Rural Requiem

We shouldn’t be asking the National Guard to sacrifice anything else at all. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice anything in their college and university education. 

We need to be thinking more about how we can better serve each of them!

Coles County Board Member, and former Sheriff, Darrell Cox, said everyone would benefit from these $3.1 million new courthouse windows.

When the community finds out how much of their taxpayer money is being blown out the windows, quite literally, I think they will look a little bit harder into the history of some of their board members. 

In this podcast, we explore the Coles County Board's engagement, or lack thereof, with the public, on the use of Covid ARPA funds on these windows, touching on recent and past history. 

James Di Naso, a leader in the Concerned Taxpayers of Coles County, sits down with me to discuss their multi-year fight with the Coles County Board on property taxes, employee contracts, and now misuse of ARPA funds. 

There are some jaw-dropping moments that will leave you wanting more. And, more is coming. 

Here's a link to our public comments at the last county board meeting. 

It couldn't fall any further from the tree before you begin to wonder if it wasn't fruit to begin with. 

There were bridges to nowhere long before there were windows to see how out of touch a county board could truly be.

On one side, you meet James Di Naso, one of the leaders of the Concerned Taxpayers of Coles County. He has been at Coles County board meetings for 6 years. Here is his public comment from this month's meeting, which took place this Tuesday.

And, then, there's me. I am there noting the abysmal record as the board wants to silence any critics before they have time to reconsider. 

And, they should, and would be applauded for doing so. 

Who thinks replacing windows with about a 1/3 of the funds is helping address any of our lingering pandemic malaise while inflation burns us nearly everywhere we turn? 

Keep watch here for a round of podcasts about Coles County Board's $3.1 million windows. James sat down with me earlier today for a 3 hour recording session. You do not want to miss what we both discovered when we put our heads together.

If you aren't paying attention to our local elected officials and what they are doing with millions of taxpayer dollars, you will want to start digging to find out what is going on in your own community. 

Drop me a line if you want to join the conversation! 

These were LIVE recordings of public events, so apologies for some of the extraneous noises. I softened them up a bit, but didn't want to lose the county board members that at least engaged our comments. As a side note, there were comments I stripped out in between our comments. I didn't leave them out for any personal or professional reason. I simply wanted to showcase James and myself ahead of our series of podcasts on the misuse of ARPA funds by the Coles County Board. 

Thank you!

I cannot believe that some Progressive Democratic House members are yet again calling for the Senate's filibuster to be nuked in order to force through a narrow vote on a pro-choice rights bill. Makes no sense. 

Here, I have a conversation about this century's filibuster history, intermingled with rural county board broken logic regarding pandemic relief funds, $3.1 million out of $9.8 million to be spent on Coles County Courthouse windows. If anything says they're out of touch with helping people who have struggled through a pandemic, it's the windows they'll be looking through on Election Day.

So, don’t blame Mary Miller. Blame the culture that dangles a character such as Graven in front of a Miller, providing a shelter from seeing the direct results of all actions and definitive non-actions. That culture is often a beast we feed daily. We often lend it our ears, and spread it by mouth. 

This candid exploration of suicide in America's military since September 11th leads into a broader conversation about our culture's political and tangible human failures in the realm of mental health. It's a tough conversation. Be prepared to face an honest exchange of perspectives, painful experiences, and difficult lessons learned.

The first 10 minutes of this podcast are as raw as they are jaw dropping . . . 

It will leave you needing to hear the rest of the conversation.

Earlier version was missing the first 10 or so minutes. Here you go. 

Outrage and the need to eradicate the voices of others is not owned by either fringe.

Both sides want to burn the library. They just have different reasons.

Outrage and the need to eradicate the voices of others is not owned by either fringe.

Both sides want to burn the library. They just have different reasons. 

Debate primarily to learn. What are the chances the person you debate will ever change their position? Exactly. It's the other people that matter.