5 questions: 'Working on the Hubble Space Telescope, I told 200 men what to do.'

PEORIA’S SOUTH SIDE – At 4-foot, 11-inches tall, Mary Hayes has worked at never being dismissed, whether commenting about Medicare for All at a strategy session at the Peoria Public Library, helping residents at area nursing homes, or meeting with the East Peoria Homemakers at Fon Du Lac Park District or NASA engineers in Huntsville, Ala.

Tracing her family to Irish immigrants, the 76-year-old Hayes arrived in Peoria in a roundabout route. From a childhood in Scottsboro, Ala, through becoming a working woman in Chattanooga, Nashville, and finally Central Illinois. From Calhoun Junior College in Decatur, Ala., to Bradley University and Illinois Central College, she worked her way through school. (“I never had a student loan or anything,” she says). She’s worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant, dietician and a teacher of handicrafts such as knitting and crocheting.

Breaking up her busy day, Hayes responded to the Community Word’s “Five Questions” over coffee.

1. What are some of issues or interests you’re engaged in?

A few things: Let people vote! The environment. And be creative. I spend a lot of time working with yarn and creating patterns and designs for knitting and other projects.

2.  How else do you use your time – and your energy?

I spend a lot of time at my churches – the LDS (Latter Day Saints) and Bethany Missionary Church. And I take good naps, almost every day at 2 o’clock. And I don’t have a car, so if people need me, they pick me up. That’s fine with me.

3. What’s been some of your worst or best jobs?

I’ve taught classes once in a while at the Peoria Park District and Carver Center. I liked that; people wanted to be there. I also dipped ice cream in junior high, worked at a department store to save money to buy a London Fog coat my senior year, then I was a building clerk at Genesco, which made and exported shoes.

I guess my favorite job was working on the Hubble Space Telescope in Huntsville. I was my boss’s eyes and ears, so I told 200 men what to do.

4.  Any advice?

Start learning early; my son went from playing Nintendo as a kid to working with missiles in his 40s in Australia.

5. What’s with the red hat?

I’ve been in the Red Hat Society for years. In fact, I’m one of the ‘Queens,’ one of the chapter leaders.

Art review: Taking solace from ‘Solitude’

The arrival of winter is greeted with glee and dread, maybe like some people are reacting to the entry of 3I/ATLAS in our solar system: Relief? Curiosity? Disappointment?

But feelings at the advent of winter is less about dropping temperatures and the absence or presence of precipitation than isolation and mood – retreating to comfort and enduring the season’s lack of light – and that makes the “Necessity of Art” more than clever marketing.

“Solitude: The Necessity of Art” – ending at the Peoria Riverfront Museum Dec. 7 – may be initially known for single pieces by Grant Wood and Andy Warhol, but the multi-disciplinary, expansive exhibit kindles appreciation and a sense of imminent warmth beyond thermometers.

Especially noteworthy are three landscapes by Neil Welliver and distinctive works by Alfred Conteh glimpsing the life and liveliness of the African American experience in Peoria.

Warhol’s “Hammer and Sickle,” based on graffiti in Italy, seems like an interesting outlier here, and Wood’s “American Golfer” is an amusing take on both, showing an ill-dressed professional man on a background of muted countryside.

As for Welliver, his “Autumn Blueberry Barren” juxtaposes a rocky, if not unforgiving, point with a cool sky; “Frozen Spring” is a stark painting of rural Maine in grays and blues; and “Snow on Alden Brook” somehow exudes celebration in a sparkling monochrome.

Conteh offers a thoughtful intersection of media and perspective, subtitled “Our Great Inheritance” (thankfully part of the museum’s permanent collection).

The array in “Solitude” ranges from Susie J. Lee’s playful video portraits; realist George Wesley Bellows’ “Return of the Useless” (a cold – ominously timely – depiction of inhuman treatment of returning survivors from World War I labor camps); Helen Frankenthaler’s chilling, if not icy “Contentment Island”; and Peter Glenn Oakley’s “Sewing Machine,” an impressive marble sculpture on a granite base that’s somewhat odd and completely charming.

Presented with help from the Art Bridges Foundation and art loaned by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., the exhibit is highly recommended to see before the light dims.

Troubling job numbers indicate weakening economy

Late last month, Rivian announced plans to lay off 600 employees (about 4.5% of its workforce) and General Motors laid off about 1,000 workers in Detroit and another 700 or so in Ohio.

Those are small parts of a growing trend showing significant cooling in the U.S. labor market, foreshadowed in the last federal jobs report (for August, released in September, before the government shutdown). Weeks before, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the labor market was starting to show instability through a slowdown in hiring and weaker wage gains (Bureau of Labor Statistics findings that were so unwelcome by the Trump administration that the President fired BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her of “rigging” the data “to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”)

But facts matter; since then, these companies have announced layoffs:

Amazon is reducing its workforce by about 14,000 positions.

Nestle is cutting 16,000 jobs worldwide, citing new automation.

Paramount Skydance is cutting 1,000 jobs.

Proctor & Gamble plans to cut about 7,000 jobs over the next two years.

Target is laying off 1,800 jobs.

UPS is finishing 2025 cutbacks of 48,000 jobs .

Walmart is following layoffs of about 1,500 jobs this spring with a new round of layoffs affecting hundreds of workers across various locations, Bloomberg reports.

Also, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan both said they’ll scale back hiring as they start to add technologies into operations.

Amazon and Walmart – the nation’s top two private-sector employers – both attributed the job losses to Artificial Intelligence letting them replace human workers.

Why else? Some execs blamed inefficient bureaucracies, mergers or growing costs from uncertainty from chaotic trade policies as well as AI, plus an anticipated downturn in consumer spending when prices from tariffs are inevitably passed on to shoppers.

“It’s taking more time to get a new [job] and as a result, the number of people who have been out of work for more than six months has risen,” said business analyst Jill Schlesinger. “Those dual trends tend to occur when the economy is softening, which usually has one positive benefit: historically, a slowing economy keeps a lid on inflation. But that’s not expected today, where tariff-related increases are expected to push prices higher in the coming months.”

Andy Challenger, senior vice president of executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, added, “There's a real cooling in the labor market. We're also having lots of individual conversations with companies that are letting us know to expect future layoffs.

“There is more reason to be pessimistic about the labor market than optimistic we'll see some major bounce back,” he continued.

Other troubling signs:

* The unemployment rate is stuck at about 4.3% -- a number that’s sure to rise with laid-off federal workers fired by severe actions by Elon Musk’s DOGE, Russell Vought’s Office of Management & Budget, and Trump;

* the number of jobless young workers is up; and

* this year, U.S. employers have added fewer jobs on a monthly basis than in recent years.

 

The Jobs Posting Index from the Federal Reserve is at its lowest in years, according to Dean Baker, an economist from the Center for Economic and Policy Research and author of “Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer.” And it’s not just progressives who are sounding an alarm. The Illinois Manufacturer Association (IMA) last month said employers need some predictability in the economy.

“Trade and tariff policies that are changing consistently make it very difficult to operate today or plan for the future,” said IMA President and CEO Mark Denzler. “We've seen a number of companies pull back on capital expenditure and hiring until the tariff and trade issue settles down a bit. At the same time, we've seen Illinois manufacturers take advantage of this situation with companies looking to reshore or find new suppliers in the United States.”

Meanwhile, on paper, the stock market has prospered in a bull market dating to October 2022. However, Wall Street is far from Main Street. Gallup reports that 38% of U.S. households have zero ties to the stock market, even taking into account indirect holdings such as mutual funds, IRAs, 401(k) plans, etc.

Americans’ hopes are fading, too, according to a recent Wall Street Journal/NORC poll, which showed that “the share of people who say they have a good chance of improving their standard of living fell to 25%, a record low in surveys dating to 1987.” Even more telling, the poll said 70% of us say we no longer believe in “the American Dream,” meaning that hard work results in a  better life – the highest level in almost 15 years.

Trump must not be ignored. Period. Full stop.

For about 10 years, many labor leaders and union members, politicians and pundits have responded to Donald Trump in two main ways: “This too shall pass” or “He’s just a symptom of a bigger problem – the whole system.”

The former dismisses Trump as a momentary woe that will vanish, if uncomfortably, like a kidney stone.

The latter suggests enduring current pains to muse about future reforms that might be addressed when there’s a chance, like some lazy medical provider who suspects a diagnosis and hopes for a cure down the road.

Both are foolish.

Trump must not be ignored.

The Billionaire In Chief didn’t emerge from a vacuum, of course, but Americans cannot delay addressing current pain and trauma, which puts the body politic in jeopardy of further deterioration. Trump’s rise may be a sign of a diseased democracy, but it’s dangerous to not aggressively fight the malaise before it metastasizes beyond treatment.

Already, without probable cause or evidence of wrongdoing, masked and armed agents in camouflage roam U.S. cities, detaining and “disappearing” people (even U.S. citizens and immigrants “working through the system”), and attacks are ordered against foreign vessels, killing more than 60 people in recent weeks. The rich get richer, and the poor are abandoned. Workers are arbitrarily fired and labor relations are neutered more than Congress. Laws are violated and courts are ignored. Lies about crime, elections and dangers (vaccinations, renewable energy, history, empathy) are tolerated, as is revenge against opposing voices and perceived enemies ranging from universities and law firms to journalists and scientists.

There’s a manufactured air of dread, and regular Americans feel eroding expectations, if not hope.

Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Oxfam America this month released a report, “The Rise of a New American Oligarchy and the Agenda We Need,” that shows that the 10 wealthiest people in the country together have enriched themselves almost $700 billion since Trump’s inauguration.

“Under Trump, wealthy Americans are getting ahead while everyone else is falling behind,” said U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “Our economy should work for all Americans, not just the wealthy.”

There’s no doubt that inequality, chaos and crises must be addressed, but postponing treatment of immediate symptoms risks our collective loss of control, worsening vision, and drastic mood swings linked to so-called free enterprise, market economy, 21^st century capitalism, whatever term is used.

Prioritizing the country’s condition – triage – may be logical, but we should not sacrifice action now. This is trauma. So we should apply pressure, as to a wound; relieve pain, like for some acute throbbing in the head or gut; stabilize and comfort in the ways an EMT or nurse, a Good Samaritan or physician makes it easier to breathe  -- or just offer reassurance.

This is an emergency, and critical care in this moment must happen.

Millions of everyday Americans rallying is a vital, urgent step to see others involved and willing to stand together. Millions of voters sending a clear signal from Virginia to California is a sign of strength. But a conversation is still needed to see how we can create a social “medicine” to combat a malady threatening to let society drift into life support.

A serious self-examination of government and society is needed, but not at the expense of handling the real symptoms by refusing, resisting and – yes – ridiculing the disease we’ve contracted.

Redistricting could disrupt elections for years

A year before the next federal election, an apparent ceasefire in the government shutdown has been tentatively negotiated, but the national fight over redistricting is ongoing – even accelerating.

And Illinois is one of several “blue” states that might get more involved, although Gov. JB Pritzker said the effort is paused for the moment.

Redistricting generally is the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries to guarantee that each district has a roughly equal population, in accordance with the U.S. Constitution's “one-person, one-vote” principle.

Typically, legislatures (or commissions) adjust Congressional districts every 10 years, after new data from the Census shows shifts in voting-age population and changes in residences.

But in July, President Trump asked Texas to unilaterally redistrict Democratic-leaning districts to create GOP-friendly districts to gain an edge in the 2026 House election, and Texas complied. The move is unprecedented as far as its partisan purpose as well as its timing. Republican-majority Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio also have followed Trump’s order.

Now, 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats serve in the House, and alone, Texas’ remap could mean five more GOP Representatives for mid-term balloting affected by Trump’s unpopular policies.

Historian and author Heather Cox Richardson commented, “The president of the United States is openly admitting that his party cannot win a free and fair election."

This summer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom reacted to the scheme by Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott by saying, “Two can play this game,” and he launched a California response. This month, California voters by almost a 2-to-1 margin approved Proposition 50, a referendum to redistrict to counter GOP moves. (Within hours, Republicans sued to prevent California from doing what Texas did.)

Besides California’s  Prop. 50, Nov. 4 results were good news for Democrats, perhaps justifying Republican concerns that the next election could be a challenge for Republicans to hold onto their House majority.

* Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is the next mayor of New York City;

* Democrat Abigail Spanberger is Virginia’s Governor-Elect, Democrat Ghazala Hashmi will be Virginia’s new Lieutenant Governor, and Democrats flipped more than a dozen seats blue in Virginia;

* Democrat Mikie Sherrill is the next Governor of New Jersey; and

* Democrats held the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

 

“I am very mindful about the state of things in this country,” Newsom said,. “Donald Trump does not believe in free and fair elections: period, full stop.”

Elsewhere, Maryland Democrats thus far have declined to follow California’s lead, comparing marginalizing voters for partisan reasons to suppressing the Black vote.

Virginia Democrats have called for a special legislative session to counteract Trump.

Further, the current conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court, in the “Louisiana v. Callais” case (which it heard argued last month) could kill Sec. 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Which for 60 years has protected historically excluded populations. Such a ruling could let Republicans redraw many Congressional seats to favor the GOP and crush minority voters’ influence in the House.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates eight Republican seats are “toss ups” and nine leaning Republican. On the Democratic side, 10 Democratic seats are toss ups and 12 others lean Democratic.

Newsom has publicly mentioned Illinois as a blue state that could also counter the GOP tactic, as well as Colorado and New York.

Pritzker this month indicated that if Indiana redistricts – as some Hoosier Republicans have proposed after visits by Vice President JD Vance – Illinois could follow suit. Indiana lawmakers have scheduled a Dec. 1 meeting to debate the idea.

“An awful lot of people want us to consider redistricting and I have to say we’re watching what Indiana does,” Pritzker said. “You know, we’ve been looking at pairing with different states.

“None of us want to do it,” he continued. “None of us want to go through a redistricting process. But if we're forced to, it's something we'll consider doing,”

Some Illinois Democrats support targeting Republican Mary Miller, a Right-wing stalwart in the 15^th District. Others suggest Darin LaHood’s 16^th District, which for years has voted for a Republican but rarely had the choice of a dynamic, well-funded Democratic challenger; plus, Central Illinois has become less “red” than “purple” in the last decade.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries visited Springfield last month, meeting with Illinois’ U.S. Reps. Jonathan Jackson, Robin Kelly, Lauren Underwood and other redistricting supporters, but some were lukewarm, including State Sen. Willie Preston, who said he’d back such a move only if Black representation isn’t diminished.

Also, political logistics could impede Illinois. For example, candidates for the March primary have already filed petitions to run in existing districts.

Such partisan redistricting has other risks. Taking reliably Republican voters from “safe seats” could backfire by making their previous districts less Republican and more competitive. Likewise, Democrats moving Democratic supporters to a GOP district could dilute the influence of minority voters – often a key part of the Democratic base.

In Illinois, Pritzker added, “We don’t think that this is a good idea, the redistricting across the country. But unfortunately, Donald Trump is trying to cheat. So we’re watching what Indiana does. We may have to react to that. It’s certainly something that people have considered here and the legislature has considered here, but we’ll have to see what happens.”