Oh those downstaters

Looks like State Sen. Larry Bomke from Springfield has been spending too much time with his head in the cornfields. It was just last week that Rod Blagojevich was voted out of office. Gov. Pat Quinn and the rest of the legislature is now faced with the task of fixing what Blago broke. And what does Bomke's to-do list contain? A proposal to fire Bill Ayers. He wants Ayers fired from his position at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Yes, that is certainly top on Illinoisans' minds right now. I've been wondering when they were going to get to that. Forget our $5 billion budget deficit. Forget that our former governor was arrested and later voted out of office, and Illinois is now a laughingstock. Ayers is definitely the problem, and firing him will put Illinois back on track.

Ayers has taught at UIC for over 20 years, and until the presidential election campaign, when Republicans trotted the Ayers' story out in order to paint President Barack Obama (then, Sen. Obama) as a terrorist sympathizer, someone who pals around with terrorists, no one cared. Parents whose children were being taught by Ayers weren't up in arms over his past bad acts. No one called for his firing because of who he was. I don't think anyone condones what Ayers did so many years ago, but it was so many years ago. Although only Ayers can speak to this, what he has done since then has seemed to be his way of making up for it. I found this letter, written by one of Ayers' colleagues at UIC, and posted on a former Ayers' student's blog. UIC Professor Willian H. Schubert talks about the Bill Ayers he knows.

So given all this, Bomke's proposal is just another waste of time for Illinois. It's not important. It won't make a substantial difference to anyone in Illinois. It won't provide jobs for Illinoisans (except for the person who would take Ayers' place). It won't fix the budget. It won't clean up government. In fact, all it does is make our government look more wasteful. If the legislature wants to oust people from their jobs because of bad acts, whether those acts are considered terrorism or not, maybe they should put in a proposal to remove Cook County Board President Todd Stroger from his post? Or Mayor Richard M. Daley? They have wasted taxpayers' money. They have been involved in scandals (Hired Truck or hiring family). They certainly haven't helped people in Illinois.

I do wonder, why now? Ayers has taught at UIC for years. Bomke has served in the Senate since 1995. Fourteen years, and not a word said until now, after Ayers' story was splashed across the television and newspaper pages during the presidential election campagin. Now, Bomke wants to do something about it. Maybe Bomke should resign. I mean, he has sat back for fourteen years while big bad Bill Ayers (*sarcasm*) was teaching at UIC. Let's put it to a vote. Because we have nothing else to worry about here in Illinois.