Big Business, Big Ag bashed small towns

 Bill Knight column for10-4, 5 or 6. 2021

 Sears’ corporate owner on Sept. 16 announced it’s closing its last store in Illinois, where it was founded in the 1890s. The Schaumburg location was one of 34 stores still open, down from about 700 in 2018, when the chain filed for bankruptcy and was bought by Transformco.

Sears is one of many retailers that left small towns when Big Business started bulldozing their economies.

Rural America’s struggling, from residents to farming neighbors. That’s not news, but maybe we ought to recognize the change.

There are fewer farmers than when I worked a summer for Jack, who had two 160-acre spreads raising corn and beans, a result of the mindset expressed by Trump administration Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, who told the 2019 World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., “The big get bigger, and the small go out.”

But that threat to manageable family farms created a ripple effect that overwhelmed small towns.

For decades, hogs were “mortgage makers”; producers could raise a few and cover payments on their farms. Now, many farmers are virtual serfs (or “tractor jockeys,” as some say).

“Wall Street couldn’t abide that the hog farmer was taking a profit that rightly belonged to the trade,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning newsman Art Cullen. “The suits figured out how to raise hogs (or heifers) indoors like chickens: Stuff them full of soy, corn and antibiotics, and don’t let them move for a fast rate of weight gain.”

Small businesses were replaced by dollar stores and Casey’s, and if they don’t have the clothes, fresh food or things you need, you drive miles to big-box stores in larger communities. Populations have shrunk and/or aged, so booming enterprises are senior housing, nursing homes, medical supply stores, and Emergency Medical Services.

“Residents have been left behind,” said Christin Ledbetter, a former Washington Post journalist who moved to Kinderhook, Ill., population about 250. “Farmers have lost their swagger; churches, their members. Businesses have departed; residents have fled for new opportunities.”

Where I grew up, a creek ran through town with crawfish and frogs, but little chemical runoff. Today, Midwest streams have phosphorous, nitrates and “earthier” discharges, all headed to the Gulf of Mexico.

My hometown’s typical. Changes haven’t been catastrophic, but they’re profound, like population dropping 30% in 50 years. It’s not hollowed out but different and not always better.

Gone are most gas stations (including two Standard Oil stations within a mile). There used to be multiple car dealers, TV/appliance stores, barber shops, clothing stores, implement dealers, drug stores, groceries, dentists, and doctors (who made house calls!).

Missing are a great tiny newsstand where you could grab one of several newspapers, many magazines and comic books, and a nickel Coke in glass bottles cooled in water in a red metal case, plus the small college, moviehouse, furniture store, dairy delivery, dry cleaners, meat market, sale barn, an office supply shop, jeweler, hatchery, and the hardware store,

A three-story grade school stands, abandoned.

Also absent are the meatpacking plant, a railroad station with a narrow-gauge “Doodlebug” train, a factory that employed some 1,700 workers at two area sites until corporate moved jobs to China and India.

And, of course, the Sears store.

“You wonder why [people] might be resentful,” Cullen said.

That resentment’s revealed in attitudes in the area of my youth, where only 41% are vaccinated and there have been uproars about safety measures, even in schools that for decades routinely mandated vaccinations for diphtheria, measles, mumps, polio, tetanus and other diseases; 73% voted for Trump and almost as many agreed with a 2020 advisory referendum to “secede” from Illinois – one of about 20 of 102 Illinois counties.

Fewer people read newspapers, relying on “free” social media or non-journalist cable-TV “personalities” telling viewers who to blame (rarely mentioning Big Business).

My hometown’s surviving institutions beyond most churches and taverns include banks and law firms, the Masonic Temple, real-estate and insurance agents, a florist and library, a scaled-back Ben Franklin that offers crafts instead of a candy counter, toys and box turtles on occasion, a K-12 school and athletic fields. a brick Post Office with a fine Depression-era mural, a weekly newspaper (now owned by an out-of-state publisher), a radio station revived by local supporters, a small hospital, cafes, stately homes, terrific parks with a swimming pool and golf course, and a splendid, classic courthouse.

New developments range from frozen-yogurt and fast-food joints (instead of Tastee-Freez) to appealing subdivisions, from the restored college theater to gift shops and salons, plus a local museum near where kids used to play baseball.

Was enriching already-profitable Big Business worth it?

I think novelist Thomas Wolfe was wrong when he wrote, “You can’t go home again,” but in some ways, it’s not there anymore.

Midwest vindicated in ‘College Bowl’ sweep

 Bill Knight column for 9-30, 10-1 or 2, 2021

 As a teen I often felt a mix of pride, anger and defensiveness about the Midwest. I enjoyed and appreciated growing up here, but most movies and TV shows were set in New York or Los Angeles; Kurt Vonnegut in the New York Times quoted a woman at a writers conference saying attendance was low ”because ‘Macomb, Illinois' sounds like such a hell-hole, and because ‘Western Illinois University’ sounds like such a jerkwater school”; and even the Beach Boys in their hit “California Girls” stereotyped/dismissed the Heartland with the line “Midwest farmers’ daughters…”

So, 52 years ago this fall, I was thrilled when a relatively small Midwest school became the first undefeated university in the 1969 season of NBC-TV’s “GE College Bowl.”

Bradley University not only was a champion, BU students’ achievement helped restore its reputation 18 years after a basketball scandal tarnished its image, and they showed that even after protests had recently roiled U.S. campuses, students were doing more than just demonstrating against the Viet Nam War.

At a Nov. 17, 1969, welcome-home event on BU’s campus in Peoria, Student Senate President Jim Gitz said, “Much of the clamor that has revolved around Bradley University in recent times will be met with a like commemoration of this positive action,” and university president Talman Van Arsdale commented that the wins “changed the image of the University nationally.”

Of course, TV quiz shows had suffered their own scandals, with several programs implicated in fixing results over six months in 1958-59. But “College Bowl” was a respected question/answer program with roots in radio starting in 1953, continuing on CBS-TV before NBC. Even this summer, NBC’s “Capital One College Bowl” reboot retained or gained followers (despite brothers Peyton Manning and Cooper Manning delivering cringeworthy performances as hosts).

There had been a few other undefeated colleges in the early 1960s during CBS’ run, according to “College Bowl” records, but Bradley’s success was an upset. In fact, some participants remember overhearing Johns Hopkins University’s team the night before the fifth and final match laughing about “hayseeds from Peoria.”

The road to victory started that spring when BU speech professor Larry Norton learned that Bradley was picked to compete in the nationally televised show in New York City that fall. Norton sent an urgent memo to colleagues saying, “Time is our problem. We must select 16–20 of our best students immediately.”

The “starting four” became Paul Remack of Berwyn, Ill.; Gene Sidler of Lansing, Ill., Gary Roberts of Rochester, Minn., and captain Ed Wehrli of Roanoke, Ill. (Roberts became Bradley president from 2016-2020.)

Six alternates were Rick Cloyd of Peoria, Linda Brady Fish of Springfield, Laura Johnson of Kirkwood, Mo., Tom Murphy of Riverside, Ill., Mike Kienzler of Springfield, and Eric Arnold of Peoria.

Midwesterners, all!

Preparations were a sophisticated scramble. Future broadcaster Frank Bussone, then in BU’s alumni office, coached the team in a mock TV studio with stage lights and buzzers.

“The 10 of us traveled to Peoria all that summer of ’69, practicing and auditioning to make the final four,” recalled Kienzler, recently retired from Springfield’s State Journal Register.

“Several of us were in contention for the fourth spot on the TV team – Ed, Paul and Gene were gimmes – but none of us had any gripes when Gary got the last spot,” he said. “Because of all that summer teamwork and bonding, I think we all felt we had a share in the five-time championship. And we WERE tight: GE gave the team money for first-class air fare for the TV team and one faculty member, but BU used it instead to pay coach fares for the ENTIRE team.”

Bradley’s five victories in successive weeks were impressive: They beat George Washington University 195-175 on Oct. 18, the University of Minnesota/Morris 270-50 Oct. 25, Cleveland State 220-115 Nov. 1, Beloit College 250-130 Nov. 8, and Johns Hopkins University 205-180 Nov. 15.

The returning team was greeted at the midday ceremony by congratulatory telegrams and news of phone calls from throughout the nation. Announcing that the university’s Board of Trustees was matching the $19,500 in winnings, Van Arsdale added, “Your efforts will never be forgotten. Your efforts may bring the possibility and probability of higher education to those who succeed you here at Bradley.”

A clip of the exciting final four minutes of Bradley’s victory over Johns Hopkins is online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWsZB862ESE

Taxes: Who’s giving vs. who’s getting?

Bill Knight column 9-27, 28 or 29. 2021

Studies showing how much areas pay in taxes vs. how much they receive from the government can be revealing, either contradicting or reinforcing regional resentments based on feelings, not facts.

For instance, Illinois gets about 60 cents for every $1 taxpayers send to the U.S. Treasury Department, according to the personal-finance website WalletHub. Illinois is one of 14 such “giving” states.

Comparing 50 states and the District of Columbia, WalletHub documents dollars paid in federal income taxes and federal spending per capita, and the percentage of states’ revenues returning in federal funding.

Ten states get twice the money they sent to D.C.: Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia. (South Carolina leads the “getting” states, receiving almost $8 for each $1 taxpayers send to the U.S. government.)

The 14 “giving” states receiving less than $1 for every $1 they contribute in federal income taxes are: California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

Poverty is a bigger influence than population, measured by states’ poverty rates and the number of residents eligible for social services such as food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP). Mississippi and New Mexico have more than 20% of their population eligible for food stamps; Illinois has about 15%. Other factors could include effects from having a government institution in an area, like a public university, military base or prison.

“It is red states that are overwhelmingly the ‘Welfare Queen States’,” wrote John Tierney in The Atlantic magazine in 2014. “Red States – the ones governed by folks who think government is too big and spending needs to be cut – are a net drain on the economy.”

A similar “giving/getting” relationship exists within Illinois.

Illinois outside Chicago and its surrounding area receive more in state funding – overall up to $2.88 for each $1 paid in state income taxes – according to an updated study by professors John Foster and John Jackson with Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Institute.

Cook County and five adjacent counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will) together chip in more to the state budget than Springfield spends there, according to the most recent figures from the General Assembly’s bipartisan Commission on Forecasting and Government Accountability used by the SIU researchers.

Cook paid $12.43 billion and received $12.18 billion. That compares to suburban counties paying $8.5 billion and getting $5.1 billion back, and Downstate counties paying $8.2 billion but receiving $13.9 billion, the two say in their 56-page report, “The Politics of Public Budgeting in Illinois” (online at https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ppi_papers/59/ ).

“Americans in general do not like taxes, and the people of Illinois are no exception,” the study says. But “no matter how much we hate taxes in general, we do like a great number of concrete public policies and programs that are supported by that revenue.”

A Downstate impulse to separate from Chicago is reflected in one of the pair’s surveys, which asked “whether the state is distributing governmental resources in an equitable manner.” Although 60+% of every region of the state responded, “not at all or only a little,” the greatest dissatisfaction came from Downstate, where two-thirds of respondents were unhappy with the resources available there.

Such sentiment fueled 2020 ballot initiatives in 20 of Illinois’ 102 counties calling for their secession from the state, “ostensibly in order to free the rural areas from the burdens of Chicago,”

This data shows that facts don’t support that feeling – and demonstrates what harmful folly such a secession would be.

“It is clearly the case that the public’s perception of an issue may well not square with all of the empirical facts,” the researchers write. “People believe what they have been taught and … told – never mind what the factual basis for those beliefs are.”

The budget standoff between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-majority legislature in 2015-2017 probably contributed to increased aid Downstate.

“The two years without a state budget and the cuts entailed hurt Downstate, especially southern Illinois, harder than it hit northeastern Illinois,” Jackson told Kay Shipman of FarmWeek magazine. “Downstate, we do get a bigger part of our total revenues from the state.”

In Central Illinois, however, McLean, Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford Counties are “givers”; but Fulton, Henry, Knox and McDonough Counties are “getters,” according to the professors, who note that people – and politicians – sometimes trust claims that are verifiably false.

Civic engagement – at kitchen tables or taverns, campaign stops or legislative hearings – needs facts.

“The operation of a successful mass democracy depends in the long run on the people being well-informed and acting according to reality rather than inaccurate perceptions and myth,” the researchers say.

Changing the filibuster (from a Dutch word for ‘pirate’)

 Bill Knight column for 9-23, 24 or 25, 2021

 Anticipating and preventing a filibuster took considerable effort by bipartisan negotiators who achieved a 69-30 Senate approval of a $550 billion infrastructure bill, and now senators and President Biden are scrambling to pass voting rights. Amy Klobucher (D-Minn.) and James Clyburn (D-S.C.), respectively, are substituting the compromise Freedom to Vote Act for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and are pushing for a filibuster exception to voting rights.

Government must either preserve Americans’ right to vote or the filibuster (derived from a Dutch word for “pirate,” appropriately).

What the ding-dang-deal is a filibuster, you think? It’s one senator’s objection preventing action. To be considered, bills must have a 3/5 supermajority, so 41 out of 100 senators can block bills. (An exception: In 1974, the “budget reconciliation” procedure was adopted enabling measures to be considered IF all parts of a bill significantly involve federal revenue or spending, as determined by the parliamentarian.)

Filibusters were the way Southern Senators protected the “Southern Way of Life” (slavery or segregation) by defeating civil-rights bills, but more recently Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell has used the mechanism to derail things he’s opposed.

At first, the Senate ran by letting members “move the previous question” to vote, but that rule was rarely used and dropped in 1806, but that meant there was no way to end debate, accidentally creating a filibuster.

In the 1800s, Sen. John Calhoun of South Carolina was a “vehement racist [who] wanted to preserve slavery,” according to Adam Jentleson, author of “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.” And by the 1920s – despite 70% popular support and backing by presidents of both parties – filibusters killed anti-lynching and anti-poll tax bills.

“From the 87 years between Reconstruction until 1964, the only legislation against which the filibuster was deployed was civil-rights legislation,” Jentleson said.

Founder Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 22 criticized supermajority rules, writing, “Its real operation is to embarrass the administration, to destroy the energy of the government, and to substitute the pleasure, caprice, or artifices of an insignificant, turbulent, or corrupt junto, to the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.”

Once, it may have been a way to limit majorities from steamrolling legislation, offering minorities some influence, and its defenders, such as conservative Democrats Joe Manchin (W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), claim it forces compromise. Others say it creates obstructionism.

 “It’s time to change the Senate rules and stop holding this Senate hostage,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said.

Change is possible, too. It’s a rule; 51 votes could change it. Senate rules set a simple majority for approval; the filibuster betrays that.

It’s been modified before. It’s no longer like the “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” movie scene. Talking is no longer required; just announcing an objection stops everything. It’s easy now.

“When Mitch McConnell became Leader, he began using the filibuster at a rate never been seen before,” Jentleson said. “That is a huge reason why we see such gridlock in Washington.”

Also, the Senate changed filibustering in 2013 (for nominations) and 2017 (for Supreme Court appointments).

Today, what makes change so vital is voter-suppression threats in 30 laws passed in 18 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

“Although the filibuster had historically been used to block progress on civil rights,” said Knox College grad John Podesta, founder and chair of the Center for American Progress, “it also seemed to promote debate, so long as Senate minorities were working in good faith with the majority, finding honorable compromise where possible.

“With the pressures of near-constant electioneering, 24-hour news, and increased political polarization, it has become clear that assessment no longer holds. Instead of promoting debate and compromise, … the filibuster has in recent years become a tool of the minority to block legislation on nearly every major issue facing our nation.”

Repealing the filibuster rule would eliminate Congress’s inability to take action, and help Republicans advance their agenda when they retake the Senate.

“Passing labor-law reform, voter-protection legislation, and the Build Back Better investment,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, “we need democracy in the U.S. Senate.”

If the Senate drops or at least limits the filibuster, debate would be restored, negotiations could happen, and bipartisanship could occur.

Again, the choice, Jentleson said, is “between reforming the rules or getting nothing done.”

Americans still reeling from resurgence of pandemic

 Bill Knight column for 9-20, 21 or 22. 2021

 The plan was to showcase work and life, post-pandemic.

Oops.

After months of Zooming, cooking, gardening and streaming, we thought we were about to resume our lives, to BREATHE again – an odd thought given the same time associated breathing (or not) with police violence as well as ICU ventilators.

Some looked forward to returning to seeing friends or family without risking anyone’s health, going to church, a movie or ballpark. Most folks anticipated relief more than celebrations.

That seems gone despite having more facts and help. Uncertainty looms due to COVID’s highly contagious Delta variant and people still unvaccinated.

Resistance to vaccinating is persistent; some staffers at Illinois nursing homes reportedly will quit rather than get the shot. After 660,000 deaths (about 1 in 500 Americans), the U.S. saw 400,000 new infections over three days this month – a figure that took all of June to reach. Add to that the recent loss of jobless benefits for 9 million people, and Illinois jobs already down 6.9% from last year, according to Pew’s Stateline news service’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and disappointment, anxiety and anger mount.

The Federal Aviation Administration has some 2,500 unruly passenger complaints since Jan. 1 – about 20 times higher than the typical number of complaints for a year.

“This is an environment that we just haven’t seen before,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, “and we can’t wait for it to be over.”

When it is over, will we learn anything?

“Eventually there will be studies … COVID’s effect on suicide rates, divorce rates, school participation, mortality, depression and anxiety, economic output,” said Stephen Marche, author of “The Next Civil War.”

“But none of them will get it. No study could ever capture the lived experience of the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, the country’s experiencing disasters tied to climate change, plus:

* A retail “apocalypse” worsened by shopping online and the dominance of big-box stores and smaller “dollar” stores. Companies like Payless, Sears and Toys ‘R’ Us went bankrupt; malls declined or died. Besides COVID, private-equity firms harvested companies’ revenues and left behind huge debts; some financially stressed department stores downsized; and malls are converting spaces into groceries, offices or housing.

* Civility to get along enough to cooperate to cope with crises, whether wildfires and hurricanes or the surging pandemic and the economic fallout on families has dwindled. Maybe such division, disorganization or dysfunction has always existed, but national tensions are now global, with disinformation making disagreements arguments. (It is the WORLD Wide Web.)

* A civic “meltdown” goes beyond rowdy airline passengers. Some states are trying Jim Crow-style voting limits, White nationalists are getting bolder, attacks on minorities increasing, and 15% of American adults believe claims spread by QAnon, according to Hal Crowther, author of “Freedom Fighters and Hellraisers.”

Is this a tipping point to outright chaos?

Our outlooks have altered.

“The pandemic revealed how much we hate our jobs,” wrote Joanne Lipman, author of “That’s What She Said,” in Time magazine. “We have an unprecedented opportunity right now to reinvent, to create workplace culture almost from scratch. It’s time to allow the creative ideas to flow.”

The pandemic – during which some workers died from inadequate safety measures and states cut off jobless benefits to force people back to unsafe, low-wage work – clarified how little faith people have in a system that prioritizes profits over people’s health.

For white-collar jobs, 83% of CEOS want office workers back full-time, Newsweek reported, but just 10% of their workers agree. Elsewhere, companies like American Express limited returning; in Illinois, such corporations include Amazon and Walgreens.

For decades, workers without unions or specialized skills had little leverage in the labor market. But the pandemic and shifting demographics of age, gender and race changed the balance of power.

“Workers have more bargaining power in the economy right now than at any point since at least the late 1990s,” said Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “Workers, especially at the bottom end of the wage ladder, are seeing substantial wage gains”

            Other good news: Daily deaths are decreasing to levels of March, and 75% of eligible Americans have at least one vaccination dose; 4 of 5 unvaccinated Americans say they’ll get the shot; and vaccination rates in reluctant rural areas are climbing. Kohl’s and Macy’s raised their 2021 projections and even Toy ‘R’ Us is back (inside some Macy’s locations).

Some hold on to “hope in hard times.”

“So much has been taken, but not everything,” said Marc Lamont Hill, author of “We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility.”

“What this moment has taught us is that we have the ability to radically reimagine and reshape the world.”