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| QUINN: His turn to act |
Illinois
would like to think it is some sort of progressive place. Yet in the end, both
Iowa and Minnesota beat the Land of Lincoln to the punch in approving a measure
that permitted marriage as an option (rather than just civil union) for gay
people.
AND
OVERALL, ILLINOIS is 15th (out of 50) in terms of approving the
concept – which once Gov. Pat Quinn puts his signature to the bill will strike
down the law the then-Republican-dominated General Assembly enacted in 1996
that specified that marriage between gay couples was completely unacceptable in
Illinois.
Do
you want a sports analogy? It’s kind of like the integration of Major League
Baseball, where the Chicago White Sox were the fifth ball club overall (out of
16 in existence back then) that took on black ballplayers.
The
White Sox may be better than the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis
Cardinals or Philadelphia Phillies – but they’re not anything to brag about in
that regard.
Although
I suppose it could have been worse. Illinois could have let this issue linger
on a few more years and we could have wound up being something like
40-somethingth in terms of approving the issue.
I
DO FEEL for anyone who winds up someday getting married in whichever state
winds up being 50th of the 50 states to implement it. Because those
public officials probably will take pride in being last and will probably
behave in ways that the anti-abortion activists do – they push for all kinds of
restrictions to make it next to impossible for a woman to actually get an
abortion.
 |
| MAYFIELD: She was "present" |
In
terms of the politics, it is intriguing that the reports starting creeping out
of the Statehouse on Monday that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan,
D-Chicago, was picking up the telephone and calling certain legislative
colleagues to put the pressure on them to quit being wishy-washy on the issue.
The
61 Illinois House members who voted for the issue probably include a few who
wish they could have voted “present” (only two did).
As
it turns out, there were only three Republicans who went for the idea –
including former House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, who apparently
wants urban votes in his bid to become Illinois treasurer in next year’s
election cycle.
 |
| SMITH: "P" vote adds to legacy |
HE’LL
NEED THEM, because the rhetoric already is spouting out from opponents of the
concept who are determined to dump those supportive legislators come the March
primary elections. The Illinois Review website that likes to tout conservative
causes couldn’t wait to publish a copy of the roll call for Illinois Senate
Bill 10 – just so we’d know who the evildoers are!
Personally,
I think state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, is typical of the
fence-sitting. I haven’t talked to him on Tuesday, so I don’t know what exactly
went through his mind.
But
he’s a guy who started out the year saying he definitely supported the idea.
But as a member of the Black Caucus, he got a lot of the pressure from assorted
African-American ministers who wanted him to oppose.
He
was publicly supportive of the notion of delaying a vote as long as possible.
But in the end, he turned out to be a “Yes” vote on Tuesday – just like he
originally said he would be.
 |
| MADIGAN: Could he be active earlier? |
THE
FACT THAT it took so long to resolve, but got settled quickly once Madigan
inserted his presence, makes me wonder why he couldn’t have done this back in
the spring.
It
could have been resolved then, and we could have averted an entire summer’s
worth of nonsense rhetoric that I’m sure has inflamed the matter all the more –
and may have even created a sense of distrust between the gay rights activists
and those who back African-American interests.
Was
it worth it?
Or
perhaps this is the issue that shows all this talk about “blue” states and
Illinois being so far gone to the left is just a bunch of nonsense.
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