Letters to the editor
The Illinois Times
Dave Varner
I thought panhandling was illegal in downtown Springfield. Certainly it’s discouraged. But I guess not for aldermen. Or, specifically, the seven aldermen who greedily stepped up to the money trough and accepted huge checks from Brad Schaive, business manager for Laborers Local 477, a couple of weeks ago at Saputo’s restaurant (“Check, please,” by Bruce Rushton, Oct. 5).
What they did was actually worse than panhandling. When you give a homeless person a few bucks, neither of you expect anything in return. You feel good for helping someone, and they are grateful that you did. But not so when labor or any other special interest gives money to a politician. Special interest has an “interest” and expectation of how that politician will vote on future issues. Anyone who thinks otherwise is even more naive than I am. And these seven aldermen who gobbled up those checks along with the free hors d’oeuvres know it. They might act offended at the very notion that their vote is for sale, but that’s exactly how it looks. And in politics, perception equals reality.
If those aldermen don’t want to give that perception to the average citizen, then simply don’t accept such large checks from labor, especially 18 long months before the next election. Those 18 months give these aldermen time to rethink their values and gives the rest of us time to rethink who we want representing us.
Dave Varner
Springfield
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 