Two local Congressmen: ‘Don’t count out the protesters’ at state Capitols
Posted on April 20, 2020
U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)
By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Our area’s two Congressmen say – don’t count out the protesters at state Capitols around the nation.
“I think there’s frustration,” said U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap). “I think that is reflected in the protests. In a district like ours, people want to get back to normality. We have been compliant for the last five weeks, we’ve listened to what the CDC and the Illinois Department of Public Health have said, but there is a collective frustration. People want to get back to some normality, and i think that’s reflected in people speaking out.”
LaHood, whose district touches Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Springfield, and Quincy, says the district is more like Iowa and Missouri than it is like the Chicago area. And U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) added he believes the Pritzker administration – having let the April 30 expiration of the “stay home” order stay – is likely contemplating a regional re-opening.
Davis also mentioned the next stimulus bill and its effect on small business:
“The bill that’s being debated in the Senate right now would, hopefully, replenish the (Paycheck Protection Program), a very successful program that’s money directly given through the Small Business Administration to our mom-and-pop shops that were told by government, you can’t stay open anymore”
Davis and LaHood were in Springfield, visiting a drive-up coronavirus test site.
By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year. It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …
By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city. Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…
By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…
Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University. We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk. Going to work every day for some people means…