is threatening to create a permanent underclass and destabilize the lives of the working class throughout the state of Illinois.
Back in January, the United Way of Illinois revealed the extreme state of affairs in their Agency State Budget Survey.
Some of their findings were that 85 percent of statewide agencies have cut the number of clients that they serve, 84 percent of agencies that offer support to the poor have cut programming and 23 percent of agencies will struggle to provide services if the state has not approve a budget by the end of March.
The results promise to be devastating and the carnage has already begun in East St. Louis, especially for senior citizens.
For example, Nathan (formerly Virgil L. Calvert) Nursing Center has officially closed and the Lessie Bates Davis Adult Day Care will close as of mid-April, both due to a lack of funding related to the ongoing state budget impasse. Workers there will likely lose their jobs.
As a result, seniors in ESL will have fewer healthcare and lifestyle options due to the arrogance and inflexibility of a few power-hungry Illinois politicians whose lifestyles and compensations will not be impacted.
On a statewide level, the Teen Reach program, which provided meaningful afterschool programming for poor youth, has been eliminated, the victim of the budget standoff. So Illinois’ youth are adversely affected as well.
And while I suggest voting every obstinate politician out of office during their next election cycle, the fierce urgency of now dictates that voters do something in the immediate future.
Mahatma Ghandi once said that “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”
If that is, indeed, the standard, then the state of Illinois has been weighed in the balance and found wanting because her most vulnerable, the elderly and the young, are being trampled upon by the heavy feet of political elephants.
It’s time to let Rauner, Madigan and their minions know that the people have had enough of being used as political pawns in a suicidal game of political chess.
Voters should call them and tell them how you feel: Governor Bruce Rauner (217-782-0244) and House Speaker Michael Madigan (217-782-5350).
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com Twitter@JamesTIngram.
